WBEZ | labor

Laid-off workers open their own factory

Fri, 10 May 2013 07:29:00 -0500

A few hours before the grand opening of New Era Windows Cooperative, Melvin "Ricky" Maclin is standing in the middle of the factory, beaming.

"All of this is ours," he said. "We have our own trucks, our own forklifts. It’s a whole new world."

Maclin’s title is the same as the 17 other people who work here: worker-owner. Together, they vote on decisions about the factory. He proudly shows the place where they jackhammered the floor to install water pipes. He says the workers didn’t know how to complete some of the steps to set up the factory, but they learned. They also took classes on business management.

"At first we thought we were just lowly factory workers," Maclin said. "But now we see we have so much more in us."

Maclin says that being a worker-owner means that for the first time in his life he has control over what happens to him. Back in 2008, when the factory was closed for the first time, he was devastated.

"This was right before Christmas," he said. "I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to buy my grandkids a doll for Christmas. It was a dark time, it was like we were in a free fall."

Maclin and the other workers of Republic Window occupied the closed factory. They were later paid the severance wages that they were legally entitled to receive. A California- based company called Serious Materials bought the factory and hired back the workers. But not long after, they also closed down.

The workers decided to do things differently that time and buy the factory themselves.

Working World, the organization that provided them with a credit line to help open the cooperative, says it would cost most companies $5 million to open. It cost New Era less than $650,000.

The first windows made by the factory will be titled the “1110 Series” after their union, United Electric 1110.

Shannon Heffernan is a reporter for WBEZ. Follow her @shannon_h

Downtown walkout for higher minimum wage shakes up Chicago businesses

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:32:00 -0500

A group of fast food and retail workers in downtown Chicago staged a protest and walkout Wednesday to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour for all downtown workers. Beginning very early in the morning, the roving protest grew in size as it made noise in front of stores including Macy’s, Nordstrom Rack, Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s.

Felix Mendez said he changed out of his uniform and into a red shirt and walked out of his job at Subway early Wednesday morning.

“Every two weeks my check is less than $500,” he said. In two years at Subway he said he’s never gotten a raise, and he and his family recently had to move because they couldn’t pay rent. He lives with his girlfriend, who’s a teacher, and his two kids. “We make it, but it would be nice not to have to struggle, just to live comfortable live everybody else.”

Managers at Mendez’s Subway didn’t want to comment. But another Subway manager whose employees walked out said he’d support a higher state minimum wage.

“Why not?” said Subway manager Firoj Ali. But he said Subway won’t be the one to set that new minimum. “The franchise is not going to decide minimum wage.”

“I have to go paycheck by paycheck struggling,” said Amani Johnson, who works at the same Subway. The 26-year-old has two young children, and he’s been at Subway for six years. “Why be greedy and keep the money to yourself when you could be helping many others out here that are struggling?”

Earlier this year in his State of the State address, Ill. Gov. Pat Quinn voiced his support for raising the state minimum above $8.25. But lawmakers have not yet addressed legislation this session. The last change in the state minimum wage was in 2010.

A study by the National Employment Law Project shows that since the economic crash in 2008, the growth of low-wage jobs has far outpaced mid- and high-wage jobs.

The group behind Wednesday’s protest, the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago (WOCC), wants downtown businesses to raise pay on their own rather than waiting for a change in laws. The WOCC is using a protest strategy that has also been gaining some traction with fast food workers in New York City: getting workers to go out on “strike” without officially forming a union. But Wednesday’s demonstration was more a walkout than a strike; workers said they will be back on the job Thursday.

Lewis Wallace is a Pritzker Journalism Fellow at WBEZ. Follow him @lewispants.

Low-wage worker advocates slam immigration overhaul’s visa plan

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:01:00 -0500

A proposed immigration overhaul that a group of U.S. senators including Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) introduced Wednesday is worrying some advocates for low-wage Chicago workers.

The advocates are pointing to a part of the plan that would bring foreign workers to the United States under a new program called the W Visa. The proposal, the advocates say, is short on resources for protecting the workers from wage theft, safety hazards and whistleblowing retaliation — problems that have plagued U.S. “guest worker” programs over the years.

“What part of the legislation provides 3,500 new occupational safety monitors and wage inspectors?” asked Arise Chicago organizer Jorge Mújica, referring to the number of new customs agents proposed by the bill. “The plan only talks about hiring for border control,” said Mújica, whose group focuses on workers at car washes, second-hand stores, embroidery shops and other sites. “So no one can guarantee protections for the workers.”

