McDonalds Supply Chain Workers Join the Fight for $15

Workers who distribute cups for McDonalds will protest Elite Staffing in Joliet, a temp agency alleged to have stolen workers’ wages. Afterward they will board a bus to Chicago to join 10,000 low-wage workers from sectors including fast food, home health care and education to demand $15/hour and the right to form a union.

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Workers will file a lawsuit on Wednesday alleging that they were not compensated for all of the hours they worked at packaging companies in Will and Cook counties. Workers at Elite must show up as early as 3:30 a.m. for a 6:00 a.m. shift. Often Elite buses them from warehouse to warehouse, only to be repeatedly turned away and sent home. Workers report that time is deducted from their paychecks for breaks or lunches that they don’t actually fully receive.

“We make cups for McDonalds, a $27 Billion company. They can afford to make sure we’re paid a living wage and that our rights are respected, said Austin Johnson, an Elite Staffing worker. Lorrie Wright, who was worked in several Joliet-area warehouses for large companies, says, “We are tired of poverty-level temp jobs. These are large companies that make money. It’s timefor them to step up and provide permanent jobs in the warehouses, not poverty-level temp jobs.”

Warehouse Workers for Justice has helped improve thousands of Illinois warehouse jobs by helping workers recover stolen wages and advocating for corporate and public policy changes that provide for stable, permanent living-wage jobs in Illinois’ thriving distribution sector. WWJ has offices in Joliet and Chicago.

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