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Something Has To Change
Thursday, August 12th, 2010Group interviews local workers, hoping data can be used to improve working conditions for warehouse staffers
August 12, 2010
By CINDY WOJDYLA CAIN
Joliet Herald
JOLIET — Tory Moore staked out a tiny patch of shade at Chicago and Jackson streets on a hot afternoon last week.
He stood in the parking lot of a currency exchange searching for people who have worked in area warehouses or are currently working in warehouses.
It’s all part of a mission he and his fellow members of Chicago-based Warehouse Workers for Justice are on to detail what is happening to workers in Will County’s many distribution centers.
It wasn’t hard to find people who have worked in the warehouses, said Moore of Kankakee. And most were employed by temp agencies, a trend that has concerned WWJ officials who say some of the temp companies are mistreating employees.
Most of the people surveyed by Moore agreed.
“I can make more money by sitting at home babysitting my nieces and nephews,” said Will Ellis of Joliet.
Ellis said he was paid by production. He and another worker would unload and load a truck and they would have to split the money.
“They said it takes an hour and thirty minutes to unload a truck, but that’s a lie,” he said.
Ellis said he’d make $70 off the truck, but some weeks he’d work only three days and he couldn’t count on a basic salary.
“That’s ridiculous.”
Moore asked Ellis what could be done to improve conditions.
“Higher wages, more benefits,” Ellis responded.
Ellis shook hands with Moore and said he was happy to see someone looking into the industry and its use of temporary agencies to staff the warehouses.
“That’s pretty cool and it’s good to see someone taking the initiative.”
Hoping to change rules
The survey results are being compiled by the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Urban Economic Development and they will be released soon, said Abraham Mwaura, a WWJ coordinator and an Electrical Workers Union organizer. The survey is a follow-up to a meeting WWJ officials had with area officials in April to talk about warehouse issues.
WWJ has said it’s hoping to change work rules to prohibit temp agencies from permanently staffing warehouses.
In recent months, WWJ has helped former warehouse employees file a class action lawsuit in Cook County Court against Select Remedy, the company that staffs the Wal-Mart warehouse in Elwood, for allegedly not paying employees for all of the hours they worked and for overtime.
The group also has filed multiple complaints with state and federal labor departments over 70 Bissell Homecare Inc. warehouse workers who were terminated after they voted to join the Electrical Workers Union. Maersk Distribution, a company hired to run the Bissell warehouse, said the workers weren’t fired. The employees were let go when a contract ended with a temp agency called Roadlink Workforce Solutions.
Both Wal-Mart and Bissell maintain that the companies they hired to manage and staff their warehouses have abided by all laws.
Tenuous temp situation
Survey taker Moore said even if the companies are following the letter of the law, working long term for a temp agency is problematic. He knows firsthand because he was employed by a temp agency for six years. During that time he found it tough to get a loan or find someone who would rent him an apartment because he worked for a temp agency.
“I saw people come to work and be sent home,” he said of conditions in the Kankakee warehouse where he worked. “I saw people get hurt on the job and one friend got chemicals in his eye. When the doctor told him to take some time off, they fired him.”
The temp situation has to change, Moore said.
“When a person wakes up, they like to have a permanent job,” he said.
Moore said he was fired in December for speaking his mind about work issues. Current and former warehouse workers all over the area don’t like what is happening, he said after interviewing hundreds of people.
“Some people have a lot of hostility,” he said.
Something has to change, Moore said.
“They’re using temps and the temps don’t got your back,” he said. “If you’re not organized, you don’t have anybody to fight for you.”
Horror stories
Moore wasn’t alone on his mission. Joining him was fellow WWJ member Cindy Marble of Crest Hill. She interviewed Keyonoa Robinson of Joliet who worked a Bolingbrook warehouse.
“I got a phone call saying my assignment ended, they didn’t give me a reason why,” Robinson said. “I asked the temp agency why (I was let go), and they said, ‘We don’t know. We were just given a list of names.’”
Robinson said she’d love to find a job outside of a warehouse, “But with the economy, it’s hard. I have four kids.”
Like Ellis, Robinson was glad to see someone doing something about the issue.
“It’s great,” she said. “Somebody needs to step up and protest against the temp services laying people off. Either exclude (the agencies) or get them to up the pay rates or up the jobs.”
Marble said she has heard all kinds of horror stories during her survey sessions. Some people work for six months then are let go because the temp agency said their background check didn’t pan out. Others can’t budget to pay their bills because they never know how much they will earn.
“And temp services are advertising they’re hiring, but when people call, they’re told they have no work.”
Will County News: WWJ Surveys Warehouse Workers
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010JOLIET–The group Warehouse Workers for Justice are investigating working conditions in Will County Warehouses. Warehouse Workers for Justice are clear about their goals: They want a living wage for warehouse workers and enforcement of already existing labor laws.
Speaking recently after a meeting of the Interfaith Action Committee, the members said that after a Martin Luther King event last year, the faith community was drawn “into the struggle for warehouse justice.”
It will take a broad base of warehouse workers to make the changes happen, the members said. “The only way to push back is with a broad based organization.”