The W Visa program emerged last month from negotiations between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest union federation. The program would admit up to 20,000 low-skilled foreign workers starting in 2015. The annual cap would grow to 75,000 by 2018. The number of visas would fluctuate, depending on data such as job openings and unemployment rates.

Employers say the W Visa would provide their first good mechanism for bringing in nonimmigrant workers for low-skilled jobs that are not seasonal. The industries could range from hospitality to meatpacking, laundries to home health care. The employers say they have a hard time finding workers already in the United States who are willing to fill certain positions and that raising wages to attract workers could put the companies out of business.

The bill would create a new agency, dubbed the Bureau of Immigration and Labor Market Research, within the Department of Homeland Security to manage the number of workers who come annually. The agency would also handle complaints about employers.

In the negotiations, unions tried to limit any new influx of low-wage foreign workers into the U.S. labor market and to distance the W Visa program from an existing “guest worker” system that leaves many of the foreigners vulnerable to abuses.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the W Visa will neither tie the workers to a single employer nor drag down the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers. “We have created a new model, a modern visa system that includes both a bureau to collect and analyze labor market data, as well as significant worker protections,” Trumka said in a statement this month. “We expect that this new program, which benefits not just business, but everyone, will promote long overdue reforms by raising the bar for existing [visa] programs.”

But Leone José Bicchieri, executive director of the Chicago Workers Collaborative, predicts the Senate bill would let down the visa recipients.

“In my experience with agricultural guest-worker programs, you have all of these protections in place and on paper,” said Bicchieri, who worked for years as a farmworker organizer before joining the collaborative, which advocates for temporary workers. “Now imagine having hundreds of thousands of [W Visa] workers all across the United States. And these workers are not talking with [government] monitors every day. There’s not enough money to do that.”

“They’re talking with supervisors whose job is to make sure they pick the crop or cut the meat or clean the room,” Bicchieri added. “And these supervisors are constantly shouting at these workers, saying things like, ‘You better hurry up or this is the last time you’ll come back and work on any of these programs and I’ll make sure your cousins and any family member in your hometown never get accepted to come back.’ ”

Durbin’s office in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday did not comment on whether the W Visa program’s labor protections were sufficient.

Chip Mitchell is WBEZ’s West Side bureau reporter. Follow him on Twitter @ChipMitchell1 and @WBEZoutloud and connect with him through Facebook and LinkedIn.

U.S. demand for high-skilled, foreign workers up

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 06:00:00 -0500

The opening of the filing period for petitions to bring specialized, educated employees through the H-1B visa program begins Monday, and after years of lagging interest in filling high-skilled jobs with temporary, foreign workers, many anticipate that U.S. companies have found their footing well enough to compete for these specialized employees. Successful petitions will authorize a foreign national to start working at a U.S. company temporarily during the 2014 federal fiscal year, which starts in October of 2013.

“This’ll be the first year in a long time that we anticipate that the cap is going to be reached in the first week in April,” said Eldon Kakuda, an immigration attorney at the Chicago-based law firm Masuda, Funai, Eifert & Mitchell. The U.S. sets a limit of 85,000 H-1B visas every year, a cap that was quickly reached within the first week of accepting petitions in years prior to 2009. In the last four years, however, U.S. employers filed far fewer petitions, sometimes taking up to nine months to reach the limit. “I do think it’s a strong indication that our economy is on the upswing,” said Kakuda.

H1-Bs typically work in the so-called “STEM” fields of science, technology, engineering, and math, and between 2000 and 2009 nearly half of those visas went to Indian nationals. The program is meant to help companies that can’t find U.S. employees with the requisite skills or experience. “There are not enough US citizens or Americans available with IT skills in the country,” said Shoji Mathew, President of the North American Association of Indian IT Professionals.

But Mathew said small companies with 50-150 employees are nervous to file petitions this year, because of the possibility that Congress will change the H-1B program. In particular, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2013, introduced by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), would limit the number of H-1B employees in a company of at least 50 people to 50 percent. It would also enact more rigorous compliance audits with the program, and set a wage level for H-1B workers that is higher than what most employers currently pay foreign nationals on those visas.

