On the Line

Starred review from June 1, 2022

Pitkin has an agenda: to protect workers. Over a five-year period, Pitkin and Alma Gomez Garc�a, a second-shift immigrant worker, fight to unionize industrial laundry factories. They routinely deal with biohazardous waste, harsh chemicals, and faulty protective gear, and they attempt to make changes within the broken U.S. labor law system. Moving between the present and the history of the labor movement during the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly with regard to contributions from women, Pitkin deftly demonstrates the parallels of now and then; how in order for American industries to save money and produce faster, some workers have paid with their lives. Pitkin's narration makes the choice to write as though in conversation with Alma a great one. She gives depth, soul, and a human face to what it takes to organize. VERDICT At once incredibly impactful and insightful, this is a lesson in history and humanity. Highly recommended.--Anna Clark

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 20, 2021
Labor organizer Pitkin debuts with an intimate and moving account of the campaign to unionize industrial laundries in Arizona and her friendship with Alma, a laundry worker who became a fellow organizer. In 2003, Pitkin led efforts to unionize a Sodexho (now Sodexo) laundry in Phoenix where workers labored under unsafe conditions and with insufficient protections. The facility contracted with several hospitals, and workers who sorted gowns, blankets, and other soiled linens often encountered infectious bodily fluids and medical waste. (In other countries, Pitkin notes, hospital linens are sanitized by machine before workers handle them.) Presenting an up-close view of the organizing process, Pitkin describes the “underwater” phase of strategizing with a few employees before launching a union card–signing “blitz,” details Alma’s firing after a work stoppage, and documents the legal wrangling that eventually resulted in a labor contract. Throughout, Pitkin draws an extended analogy linking the biological process of metamorphosis to how union organizing transforms communities and individuals (she and Alma call each other las polillas, or the moths) and highlights the role of women workers in the American labor movement. Enriched by Pitkin’s sharp character sketches and sincere grappling with issues of class, race, and privilege, this is a bracing look at the challenges facing American workers.

February 1, 2022
The memoir of a labor organizer's fight to unionize commercial laundry facilities in Arizona. In her intimate and touching debut, Pitkin shares the story of her role in bringing a voice to workers who were "tired of being treated like a machine, tired of working in such dangerous conditions, and doing it for a company that didn't care if you get sick or hurt." Focusing on her efforts related to the campaign at Sodexho, the author describes the friendship that emerged with Alma, an immigrant worker at the factory who became a fellow organizer. At Sodexho, which services the linens for many hospitals, the workers' primary concerns were health and safety. Pitkin vividly describes the "gruesome" working conditions, including encountering bodily fluids, IV bags, and needles left in sheets and gowns; being forced to reuse too-thin gloves that were susceptible to puncture; lack of shoe protection; and missing safety guards on machines. Narrating as if speaking to Alma, Pitkin recounts the time they spent together during the campaign, including the fear and uncertainty they faced during their groundwork, work stoppage, and beyond. She alternates her primary narrative with a discussion of the history of labor unions in the U.S. During this arduous process, she and Alma began referring to themselves as "Las Polillas," the moths, a takeoff on "Las Mariposas," who "worked clandestinely to oppose the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and were nicknamed The Butterflies." Pitkin also interjects details about her personal life, including her recurring dreams about moths and the metamorphosis that this journey brought her as well as her view on the true meaning of solidarity. Declaring "a new wave of worker momentum," the author rightly contends that "labor law in this country is broken, and just as in the early 1900s, a strike is a worker's only recourse, the only way to force a company to the bargaining table." A much-needed spotlight on the daily struggles of a vulnerable population.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (Online Review)

March 15, 2022
The recent pandemic has brought many previously under-appreciated yet absolutely essential jobs into the forefront of American consciousness. This involving account relates the story of commercial laundry workers and their struggles to unionize. Presented as a memoir, it concentrates on the developing relationship between author Pitkin, a young, white, and relatively inexperienced labor organizer, and Alma, an older Mexican woman who worked in a Phoenix-based hospital laundry facility and spoke no English when she and the author met in the early aughts. The text shifts back and forth from descriptions of current unfair labor practices to the historic labor movement prompted by the 1911 Triangle shirtwaist factory fire. Some passages address Alma directly, documenting her and the author's shared union activities and bringing immediacy to Alma's experiences: ""You led the work stoppage""; ""You were fired."" There's also running commentary about Pitkin's fascination with moths. This sounds like a lot, but it all comes together in a sobering narrative that gives a human face to the plight of often overlooked essential labor in the U.S.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 11, 2022

Community and union organizer Pitkin weaves a poetic narrative with a century of intertwining histories of union organization in the United States and its often-unsung leaders. The bulk of the story rests on her experiences navigating the fight of laundry workers in Phoenix in the early 2000s, with the help of her coworker, co-organizer, and friend, Alma. The choice to tell the story as conversations pointed toward and with Alma, successfully folds readers into the collective experience of the tumultuous journey of their struggle. Alongside the fraught emotional minutiae of organizing (a complicated process that will expand many readers' conceptions of unions themselves), this book explores the history of women's involvement in unions throughout the labor history of the 19th and 20th centuries. The substantial parallels Pikin draws among her experiences, famous labor events, and the seemingly odd focus on the history and science of moths, create an elegant chronicle out of the often-brutal realities of workers. Pitkin's literary innovation lends itself to a powerful message dissecting solidarity and the power of the collective. VERDICT A necessary addition to academic collections, and also a great choice to round out any biography collection.--Halie Kearns

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.