On the Line, a labor memoir by Daisy Pitkin, tells the true story of a grassroots struggle to organize a nonunion laundry in Arizona as part of an industry-wide unionizing campaign. My thanks go to NetGalley and Algonquin for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

Daisy is an organizer for UNITE, a labor union that organizes textiles, laundries, transportation, service workers, and some others, created by the merger of ILGWU (International Ladies Garment Workers Union) and ACTWU, the American Clothing and Textile Workers Union (of which this reviewer was once a member and union activist.) She is working at the ground level, approaching workers in the parking lot, partnering with a woman named Alma that worked there and could talk to other workers inside the factory.

The memoir is written in the second person to Alma, and at first this seems odd, but as I read, I realize this is an effective and intelligent choice. By addressing Alma and the things that Alma has said and done during this fight, as well as the things the author did, along with what they did together, and the occasional differences of opinion they had and how they resolved them, she avoids making herself sound like a martyr to the cause. It would not read nearly so well in the first person, with the reader as audience.

The tasks of the workers all revolve around the commercial laundering process. Immense bags of dirty linens weighing up to 300 pounds are pushed off of the delivery trucks in rolling carts.

“The linen moves down the belt, you said, and then you flicked your arms back and forth to demonstrate how you and the other sorters toss sheets into one bin, towels to another, gowns to a third, and so on. You said, Sometimes they speed up the conveyor, and we don’t have time to be careful. There is a lot of blood and puke and feces. You said, We don’t get shoe covers, so some of us take off our shoes and drive home in our socks. You said, Our gloves are too big—they slip off our hands. Sometimes when they tear open, we have to handle the soiled linen with exposed skin…you were demanding a seemingly simple thing: to work your eight-or-ten-hour shift and come home unharmed. You wanted gloves that hospital needles cannot puncture. You wanted face masks to keep the blood and fluids from other bodies from entering your bodies. You wanted safety guards put back on machines where they had been removed. You wanted linen dust cleaned from the rafters to prevent fires.”

Safety rules are routinely flouted. Dirty linens land on the belt, and the belt feeds them into the mouth of a tunnel washer. When the washer jams, workers sometimes have to crawl through hot, bleachy, contaminated water to clear it and get it working. The supervisors are supposed to cut power when someone is in there, but they don’t. Ultimately it’s a choice for the owners to risk a possible, but unlikely fine from the government, or frequent decreases in production, which cut into profits. The workers are expendable; they can always find more. The wash and dry departments of industrial laundries are the most fatal of all industries, according to U.S. government statistics.

Daisy and Alma are working on a shoestring. When they have to be away from home overnight in order to meet workers as they go in or come out, they sleep in the car. Their signs are made by hand with posterboard and Sharpies. Initially, all of the workers sign cards, but then management begins a campaign of threats and intimidation. Not all of the workers are in the States legally, and most of them don’t know their legal rights. Most of them rescind their votes, and then it’s an uphill climb to get them to sign again.

This is a topic that is of great interest to me, and I was supposed to have read and reviewed this book in April of 2023, but my stomach twisted as I read of the horrific obstacles encountered by workers and by Daisy, and halfway through I had to put it down. Only recently did I slap myself upside the head and resume reading.
In any labor union, there are two sets of obstacles. The first, the one that is obvious, is the company, the bosses. Unions cut into profits, so the owners or boards of directors nearly always fight unionization. The second, and lesser known, is the union officialdom at the top. These people spend more time around the bosses and other highly paid union officers than they do around the workers, and they become jaded, sometimes contemptuous of those that they are supposed to represent, whose dues pay their salaries. When Daisy is eventually promoted, she discovers it’s harder to do anything that is in the interests of the clientele.

The book also includes a fair amount of union history, and it’s clearly explained, well woven throughout the narrative.

For those that are interested in unions and labor history, this is an excellent resource. But don’t read it at bedtime; it will do things to your dreams.

This was an entertaining and informative read. I found myself sharing what I learned from this book with those around me. I recommend it to fans of good and highly readable non-fiction.

This was really well done. I learned a lot about unions and their history in the US and also really appreciated Pitkin's reflections on the role of top-down union organizing when it comes to meeting (or not meeting) the needs of the most marginalized of workers. Would highly recommend a read (or a listen, the audiobook was good!)

"This new strike wave will grow. It will spread to new states and other industries. It will grow in part because labor law in this country is broken, and just as in the early 1900s, a strike is workers' only recourse, the only way to force a company to the bargaining table."

Truthfully I struggled while reading this book and I'll get into why that was in the last paragraph. Besides that though I did really enjoy this book and I learned so much from it.

I enjoyed learning about how they organized the union and all the hard work that went into it. Hearing about the long and gruesome fight at times they had to deal with in order for a better and slightly safer work environment at times was disheartening, while at others was heartwarming because of how they all helped one another for the most part. Starting a Union or any type of workplace safety requirements is hard and it takes so much work, but in the end, it benefits everyone and helps in the long run. Seeing how the author Pitkin worked so closely alongside some of the workers and became lifelong friends with them was nice to see as well. I had no idea that laundry workers had to deal with all of this and were exposed to so many different harmful environments and I'm so glad that the vast majority of them appear to have good unions now that are working to continue to better protect them.

