Organizing justice for warehouse workers
By CINDY WOJDYLA CAIN
The Joliet Herald-News
Two men who helped organize the December 2008 employee sit-in at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago have come to Will County to help warehouse workers here fight for better working conditions.
After collaborating on the Republic Windows fight, Mark Meinster, an Electrical Workers Union organizer, and Abraham Mwaura, an Electrical Workers Union field organizer, decided to take the spark that formed during the sit-in and use it to ignite a new workers battle somewhere else.
“It (the sit-in) really inspired a lot of people,” Mwaura said. “It was led by the workers and it was very democratic.”
Republic workers organized the sit-in after their company closed suddenly. Workers feared they wouldn’t receive severance and vacation pay.
After the workers received a settlement from the company, Meinster and Mwaura looked around the area to see where else workers needed help. They said they quickly realized warehouse workers in Will County were the most in need of help, and so they formed Warehouse Workers for Justice.
Poor conditions
Research on the warehouse industry showed “extremely poor” working conditions for employees, Mwaura said. That’s why the group decided to target logistics.
“The need is really great because the economy is sliding and working conditions are getting worse,” he said.
Will County was chosen as ground zero because of the high concentration of warehouse workers in the Bolingbrook/Romeoville and Joliet/Elwood areas, he explained. WWJ estimates there are 300 warehouses in Will County.
The county also has a lot of temp agencies that have sprung up to serve the warehousing industry, he added.
A 2006 survey showed 69 percent of trucking and warehouse businesses in Will and Grundy counties said they use temp agencies to staff their facilities.
The survey was performed by Joliet Junior College, Will County Center for Economic Development and Grundy Economic Development Council. Twenty-seven businesses responded to the survey.
“Out of the companies that do use temp services, on average 15 percent of their employees are temps,” the report said. “Sixteen percent are temp to hires, and close to 10 percent are temps that are permanently at their location.”
The warehousing industry has a huge reliance on temporary workers, Mwaura said. And many employees get raises only when the minimum wage increases.
About a year ago, WWJ started holding “Know Your Rights” seminars at area churches and libraries.
“People can’t enforce their rights if they don’t know what they are,” Mwaura said. “… Just knowing you’re protected by law can be a very empowering thing.”
As a result of those workshops, Bissell and Walmart warehouse workers came forward to complain about conditions at their work sites.
Bissell and Walmart
Former Bissell warehouse employees allege they were paid below minimum wage, women were paid less than men, a pregnant worker was assigned heavy lifting and employees who complained were threatened with retaliation.
Seventy workers were fired in November after they joined the electrical workers union. WWJ filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board. The two sides reached a settlement and the labor relations board recently ordered Roadlink to post notices about worker’s rights to join a union in all of the companies where it does business.
In December, former employees of Select Remedy, the agency that staffs the Walmart warehouse in Elwood, filed a class action lawsuit in Cook County court for allegedly not paying employees for all the hours they worked and for overtime. That case is pending, but employees who worked for Select Remedy can still join the class action lawsuit by calling 888-344-6432.
WWJ and local clergy also are calling for consumers to boycott Bissell products. Last month the group picketed Bissell in front of McCormick Place during the International Housewares Show.
Full compliance with laws
In previous Herald-News stories, all of the companies involved in the dispute deny that workers were mistreated or underpaid.
In a press release, Bissell officials said the company “… expects full compliance with all appropriate legal and safety standards in the workplace.” Bissell had no workers in the facility and had hired Maersk Distribution Services to run the building. Maersk hired Roadlink.
Workers lost their jobs when the contract with Roadlink ended, not when they joined the union, a Bissell company spokesman said.
Walmart spokeswoman Michelle Bradford said Walmart hired Select Remedy to manage its warehouse. That company hired the temp agency.
“We work to comply with all labor laws and regulations,” she said. “And we rely on our third-party vendors to do the same.”
Illegal aliens
The use of temp agencies and the hiring of illegal aliens has created a fearful workforce, Mwaura said.
“This industry has evolved as a way to help major big-box companies make more money,” he said. “The more efficient they can move these goods, the more money they can make.”
Regardless of whether or not employees are illegal aliens, companies have to pay them and treat them fairly, Mwaura said.
“The laws protect everyone, regardless of status,” he said.
But it isn’t only illegal aliens who have to fear losing their jobs on any given day, that holds true for all of the workers who are hired by temp agencies, Mwaura said.
“There are white workers and black workers and Latino workers facing the very same conditions,” he said.
Pregnant workers in some warehouses have been treated unfairly, Mwaura said. In two cases, companies declined to make accommodations that could have helped the women continue in their jobs.
“Do you fire them,” Mwaura said. “Is it now an offense to become pregnant?”
The exception to the rule isn’t the warehouse abusing workers, it’s the ones that are paying people well, he added.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, Mwaura said.
“We think these could be good jobs.”
Changes needed
In the future, the group would like to work to change work rules that would prohibit temp agencies from permanently staffing warehouses.
“It’s perfectly legal for an employer to keep people on a temporary basis, but we don’t think it’s right,” Meinster said.
Beth Gutelius, a research assistant with the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Urban Economic Development, said it is difficult to get exact numbers on what portion of temp workers are being mistreated. But it’s clear there are problems in some areas of the industry, which is touted to the public as a boon to job creation, she said.
“They (the warehouses) are being sold as job-creation machines, but when you really look at the quality of the jobs, you start to see a different picture,” she said.