Mathew said many of the small companies have started the application process for H-1B petitions, but are nervous about completing paperwork before legislators finish their work. “What happens if a company has 250 employees and, say, 80 percent is H1Bs?” asked Mathew. “They say why we should we apply for H1B (when) they’re on the verge of laying off their employees?”

But some hope that the bill will pass, citing suspected abuses of the H-1B program. “There’s a huge demand for underpaid workers through this program,” said Daniel Costa, an immigration policy analyst with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Costa said that though federal law requires employers to pay H-1B workers at a prevailing wage, the law gives pay scale options depending on the profession. “And the vast majority of the time they choose the lowest wage or the second-lowest wage, both of which are below the average wage,” said Costa.

Costa added that the bill would close some loopholes in the H-1B program, while giving U.S. workers a fair shot at those jobs by requiring employers to post job openings on the Department of Labor’s website, for all interested candidates to see. “We need to recruit and get and retain the best and brightest workers, especially in these STEM fields,” said Costa, “But there’s no evidence that we have some huge shortage. There’s always going to be a need for the workers, but we should just have some really basic protections in place for U.S. workers.”

At the same time, Washington lawmakers are considering a separate, bipartisan bill to expand the number of H-1B visas.

Odette Yousef is WBEZ’s North Side Bureau reporter. You can follow her at @oyousef.

As Yahoo CEO sparks debate over telecommuting, advocates say Chicagoans are spending too much time at the office

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:18:00 -0600

Leaders at internet giant Yahoo have announced plans to stop letting employees work from home.

Last week, it was reported that Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s new CEO, will force the web company’s few hundred remote workers to come back to the office.

The move was controversial because in some ways Yahoo is bucking a growing trend. Between 2005 and 2011, the number of workers telecommuting in the U.S. grew by 73 percent.

So where does Chicago fit into this trend?

Despite significant growth, Chicago lags behind San Diego, Atlanta, Seattle and a slew of other urban areas in the percentage of total workers who work mainly from home. According to 2009 data, Chicago was at 2.3 percent - the same as the national average at the time (it’s now 2.5 percent).

“Companies continue to think about flexibility and telework as being this sort of soft fluffy thing,” said Kyra Cavanaugh. Her consulting firm, Life Meets Work, helps Chicago-area businesses transition to what she calls a “flexible workplace model.” She argues letting people work from home and allowing flexible hours increases productivity and employee satisfaction, and reduces absenteeism.

On top of the advantages to telecommuting, there are also disadvantages to commuting in Chicago: a recent study shows that it can take Chicago drivers four times as long as it should to get to and from work.

But Cavanaugh thinks the city’s not ready to go too far down the telecommuting road.

“Chicago is the place where, you know, we smelt steel and slaughter cattle, and our attitudes about workplace practices represent that still,” she said.

Chicago-area employers who encourage telecommuting include Aetna, Bank of America and the federal government. The federal Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 encourages federal agencies to save money by allowing eligible employees to work from home, and from 2005-2011 there was a 424 percent increase in the numbers of federal employees working out of the office.

Follow Lewis Wallace on Twitter.

Deal in West Chicago ends teacher strike

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:46:00 -0600

WEST CHICAGO, Ill. — Classes are back on for about 4,000 students in West Chicago after a tentative agreement ended a teachers strike in the Chicago suburb.

Officials with West Chicago Elementary District 33 started calling parents overnight to let them know that classes would resume Thursday after a three-day strike.

About 280 teachers began the walkout Monday after more than 17 months of negotiations failed to reach an agreement. The district includes six elementary schools, a preschool and a middle school.

Negotiators aren't yet disclosing details of the tentative agreement. They reached the deal early Thursday after nearly 12 hours of talks with a federal mediator. Salaries and health insurance costs were among the main sticking points.

Hospitals crack down on workers refusing flu shots

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 14:32:00 -0600

Patients can refuse a flu shot. Should doctors and nurses have that right, too? That is the thorny question surfacing as U.S. hospitals increasingly crack down on employees who won't get flu shots, with some workers losing their jobs over their refusal.

"Where does it say that I am no longer a patient if I'm a nurse," wondered Carrie Calhoun, a longtime critical care nurse in suburban Chicago who was fired last month after she refused a flu shot.

Hospitals' get-tougher measures coincide with an earlier-than-usual flu season hitting harder than in recent mild seasons. Flu is widespread in most states, and at least 20 children have died.

