Workers force Walmart contractor to shut down its frigid Hammond, IN warehouse during cold spell

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Victory: Workers force Walmart contractor to shut down its frigid Hammond, IN warehouse during cold spell!

Workers told to work in -15 degree weather successfully demanded that work cease at the Walmart warehouse in Hammond, IN during Monday's arctic cold spell. "It shouldn't come to someone dying to get them to call off work at the warehouse. We all have families who expect us home each day." said Dion Stammis, a warehouse worker employed by a temp agency. The warehouse is an open, unheated building and workers, employed through temp agencies and contractors to move Walmart goods, are not supplied with protective cold weather clothing. Warehouse Workers Organizing Committee members are fighting for heat, warm up breaks, repairs to broken dock doors and aprons, functioning breaks on forklifts and fire alarms.

(from January 5)
Workers at Walmart DC #7100 in Hammond, IN are being forced to work tomorrow in -15 degree weather. The warehouse is open to the outdoors, has no heat, and management has threatened that workers will be fired if they don't report for work tomorrow. Stay tuned for more.

Found at: https://www.facebook.com/warehouseworkersforjustice

[enlightenment]

1. Does OSHA even exist anymore?

Seems like there used to be laws against this sort of thing.

[salin]

4. who to hold account? The temp agency? The contractor?

that's the beauty (sarcasm) of outsourcing. Who would OSHA be monitoring?

[TeamPooka]

8. all of them. nt

[okaawhatever]

36. The gop has fought hard to nullify OSHA, EPA, NLRB and other groups that help the 99% through

reduced funding (to almost non-existent) and blocking any appointments to positions in those agencies. It's their whole minority rule through usurping government thing.

[malaise]

2. Good fucking grief

What is wrong with these greedy scumbags

[mstinamotorcity2]

5. I tell you whats wrong with them !!!!!!

They are just scumbags who are greedy How you be Malaise???

[malaise]

11. I'm fine

Getting up off the floor at your response

[mstinamotorcity2]

12. Glad you are doing well.

Nice to see replies to ops by old school duers. some crazy shit going on at this site lately. Miss the old days.

[malaise]

13. Isn't that the truth

Happy New Year

[mstinamotorcity2]

14. Happy New Year

to you also. Thanks. Hey its -15 degrees here in the Mitten state.

[malaise]

15. It's 82 here

with a lovely cool breeze

Stay warm.

[mstinamotorcity2]

16. 82 with a lovely cool breeze???

You bragging?? I got a lovely cold breeze that is sure to cool off anyone in 82 degree weather and since I am such a generous person I will gladly share some of it with you

[Brigid]

22. Braggart!

[malaise]

23. LOL

[Bodhi BloodWave]

24. A few days ago i glanced over a thread title saying something along the lines of

that they love DU but would be hesitant to recommend it currently, Its a statement i would sadly have to agree with, though as you kind of said with the last few words i would have been(and was) more then happy to recommend the DU i recall from when i joined.

and to stay on topic, i hope the workers manage to get everything they require since those conditions does not sound good at all

[mstinamotorcity2]

31. those were the days.

And you know who you were then, repugs were repugs and democrats were dems, those were the days

[RainDog]

3. love that unregulated capitalism!

raise wages by killing off workers in the cold. brilliant strategy!

[Boom Sound 416]

6. So for those people

Who needed to buy shit today. You are all good unless you live wherever the hell the one walmart that closed due to worker request to which Walmart consented. For those of you, Cosco and target are open just down the street.

[HangOnKids]

10. Lovely word salad

Do you have a point? Thanks.

[Boom Sound 416]

25. Roughage is good for the system

[jmowreader]

20. They closed a distribution center, not a store

A DC is where the merchandise stores sell comes from. Customers don't shop there.

[LanternWaste]

26. You'll of course provide testimonials of those who were unable to purchase "shit" do only to this pa

You'll of course provide testimonials of those who were unable to purchase "shit" do only to this specific and particular shutdown yes?

Or (and I find this more likely) is this merely prophecy laced with bad grammar on your part?