Read more and see photos and video here…
Will County Dems Support WWJ
Friday, May 14th, 2010From the Joliet Herald
May 14, 2010
The Will County Democratic Organization on Thursday announced “unconditional support” for Warehouse Workers for Justice, the local group advocating better conditions for employees of local distribution centers.
Will County Democratic Party Chairman Dennis Grosskopf said in a written statement that poor wages for warehouse workers has a detrimental spinoff effect on the local economy. And, he added, “The Democratic Party has always stood up for working men and women and we will continue to do so.”
Warehouses under fire
Thursday, April 15th, 2010Alleged mistreatment of workers investigated by group, will county officials
By CINDY WOJDYLA CAIN
Naperville Sun
JOLIET — Warehouse Workers for Justice, a group that has come to fight for worker rights in Will County, says some warehouse workers aren’t being paid fair wages and their working conditions violate state and federal labor laws.
But it’s not clear how widespread the problem is.
“We don’t know,” said John Greuling, CEO of the Will County Center for Economic Development, a group that has touted growth in the logistics industry, including warehouses, in recent years.
“Some of it is anecdotal, some of it these interest groups put together,” Greuling said of the complaints.
And it isn’t clear if the workers are being treated unfairly or illegally, he added.
“I think there’s a fine line there,” he said.
Even so, Greuling said he’s concerned enough about the charges of worker mistreatment to investigate the issue.
“If they are breaking the labor laws, they have to be punished,” he said of the companies that staff and operate area warehouses. ” … If there are things that are not being done properly by these operators let’s expose it.”
‘We are concerned’
Greuling and elected officials from Will County have asked for a meeting with state labor department officials and union representatives to explore the concerns raised in recent months by Chicago-based WWJ.
“We are concerned,” said state Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi. “That’s why we’re going to bring in the director of the Department of Labor.”
Wilhelmi, D-Joliet, said businesses that own and operate warehouses will be invited to the meeting, which could take place as soon as mid-April. Also, area ministers, including the Revs. Herbert Brooks and Raymond Lescher, will attend.
“We’re going to come together and figure out exactly how we can get to the bottom of it, understand exactly what is going on there and how we can find a creative solution,” Wilhelmi said.
Greuling said warehouse operators may be more likely to treat employees fairly if they know the labor department is looking at their operations.
And that may be what it takes to make sure alleged abuses stop, he added, because workers are often afraid to complain.
“There are probably people who are concerned about coming out and saying anything for fear of retribution, primarily losing the job that they have.”
Different models
Greuling said the warehouse industry in Will County has many types of staffing models. Some companies hire their own employees directly. That’s the case with DollarTree in Joliet.
A second model is illustrated by BMW in Grundy County. It hired Manpower, a temp agency, to staff its warehouse. But rather than just rotate in a pool of temp workers, Manpower is hiring full-time employees to work at the warehouse, Greuling explained.
Finally, there are companies that turn their buildings over to what is known in the industry as 3PL or third-party logistics companies that run the warehouse. Walmart and Bissell in Elwood are examples of that staffing model. The 3PLs sign contracts with temp agencies to staff varying portions of the workforce with temps.
WWJ has targeted the Walmart and Bissell situations because they say the staffing agencies are not treating the workers fairly.
Neither Walmart nor Bissell received tax abatement incentives to locate in Elwood, Greuling said. Also, when the CED surveys a business to see if qualifies for a tax abatement, “We don’t count temporary jobs,” Greuling said. “They don’t get credit for that.”
It’s all economics
Angelo Ippolito owns a temp agency called Pridestaff in Joliet. He also is chairman of the Will County Center for Economic Development’s Logistics Council. He said many big companies hire third-party logistics providers to run and staff their warehouses. The companies aren’t in the business of running warehouses, so they contract with someone who is, he explained.
The 3PL companies contract with temp agencies to staff the warehouses so employees can be cut when business is slow or added when it’s busy, Ippolito said.
“It’s all based on economics,” he said. “Temp labor is a way to smooth over the highs and lows of the business.”
Greuling agreed. He cited the Hickory Farms warehouse in the Cherry Hill Business Park.
“Year-round their base full-time employment is 150 jobs,” he said. “But from July to December, they probably go up to 400 or 500 jobs. They’re temporary but they’re working full-time hours.”
Some workers prefer the temp arrangement because of family or other considerations, Greuling added.
“It’s not like these people are being forced into slavery of some sort,” he said. “I think there is a good part of these workers that take these temporary jobs. They see it as a very positive thing.”
Also, the temp arrangement allows the employee and the company to “try each other out,” Ippolito said.
The use of temp agencies by warehouse-managing companies has increased a lot since Ippolito opened his Pridestaff franchise.
“And it’s very competitive between temp companies,” he said.
Ippolito said some of the problems area warehouses are having are no different than other similar businesses encounter.
“You go to work in a manufacturing place and you can come across the same problems,” he said. “By and large, these (warehouses) have to be good or they’d be out of business. The places I know, overall, they care about their employees and they value their employees.”
Organizing justice for warehouse workers
Thursday, April 15th, 2010By 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.