Most doctors and nurses do get flu shots. But in the past two months, at least 15 nurses and other hospital staffers in four states have been fired for refusing, and several others have resigned, according to affected workers, hospital authorities and published reports.

In Rhode Island, one of three states with tough penalties behind a mandatory vaccine policy for health care workers, more than 1,000 workers recently signed a petition opposing the policy, according to a labor union that has filed suit to end the regulation.

Why would people whose job is to protect sick patients refuse a flu shot? The reasons vary: allergies to flu vaccine, which are rare; religious objections; and skepticism about whether vaccinating health workers will prevent flu in patients.

Dr. Carolyn Bridges, associate director for adult immunization at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the strongest evidence is from studies in nursing homes, linking flu vaccination among health care workers with fewer patient deaths from all causes.

"We would all like to see stronger data," she said. But other evidence shows flu vaccination "significantly decreases" flu cases, she said. "It should work the same in a health care worker versus somebody out in the community."

Cancer nurse Joyce Gingerich is among the skeptics and says her decision to avoid the shot is mostly "a personal thing." She's among seven employees at IU Health Goshen Hospital in northern Indiana who were recently fired for refusing flu shots. Gingerich said she gets other vaccinations but thinks it should be a choice. She opposes "the injustice of being forced to put something in my body."

Medical ethicist Art Caplan says health care workers' ethical obligation to protect patients trumps their individual rights.

"If you don't want to do it, you shouldn't work in that environment," said Caplan, medical ethics chief at New York University's Langone Medical Center. "Patients should demand that their health care provider gets flu shots — and they should ask them."

For some people, flu causes only mild symptoms. But it can also lead to pneumonia, and there are thousands of hospitalizations and deaths each year. The number of deaths has varied in recent decades from about 3,000 to 49,000.

A survey by CDC researchers found that in 2011, more than 400 U.S. hospitals required flu vaccinations for their employees and 29 hospitals fired unvaccinated employees.

At Calhoun's hospital, Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, Ill., unvaccinated workers granted exemptions must wear masks and tell patients, "I'm wearing the mask for your safety," Calhoun says. She says that's discriminatory and may make patients want to avoid "the dirty nurse" with the mask.

The hospital justified its vaccination policy in an email, citing the CDC's warning that this year's flu outbreak was "expected to be among the worst in a decade" and noted that Illinois has already been hit especially hard. The mandatory vaccine policy "is consistent with our health system's mission to provide the safest environment possible."

The government recommends flu shots for nearly everyone, starting at age 6 months. Vaccination rates among the general public are generally lower than among health care workers.

According to the most recent federal data, about 63 percent of U.S. health care workers had flu shots as of November. That's up from previous years, but the government wants 90 percent coverage of health care workers by 2020.

The highest rate, about 88 percent, was among pharmacists, followed by doctors at 84 percent, and nurses, 82 percent. Fewer than half of nursing assistants and aides are vaccinated, Bridges said.

Some hospitals have achieved 90 percent but many fall short. A government health advisory panel has urged those below 90 percent to consider a mandatory program.

Also, the accreditation body over hospitals requires them to offer flu vaccines to workers, and those failing to do that and improve vaccination rates could lose accreditation.

Starting this year, the government's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is requiring hospitals to report employees' flu vaccination rates as a means to boost the rates, the CDC's Bridges said. Eventually the data will be posted on the agency's "Hospital Compare" website.

Several leading doctor groups support mandatory flu shots for workers. And the American Medical Association in November endorsed mandatory shots for those with direct patient contact in nursing homes; elderly patients are particularly vulnerable to flu-related complications. The American Nurses Association supports mandates if they're adopted at the state level and affect all hospitals, but also says exceptions should be allowed for medical or religious reasons.

Mandates for vaccinating health care workers against other diseases, including measles, mumps and hepatitis, are widely accepted. But some workers have less faith that flu shots work — partly because there are several types of flu virus that often differ each season and manufacturers must reformulate vaccines to try and match the circulating strains.

While not 100 percent effective, this year's vaccine is a good match, the CDC's Bridges said.

Several states have laws or regulations requiring flu vaccination for health care workers but only three — Arkansas, Maine and Rhode Island — spell out penalties for those who refuse, according to Alexandra Stewart, a George Washington University expert in immunization policikfriedenes and co-author of a study appearing this month in the journal Vaccine.

