Crunch Time at McMaid!
Homecare workers at McMaid in Chicago hit a wall in a union drive they had to win, find out what happened.
Irma Sherman, Chair of ‘McMaid Workers’ Organizing Committee 1983-84; President of ULU, Later SEIU Local 880, 1986-1992
1993
Evelyn was a domestic worker, a maid, and sometimes a homecare worker.
One day, Evelyn, her daughter Loretta, and her son Joe, came down with Diptheria.
Having no insurance, all three ended up in the charity ward of a local hospital.
Two survived, her daughter, Loretta did not – she was six years old.
Evelyn was my grandmother, Loretta would have been my aunt, and Joe was my father.
My grandmother used to take me with her on her rounds when I lived with her in her tenement apartment in Brooklyn in the summers and I saw how hard she worked.
She died in 1971, on the street in Brooklyn waiting for a bus.
She raised four children, all of who went to college – but she worked almost to the day she died.
That’s one of the reasons I became a union organizer and I wanted to help the homecare workers at McMaid organize a union.
Yes, McMaid was the real name of the agency.
In 1983, they billed themselves as Chicago’s “number one” maid service.
Located on the near northside, close to the Gold Coast, their logo pictured a scantily-clad WHITE maid in a mini-skirt and high heels, duster in hand, happily dancing as she cleaned house.
An actual flyer for ‘McMaid’ Homecare– it’s degrading flyer distributed all over Chicago.
McMaid, in fact, employed about 150 overwhelmingly Black and Brown homecare workers.
The workers were not maids, either, they were homecare workers – providing vital in-home care to hundreds of seniors and people with disabilities across Chicago.
McMaid had a big contract with the state of Illinois that paid them millions to send homecare workers to these homebound consumers.
While the company’s millionaire CEO did quite well living on his estate in Barrington Hills, surrounded by his collection of Jaguar automobiles, the workers toiled at minimum wage with no benefits.
Providing health care services to consumers, but having no health care themselves.
As workers told me of the low wages, the lack of health insurance, and sick pay, I thought of them and their children - and my grandmother. And Loretta.
I was the lone organizer and founder of the United Labor Unions (ULU) Local 880, a small, independent union founded by ACORN, the national community organization.
Brand new in Chicago, I was aiming to organize the over 3000 homecare workers in the city.
We had been looking good at McMaid at first, then they started interrogating workers, illegally stationing supervisors out front to spy and see who was signing up with the union, put out flyers warning workers not to talk to the “Union man.” That was me.
Then the company canceled the check pickup, where workers would go to pick up their paychecks – cutting off our access to them.
Then, they lied to the Labor Board, and tried to pad the list to make it look like we didn’t have the majority or required 30% for a union election - they said they had 400 workers instead of the 150 workers we estimated.
But we proved they had only 200 workers.
But the Board agent still told us we had only had 48 hours to get 7 more cards – ONLY 48 HOURS TO GET 7 MORE CARDS!
So, it was crunch time at McMaid, WE HAD TO WIN, OUR BACKS WERE AGAINST THE WALL.
The dark clouds of defeat followed me back to the office – the big move to Chicago to start another local was about to blow in my face.
How would we get 7 more cards with only had a handful of contacts?
I walked over to my partner Madeline’s office.
I was anxious, shaking as I told her what had just happened at the Labor Board with my voice trembling: “7 Cards! What can I do now, WHAT SHOULD I DO?!”
Madeline calmly looked up, stared me dead in the eye, and said: “Get the 7 fucking cards!”
At last, a moment of clarity in my internal chaos!
I called the brave workers on the organizing committee – Irma Sherman, Doris Gould, Juanita Hill, Betty Brown, Mary Williamson...
Doris Gould, Key leader in the fight to organize ‘McMaid Homecare,’ Chicago, 1983-84
Our remaining contacts were mostly in the projects: Cabrini-Green and others.
After spending all day caring for their consumers and their own families, they would go with me through the projects, climb the stairs, knock on doors and find… Miss Lee Ora,…then Mrs. Glenn,… then Mrs. Bey,… who would eagerly sign the union card, and walk with us to other McMaid workers in the building we could sign up.
When our 48 hours were up that following Monday, we went to the Labor Board with 8 cards. The Board agent checked them against his list.
WE MADE IT, all those visits paid off - we had enough cards for the election!
Two months later, after a fierce campaign by the company’s high-priced union-busting lawyer, WE WON! The final vote count was 107 Yes for the Union and 76 no.
We had won our first union election victory in Chicago!
As I walked away from the vote count, I could feel my grandmother looking down on me, smiling.