Daily Kos: Why is there so little respect for hard work in the USA?
January 31st, 2012Bob Simpson
Daily Kos
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB—- from the song ”Respect” by Otis Redding
If you drive down I-55 or I-80 out of Chicago toward Joliet, they are hard to miss. Sprawling boxy-looking buildings, often windowless, but with constant activity as semi’s pull up to disgorge their contents. These are the warehouses of Will County, where goods meant mostly for North America’s big box stores are routed to their ultimate destinations. They employ thousands of people, mostly people of color, many of them immigrants. It is one of the largest and fasting growing USA centers for product distribution by truck and rail.
It was among those warehouses that Uylonda Dickerson, a single mom, found a job. What she did not find was respect. Not only was the pay rock-bottom, but when she reported for work, she was often sent home instead, because there was not enough to do. This is in direct violation of Illinois law, making it a case of wage theft. If workers are scheduled to work, but are sent home, the company must pay them at least 4 hours of wages.
The New Blue Collar: Temporary Work, Lasting Poverty And The American Warehouse
December 20th, 2011Huffington Post
By Dave Jamieson
JOLIET, Ill., and FONTANA, Calif. — Like nearly everyone else in Joliet without good job prospects, Uylonda Dickerson eventually found herself at the warehouses looking for work.
“I just needed a job,” the 38-year-old single mother says.
Dickerson came to the right place. Over the past decade and a half, Joliet and its Will County environs southwest of Chicago have grown into one of the world’s largest inland ports, a major hub for dry goods destined for retail stores throughout the Midwest and beyond. With all the new distribution centers have come thousands of jobs at “logistics” companies — firms that specialize in moving goods for retailers and manufacturers. Many of these jobs are filled by Joliet’s African Americans, like Dickerson, and immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.
But many bottom-rung workers like Dickerson don’t work for the big corporations whose products are in the warehouses, or even the logistics companies that run them. They go to work for labor agencies that supply workers like Dickerson. Last year, she found work as a temp through one of the myriad staffing agencies that serve big-box retailers and their contractors. Thanks largely to the warehousing boom, Will County has developed one of the highest concentrations of temp agencies in the Midwest.
Read the rest at Huffington Post…
Group maintaining fight for fair labor
December 20th, 2011Joliet Herald-News
By Cindy Wojdyla Cain
JOLIET — The cozy Warehouse Workers for Justice office buzzed with activity earlier this month as volunteers and employees gathered to tackle the day’s tasks.
A pot of freshly brewed coffee fueled their efforts. Group members chatted while working on computers and laptops and legal aides assisted workers with complaints.
Matthew Grotto~Sun-Times Media
WWJ came to town three years ago to improve working conditions for Will County warehouse workers. The group is staying put until all the workers are paid fair wages by the temp agencies that employ them, said organizer Abraham Mwaura.
Recent lawsuit
Workers complain that they’re paid by containers they unload and not by the hour so they’re making less than minimum wage. They also say they’re not getting overtime owed to them.
In the past two years, WWJ has filed nine lawsuits and numerous complaints with state and federal labor departments in attempt to get employees money they are owed.
WWJ Receives 2011 Creative Movement Award
December 18th, 2011From Chicago Arts
By Jennifer Patino
And the Creative Movement Award goes to…
The 2011 Creative Movement Awards honored eight amazing people, projects, and organizations for their contributions to inspiring a climate for social change in the U.S.
Insight Arts and Rumble Arts Center partnered together to present the awards at the School of the Art Institute on Dec. 9th, 2011 as a joint fundraiser for their nonprofit endeavors….
…Warehouse Workers for Justice, Gender Just, and The Unemployed Action Center each took to the stage with force to tell the audience about their causes. Warehouse Workers was founded after the 2008 occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors plant forced Bank of America to honor workers benefits. They received an award for their continuing the fight against wage theft and exploitation of the 150,000 warehouse workers in Chicago. Member Robert Hines was not paid his wages after working overtime for Walmart the week before Black Friday last year and he ended up being evicted:
“Some people literally have to work in the factory, in these warehouse that are literally raking us over the coals. I’m tired of not being able to provide for my family and with organizations like you all this is going to stop TODAY, I promise you!” [audience erupts into clapping and cheers]
Walmart Warehouse Workers Sue, Claiming Unpaid Wages
November 30th, 2011A group of Illinois warehouse workers has accused two staffing firms of failing to pay employees for the hours they worked.
The alleged “wage theft” occurred at a Wal-Mart warehouse in far southwest suburban Elwood. Orlando, Fla.-based Eclipse Advantage, the staffing firm that hired the workers, was named in the suit, along with Midwest Temp Group Inc., which has office in New Lenox and Bolingbrook.
Wal-Mart was not named in the lawsuit.
Both temp companies are accused of violating the Illinois Day and Temporary Services Act.
Elwood workers claim that Eclipse Advantage promised they would be paid minimum wage, which is $8.25 an hour in Illinois, and given the ability to earn a bonus. But their paychecks, the suit said, failed to match the actual hours employees worked and did not equal minimum wage.
“If the allegations are accurate, we will require our contractor to take appropriate action immediately,” a Wal-Mart spokesman said.
The suit was filed on behalf of the warehouse employees Nov. 18 in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois by Warehouse Workers for Justice, a Chicago-based organization founded in 2008 by the United Electrical Workers. Warehouse Workers for Justice has filed three similar suits against Wal-Mart in the past two years.