Rhode Island's regulation, enacted in December, may be the toughest and is being challenged in court by a health workers union. The rule allows exemptions for religious or medical reasons, but requires unvaccinated workers in contact with patients to wear face masks during flu season. Employees who refuse the masks can be fined $100 and may face a complaint or reprimand for unprofessional conduct that could result in losing their professional license.

Some Rhode Island hospitals post signs announcing that workers wearing masks have not received flu shots. Opponents say the masks violate their health privacy.

"We really strongly support the goal of increasing vaccination rates among health care workers and among the population as a whole," but it should be voluntary, said SEIU Healthcare Employees Union spokesman Chas Walker.

Supporters of health care worker mandates note that to protect public health, courts have endorsed forced vaccination laws affecting the general population during disease outbreaks, and have upheld vaccination requirements for schoolchildren.

Cases involving flu vaccine mandates for health workers have had less success. A 2009 New York state regulation mandating health care worker vaccinations for swine flu and seasonal flu was challenged in court but was later rescinded because of a vaccine shortage. And labor unions have challenged individual hospital mandates enacted without collective bargaining; an appeals court upheld that argument in 2007 in a widely cited case involving Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle.

Calhoun, the Illinois nurse, says she is unsure of her options.

"Most of the hospitals in my area are all implementing these policies," she said. "This conflict could end the career I have dedicated myself to."

Fast food and retail workers march on the Magnificent Mile

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:26:00 -0600

A worker advocacy group is asking downtown businesses to pay their employees at least $15 an hour.

Over 100 people marched on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile Thursday to protest low wages for retail and fast food workers as a part of the Fight For 15 Campaign, a new project of the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago.

“I literally live paycheck to paycheck, like right now I have a dollar and thirty-six cent in my bank account,” said Kenyanna Brown. She works at Victoria’s Secret in Watertower Place for $8.75 an hour; Illinois’ current minimum wage is $8.25. “If I didn’t live with my mom I’d be on the streets, I wouldn’t be able to provide for myself.”

Protesters delivered a letter to the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, a downtown business group, and asked for a response by Dec. 22.

Brown said she was part of the small group who launched the campaign last month. The committee is affiliated with the community organization Action Now, and many who attended the protest wore Service Employees International Union (SEIU) shirts and hats. Protesters represented their home neighborhoods with large canvas signs.

A recent study by the National Employment Law Project says that although only 21 percent of jobs lost in the recession were in low-wage occupations, jobs paying less that $13.84 per hour account for 58 percent of new positions created since 2008. Of those new low-wage jobs, the sectors with the most growth are retail sales and food preparation.

And more low-wage workers in Chicago are above the age of 30 or supporting a whole household, according to a study affiliated with the campaign.

“I think that there’s a misconception of the people that do work for minimum wage,” said Amie Crawford, another organizer. She’s 56 and works at downtown health-food store Protein Bar after struggling to find work in her profession as an interior designer. “I feel that they - we - are dismissed because we’re high school kids or we’re retired people that just want extra money...that’s not true.”

Fight For 15 has links to a similar effort in New York that organized a fast food worker walk-out in November.

Michigan Legislature sends governor right-to-work plan

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:28:00 -0600

LANSING, Mich. — As the chants of angry protesters filled the Capitol, Michigan lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to right-to-work legislation, dealing a devastating and once-unthinkable defeat to organized labor in a state that has been a cradle of the movement for generations.

The Republican-dominated House ignored Democrats' pleas to delay the passage and instead approved two bills with the same ruthless efficiency as the Senate showed last week. One measure dealt with private sector workers, the other with government employees. Both were sent to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who pledged to sign them within days.

"This is about freedom, fairness and equality," House Speaker Jase Bolger said during floor debate. "These are basic American rights — rights that should unite us."

After the vote, he said, Michigan's future "has never been brighter, because workers are free."

Once the laws are enacted, the state where the United Auto Workers was founded and labor has long been a political titan will join 23 others with right-to-work laws, which ban requirements that nonunion employees pay unions for negotiating contracts and other services.

Supporters say the laws give workers more choice and support economic growth, but critics insist the real intent is to weaken organized labor by encouraging workers to "freeload" by withholding money unions need to bargain effectively with management.

