Wal-Mart Warehouse Workers Move Ahead in Fight for Justice
Working In These Times
David Moberg
Warehouse workers from Wal-Mart distribution centers in metropolitan Chicago and southern California took two big steps this week toward enforcing laws on working conditions and wages, fighting retaliatory firings, and ultimately forcing Wal-Mart to live up to its responsibilities as an employer.
Working through Warehouse Workers for Justice, workers at the Elwood, Il, distibution center—reputedly Wal-Mart’s largest with 3 million square feet of space—filed suit against Eclipse Advantage and Schneider Logistics for firing roughly 65 workers on December 29. In November, some of these workers had sued the two companies for violating state and federal wage and hour laws, such as not paying a minimum wage or premium pay for overtime in many cases.
The new amendment to that suit filed on February 1 claims that Schneider and Eclipse as “joint employers” failed to give the required 60-day notice of a mass layoff required by the federal WARN Act.
Although Wal-Mart owns the building, according to WWJ organizer Mark Meinster, Schneider contracts to operate the warehouse and sub-contracts with staffing agencies like Eclipse to provide part of the workforce, and Eclipse or other firms may further subcontract for supply of labor. Beyond trying to maximize its flexibility, “it’s a shell game to avoid responsibility,” Meinster says.