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Warehouse workers sue Walmart subcontractor for wage theft
Monday, November 28th, 2011Daily Kos
By Laura Clawson
Chicago is a massive hub for warehouses and distribution centers handling goods for chains like Walmart, Home Depot, Target and more. Railroads and interstate highways come together there, making it a perfect location for, at this point, half a billion square feet of warehouse space, staffed by around 150,000 warehouse workers. As you might guess, those workers don’t fare so well on wages, benefits, working conditions or general treatment. It’s not like Walmart treats its own directly employed workers acceptably to begin with, let alone when it has the plausible deniability of the jobs being subcontracted. Then they rely on us to figure that abuses are all the subcontractor’s fault, or just not to pay attention to abuses at some company we never heard of.
Another Class Action Suit Against Walmart Warehouse
Friday, November 25th, 2011In These Times
By Kari Lydersen
With Black Friday sales beginning Thanksgiving at 10 p.m., Walmart expects to bring in many millions in sales this week on the single most important shopping day of the year.
Meanwhile workers in Walmart’s warehouses in Chicago and southern California charge that the logistics companies contracted by the mega-retailer are nickel-and-diming them, shaving dollars off their hourly wages as temporary workers and obscuring the practice by failing to give them accurate pay stubs.
On November 19 the group Warehouse Workers for Justice helped workers file their fourth class action lawsuit since 2009 against companies that operate Walmart warehouses in the Chicago area.
This lawsuit charges that at least 18 workers at a warehouse in suburban Elwood realized once they were paid that they got less than promised and in fact less than minimum wage from the company Eclipse Advantage. This week workers marched to Eclipse offices demanding its billing and payment records so they can figure out exactly how much they are owed.
Shoddy record-keeping and incomplete or non-existent paystubs are a common complaint in the industry, where workers are often not even sure what company exactly they are working for and what their official pay rate is. The lawsuit also names Mid-West Temp Group Inc. Some workers were hired by Mid-West to work for Eclipse, others were hired directly by Eclipse. Multiple levels of subcontractors are another common facet of the warehousing industry.
Elwood Warehouse Workers File Suit
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011Elgin, Ill. – Workers at a WalMart warehouse in southwest suburban Elmwood filed a federal lawsuit Friday saying that they were not paid for the hours they worked or a minimum hourly wage rate.
Eighteen workers claim in the suit that when Eclipse Advantage hired them as temporary employees they were promised a minimum hourly wage rate, with a potential to earn more based on a productivity bonus, according to a release from the Warehouse Workers for Justice, a Joliet-based worker’s center which aids warehouse workers.
More Wage Theft Charges At Walmart Warehouse
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011Newstips.org
By Curtis Black
A fourth lawsuit alleging wage theft at a Wal-Mart warehouse in Will County was filed in federal court November 18.
Workers hired by Eclipse Advantage to staff Wal-Mart’s warehouse in Ellwood, Illinois, charge they were paid less than minimum wage or shorted on their hours – and in some cases both.
“I worked 21 hours for Eclipse my first week and was paid $57 for it,” said Roberto Gutierrez. “The company says I only worked 12 hours, by even by their logic I was still paid less than minimum wage.
Warehouse Workers for Justice led dozens of warehouse workers who demonstrated at the Wal-Mart warehouse Monday, demanding that payment records be released.
The suit is the fourth filed by WWJ on behalf of Wal-mart warehouse workers since 2009. The other suits are pending.
Residents Seek Economic Justice
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011Times Weekly
By Ron Kurowski
“What is going on in America is wrong,” said Rev. Craig Purchase, Pastor, and Mt. Zion Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Joliet. Rev. Purchase was speaking about the economic injustice that is ravaging the less fortunate in our society and how “life for us just goes on”. For him the jobs crisis is a moral issue….
…Abe Mwaura, Coordinator for Warehouse Workers for Justice, explained how the job crisis for the temporary workers in Joliet and Will County was a long term structural problem and would require long term solutions.
More goods come through warehouses in Will County than through any port in the country. Of the 30,000 workers employed in warehouses, 63% are temps. Abe said, “These are workers who work for years without any benefits, no health insurance, no vacations, no overtime pay and no sick days. They suffer wage theft, safety violations, discrimination based on gender, age and national origin.” Since they have no union representation they can be fired at will. “Slavery”, is one word he said could describes what goes on in some of the warehouses.
The meeting concluded with members of the audience telling their personal stories on how the economic crisis affects them.
Demetrie Collins, who worked as a temp in the past, explained what it is like to have to work multiple shifts just to earn enough money to feed his family. He thinks he lost his job as a temp when his employer found out that he was involved with Warehouse Workers for Justice.
The last person to speak was Monica Morales who lost her job 1 ½ years ago. She spoke on how hard it is to support her family on unemployment payments, how difficult it is to find work, even low wage, side jobs. She spoke as if she didn’t believe in her future. She is 21years old.