Walmart Warehouse Workers for Justice for BuzzFlash at Truthout

On Monday, October 1st, a caravan of buses from Chicago will join community, faith and labor organizations in Will County to support workers on strike at the Walmart warehouse in a mass mobilization in Elwood, near Joliet, Illinois.

The rally will bring this usually invisible distribution system into the public eye to protest unfair labor practices and other abuses in the nation’s largest inland port. Journalists are welcome to join us on the bus and interview supporters on the way.

The rally will begin at 2 pm in a public park on Deer Run Rd. behind the Walmart warehouse located at 26453 Centerpoint Dr. in Elwood. The crowd will march to the shipping entrance of the massive warehouse and a group of clergy and community leaders plan to block the road preventing goods from coming in or leaving the warehouse. They are prepared to take arrest in support of the strikers demands.

Workers have been on strike at the Walmart warehouse since September 15, 2012. The unfair labor practice strike was triggered by management’s illegal retaliation against workers attempting to present the company their concerns about wage theft, unsafe conditions and discrimination. They are demanding an end to retaliation against workers who speak up about poor conditions.

Warehouse workers labor under extreme temperatures, lifting thousands of boxes that can weigh up to 250 lbs each. Workplace injuries are common; workers rarely earn a living wage or have any benefits.

Warehouse Workers for Justice is an Illinois worker center dedicated to fighting for quality jobs in the distribution industry that can sustain families and communities.

Photo Courtesy of Warehouse Workers for Justice