Workers allege retribution
Nov. 12: ELWOOD -- About 70 workers were fired Nov. 5 from the Bissell Homecare warehouse after they joined a union and filed complaints about working conditions at the facility.
Fired workers picketed Wednesday afternoon in front of the home cleaning products warehouse to protest the terminations. They carried signs that read "Stop Bissell's Dirty Work."
LIZ WILKINSON ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Cindy Marble, of Crest Hill, worked at the warehouse for seven months. Bissell cut employees' pay, denied sick day pay and demoted one employee when he took off a week for his sister's funeral, she said.
"We're just really, really tired of it," she said as she prepared to march in front of the warehouse.
Among the marchers was the Rev. Herbert Brooks Jr., who serves on the Will County Board.
"These workers were fired without just cause," he said. "I'm crying (inside) today because of what happened right here at Bissell in the city of Elwood."
Workers filed complaints because Roadlink wasn't registered as required by state law, was paying some workers less than minimum wage and was sending some employees home with no pay, they say.
Some employees were splitting about $30 to unload containers, jobs that took five hours, said Abraham Mwaura, a coordinator for Chicago-based Warehouse Workers for Justice.
Also, employees cited discrimination issues and threats of retaliation for their complaints, said Leah Fried, an organizer for United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, which is the union the warehouse workers joined. Complaints were lodged with the U.S. Department of Labor, National Labor Relations Board and the Illinois Department of Labor, she said.
"Bissell is concerned about any allegations of improper labor practices and we have advised Maersk that Bissell expects full compliance with all appropriate legal and safety standards in the workplace," the company said in a press release.
Also, the company said the Roadlink contract was coming to an end "... which is apparently at the root of the dispute that has arisen there."
No one from Maersk or Roadlink could be reached for comment Wednesday.
"This is sort of the dirty underbelly of distribution," she said.
Mwaura said his group has found Will County, which has the bulk of warehouse workers in the region, to be rife with worker abuse.
"We found because the industry is so reliant on temps, it's made it easier for the management to in many ways oppress workers," Mwaura said.
The Bissell firings are the worst example of employee abuse the group has seen so far in its 11 months of operation, he added.
"These are some of the biggest corporations in the world that are taking advantage of Will County residents," he said.
Some of the workers were told their jobs ended last week, some this week and a few will remain on through next week to train their replacements, Fried said.
"The workers feel very strongly it was retaliation," she said of the firings. "We feel Bissell and Maersk are ultimately going to be required to bring everyone back with back pay, and we're going to fight for that."
While the logistics industry has a "skinny" profit margin and companies will do what they can to cut costs, "We don't want to be creating a bunch of jobs people in Will County can't afford to take," he said.
That said, Greuling added that he knows of many warehouse/distribution facilities that provide good salaries and work conditions.
"We have 130 million square feet of industrial space, and you can't believe there are horrible things going on in all of these (buildings)."
