For 29 years, Mary Stephens worked at the Parkersburg Care Center in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the last 14 years in laundry. By all accounts, she was a model employee. Two years ago, a subcontractor, Health Care Services Group, was hired to run the laundry. Up until this point, residents’ clothes, sheets, towels and other personal items had been washed with two workers operating the laundry. But in a cost-cutting move, HCSG decided one worker could do the job, loading all the work onto Mary (at left in photo). She worked as hard as she could, but Mary kept falling behind and last October, she was fired. The workers – like Mary, members of UFCW Local 400 -- united and proved that the laundry job was not able to be done by one person. Mary and her union filed a grievance and Mary got more than $12,000 dollars in back pay. Although Mary decided to start her retirement instead of returning to work, the subcontractor running the laundry operation has been bringing in extra people to help, and while this change was too late for Mary, her union ensured that justice was served.
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