New Haven Independent

Click on the play arrow to watch a few workers react to the results Friday.

Laundry workers at New England Linen on Derby Avenue, many of whom are Latina women struggling to support families on minimum-wage-level wages, have been seeking to unionize since the end of 2006. Their efforts has drawn support from city politicians and area unions. (Click here, here and here for past coverage.)

The drawn-out campaign came to a head Friday at the West River plant, where about 70 workers wash, dry and sort and deliver clothes and linens. By a vote of 55 to 14 in the plant cafeteria, workers opted, for the first time, to become unionized.

“Si se puede!” came the victory cries from a nearby parking lot, where workers gathered to await an official vote count by the National Labor Relations Board. A total 76 employees were eligible to vote, including five drivers from a Boston outpost.

NLRB senior field attorney Rick Concepción (at right in picture) brought in a box of ballots rushed in from Boston.

Those who had been afraid to speak up in the past let out whoops of joy.

A quieter celebrant, Dawn Bowen, waited in the lot after her shift sorting chefs’ coats and pants in an upstairs room of the facility. After working at the plant for five years, she makes $8.35 per hour, just 70 cents over the state minimum wage.

“They’re cheating us — we’re worth more,” said Bowen (pictured), of West Haven. She said she’d like to see relief from a burdensome health insurance plan, too.

Charles Buchanan (pictured), who’s worked at the plant for six months, said he makes less than eight bucks an hour for his work in the laundry room. With the dryers running and all the machinery, “It gets pretty caliente,” he said. He was rooting for the union because “I’m looking to upgrade” medical benefits and wages, he said.

Buchanan and fellow employees succeeded in forming a union in March by a card-check neutrality agreement. More than half of the workers signed union cards, but a new NLRB ruling passed in October allowed other workers to challenge the results. According to the Dana Corp. ruling, if at least 30 percent of employees oppose unionization, they can sign a petition and trigger an election to decertify the union.

A truck driver’s attempt to decertify the laundry workers’ union failed in Friday’s vote. Employees are now cleared to move forward as members of the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut Laundry Joint Board, a branch of the UNITE HERE! union.

Meanwhile, union officials have already started sitting down with NE Linen in an effort to negotiate a new contract. New England Linen’s general manager, John Russo, went inside and could not be reached for comment after the vote.