But I personally could have done without all of the stuff about Moths. It's the one part of the book that didn't work for me and made me take so long to read and finish the book. I know it was a big part of the author's non-union life, and that was okay, it just took a little bit away from the story of the union itself.

"Anger is the primary emotion that drives people to fight, the only emotion strong enough to overcome fear. And anger is powerful, it's true, but care for one another is, too. And care of one another, unlike anger, is continually renewable- it becomes both an engine for the fight and a destination for it, elemental to the new world the fight demands. Care for one another functions this way mainly because it allows for hope, which is the substance of solidarity."

On the Line: A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women’s Epic Fight to Build a Union by Daisy Pitkin

288 Pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Release Date: March 29, 2022

Nonfiction (Adult), Politics, Unions, Minority Workers, Working Environment

Daisy is a young union labor organizer in Arizona. She meets Alma, an immigrant worker and together they begin a five-year struggle to form a union. Daisy tells readers what it was like to covertly meet with workers and the importance of having safe working environments. Alma works as a translator and becomes a go between from the organizers and the workers.

The book is written historically accurate and with a descriptive style, so I felt I was a part of the movement. It was sad to learn about the working conditions, and how management would tell the workers to handle situations. This book reminded me of the movie Norma Rae with Sally Field. If you believe all workers have rights to safe working environments, you should read this book.

I really liked this combination of cultural critique and memoir about labor organizing and labor. I think it made these important issue to personal in a way that made it very approachable without losing sight of the content and context of the labor movement.

What a book! Viewing it from its writing perspective alone, Daisy has an amazing way of bringing you closely inside the industrial laundry factories. It's so vivid you can almost smell the scent of detergent in the midst of sweat and the weariness of hard labor and hard fighting. She's a prolific writer and I loved how it was written as if she was writing a lengthy letter to Alma, her friend she fought beside for so long.

I also appreciated the history inside the book too. It made me want to Google each and every historical account brought up to read it up-close-and-personal. It's shocking the conditions so many workers are exposed to and how so often the laws and leaders work against them. The efforts for better working conditions, fair wages, and more rights are so hard to achieve.

I absolutely recommend reading this book! You don't want to miss this one.

This was a hard book for me to get into. I do think, however, it is a powerful and necessary read for anyone interested in labor movements. The author gives tons of examples of the necessity of unions throughout history, which while interesting- seems to happen at random intervals, therefore pulling the reader out of the experience a bit. There's so much to unpack here for anyone interested in workers rights, specifically the treatment of immigrant women. I think I would have been able to enjoy it more if the writing hadn't felt so sporadic. All in all a good book, would recommend for anyone interested in politics of unions and the importance they have for workers.

ON THE LINE by Daisy Pitkin is subtitled "A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women's Epic Fight to Build a Union," In this non-fiction work which almost reads like a novel, Pitkin describes working as a labor organizer for UNITE and her connection with a second-shift immigrant laundry worker she identifies as Alma. They call each other the moths, Las Polillas, referring to "Las Mariposas, the Mirabel sisters who worked clandestinely to oppose the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and were nicknamed the butterflies." This battle between multinational conglomerate Sodexo and the workers at their Phoenix facility is documented in part by Human Rights Watch. What a fantastic series of events to share with our students, especially in contrast to other historic labor fights like those involving the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Kirkus describes this memoir as "A much-needed spotlight on the daily struggles of a vulnerable population." ON THE LINE deals with issues of class, privilege and race, and provides yet another opportunity for our students to look beyond themselves.

Human Rights Watch information:
https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/09/02/strange-case/violations-workers-freedom-association-united-states-european

An intimate and powerful account on the American labor movement. "On The Line" takes place over the five years campaign in bringing voice to the workers employed in dangerous factories. A glimpse through the lens of the innermost grueling effort in organization and battle for fairness, Daisy illuminates the harsh conditions these workers face daily and the broken system of the US labor law that contributes to the injustice practice in our society.

The campaign is led by two extraordinary women, Daisy Pitkin and Alma, a second shift immigrant worker. However, it takes a village to fight this momentous battle for social change. It spotlights the factory workers and those involved in the fight, the strong solidarity and a sense of community. Pitkin switches narrative structures throughout the book. The second person point of view structure provided for a much intimate approach. During this narrative structure, Daisy is having a direct conversation with myself, the reader. The workers' harsh realities and the campaigns felt personal and evoked a sense of immediacy. On top of the second person narrative, Pitkin with grace delivers historical information on the U.S. labor movements. Thoroughly researched, it was enlightening, sobering and inspiring.

The sense of love and respect for this community shines in this memoir. However, Pitkin is very candid about the day to day work in the organization, the uncertainty during their groundwork and health and safety concerns for the workers. Reading about these vivid brutal accounts of the workers were heartbreaking yet eye-opening. The details on the harsh realities of many workers and the long struggles of those on the front line may be disheartening, but Pitkin's memoir is in a hopeful tone. It is a portrait of fierce spirits and resilience of human beings in connection to all of us, sharing the same visions and hopes for respect, fairness and equality.

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.