Protesters in the gallery chanted "Shame on you!" as the measures were approved. Union backers clogged the hallways and grounds shouting "No justice, no peace," and Democrats warned that hard feelings from the legislation and Republicans' refusal to hold committee hearings or allow a statewide referendum would be long lasting.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin and other Democrats in the state's congressional delegation met with Snyder on Monday and urged him to slow things down.

"For millions of Michigan workers, this is no ordinary debate," Levin said. "It's an assault on their right to have their elected bargaining agent negotiate their pay, benefits and working conditions, and to have all who benefit from such negotiations share in some way in the cost of obtaining them."

Although impassioned, the crowds were considerably smaller than those drawn by right-to-work legislation in Indiana earlier this year and in Wisconsin in 2011, during consideration of a law curtailing collective bargaining rights for most state employees. Those measures provoked weeks of intense debate, with Democrats boycotting sessions to delay action and tens of thousands of activists occupying statehouses.

In Michigan, Republicans acted so quickly that opponents had little time to plan massive resistance.

Snyder and GOP leaders announced their intentions last Thursday. Within hours, the bills were hurriedly pushed through the Senate as powerless Democrats objected in vain. After a legally required five-day waiting period, the House approved final passage.

Protesters began assembling before daylight outside the sandstone-and-brick Capitol, chanting and whistling in the chilly darkness and waving placards with slogans such as "Stop the War on Workers." Others joined a three-block march to the building, some wearing coveralls and hard hats.

Valerie Constance, a reading instructor for the Wayne County Community College District and member or the American Federation of Teachers, sat on the Capitol steps with a sign shaped like a tombstone. It read: "Here lies democracy."

"I do think this is a very sad day in Michigan history," Constance said.

The crowds filled the rotunda area, beating drums and chanting. The chorus rose to a deafening thunder as House members voted. Later, protesters surged toward a building across the street where Snyder has his office. Two people were arrested when they tried to get inside, state police said.

But by late afternoon, the demonstrators had mostly dispersed.

Snyder insisted the matter wasn't handled with undue haste and that right-to-work was a long-discussed issue in Michigan.

"There has been lots of time for citizens to contact legislators and share their feelings," he said in an interview with radio station WWJ-AM.

Michigan gives the right-to-work movement its strongest foothold yet in the Rust Belt, where the 2010 election and tea party movement produced assertive Republican majorities that have dealt unions repeated setbacks.

Opponents said they would press Snyder to use his line-item veto authority to remove a $1 million appropriation from the bills, making them eligible for a statewide referendum. But the House swiftly rejected a Democratic amendment to that effect.

Lawmakers who backed the bills "will be held accountable at the ballot box in 2014," said state Rep. Tim Greimel, the incoming House Democratic leader.

But Sen. John Proos, a Republican from St. Joseph who voted for both bills, predicted that objections would fade as the shift in policy brings more jobs to Michigan.

"As they say in sports," he said, "the atmosphere in the locker room gets a lot better when the team's winning."

Labor groups, employees protest during Black Friday at Chicago Wal-Mart stores

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 09:03:00 -0600

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Chicago area Wal-Marts today as holiday shoppers crowded the stores for Black Friday sales.

A group of Wal-Mart employees called the Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart (OUR Walmart) transported protesters around the city in buses. Protesters want the nation’s largest retailer to offer more dependable schedules, better health care and higher wages to employees.

Both sides have filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board as part of an their ongoing dispute.

Park Forest resident and Wal-Mart employee Marie Kanger-Born said she hopes the Black Friday protests will give the movement momentum.

"The rest of the country has started to take notice of the plight of the Wal-Mart workers," Kanger-Born said. "This is America. Everyone should be able to work one job and make a decent livable wage."

Chicago resident and Sam's Club employee Rosetta Brown said she has protested how Wal-Mart treats workers like her for more than a decade.

"We’re just tired of taking it and we need to be heard," Brown said. "I mean, a person should be able to exercise their right to vote if they want a union. The workers are speaking out saying we need help and we’re coming together. What’s wrong with that? Wal-Mart should be listening and having a meeting with all of us."

Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg didn't address the protesters concerns directly but said Friday morning that the protests were not getting in the way of holiday shoppers. The company was on track to have its best-selling Black Friday event ever.

"Last night during our Black Friday events we had only 26 protests occurred at stores (nationwide) and many of them did not include any Wal-Mart associates," Lundberg said.

He said Wal-Mart estimated that fewer than 50 associates participated in protests nationwide on Friday night.

"In fact this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year," Lundberg said.