[Boom Sound 416]

27. You got half right

[Boom Sound 416]

34. Grammar?

[theHandpuppet]

30. Um... I'm not following you

But I see it's not just me.

[Glassunion]

7. I'd gladly show up to work there.

As long as every single supervisor, manager, director, VP, and Mr. Mart were on the distro floor lugging and tugging along with me. Of course that would never, ever, ever, ever happen.

[Brigid]

9. So the company staffs the warehouse through a temp agency . . .

And gets away with this. How about both the company and the agency get held accountable?

[LeftyMom]

18. I wouldn't be shocked if they own the temp agency.

A surprising portion of the people wearing the blue vests in the actual stores work for contractors and not for WalMart. Of course WalMart owns most or all of the contracting company, but it gives the employees even fewer protections and benefits than the regular WalMart employees. I

[MsPithy]

17. Is this Dickensian England?

The more things change the more they stay the same. It seems, without strict labor protections, the bosses will always try to work the little guy to death.

[Brigid]

21. It's getting there.

Soon, Charles Dickens will be viewed as a prophet. I hear that there has been increasing interest in his works lately.

[gollygee]

35. The latest right wing meme I've been hearing

is that Dickens didn't "get" Scrooge and that Scrooge was really the good guy.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/fredsmith/2013/07/17/charles-dickens-ebenezer-scrooge-was-the-ultimate-job-creator/

They love this stuff. It's perfectly fine to let people starve in the streets if there are no workhouses. And if there are workhouses, then obviously that's where they should be.

[LongTomH]

37. I remember Ed Meese saying something to that effect during Raygun's regime!

He remarked that what Scrooge paid Bob Cratchit was average for his era.

He missed two things that Dickens was trying to say:

1. The capitalists of his time were incredibly stingy with their employees, and
   
2. Scrooge's problem was that he had forgotten his duty to his fellow man.

[gollygee]

39. +1

People see what they want to see sometimes.

[another_liberal]

19. Tie a few Walmart managers to the outside of the building for a few hours.

I'll bet that will change their point of view on working outside at fifteen below.

[Ikonoklast]

28. That DC isn't owned by Walmart.

It's a cross-dock operation owned by another warehousing group that does contract work for Walmart, among many other retailers.

[onethatcares]

33. that is the problem

as you said, it's a cross dock operation owned by another warehousing group that does contract work for walmart and others..........

Which means no one is responsible to heat the building or give a shit about the people working there because by the time they untangle the web of contractors, subcontractors, building lessees, building lessors, company ownership and truck drivers (just had to throw that in), no one except the employees will suffer anything.

this country is sucking more and more each day I live here.

[another_liberal]

38. I'll bet they have their filthy hands on the controls.

That warehouse stores their stuff. They are surely in ultimate control of how it's run, if they don't own it outright through a shadow corporation.

[Ikonoklast]

40. Walmart never buys anything they can lease cheaper.

The building was built and is owned by Crown Enterprises, Inc. of Warren, MI, and leased to Linc Logistics Insight Corp. of Warren, MI which staffs and operates the warehouse.


Neither company is owned by Walmart, and both companies operate warehousing and third-party logistics for many different types of retail and manufacturing.

[another_liberal]

41. I take it that you have done your research well?

If that is all true, then tie a few Crown Enterprises executives to the outside of the building and lets see if their attitudes toward working in minus fifteen degree temperatures doesn't change.

[SamKnause]

29. If not now, WHEN ?????

A NATIONWIDE STRIKE would certainly do a world of good for the rights of workers in the U.S.

How far will they be pushed ?

How much will they stand for ?

What will it take to push them over the edge ?

There is STRENGTH in UNIONS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is STRENGTH in UNITY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is STRENGTH in NUMBERS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[a kennedy]

42. This is what's sad......people died for starting up unions back in the day.

There is STRENGTH in UNIONS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is STRENGTH in UNITY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is STRENGTH in NUMBERS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and it's like folks have to die all over again for the benefits that are taken for granted, or being taken away today. I just ache for the workers of today. Screw mall-wort and all business like em. Ugh.

[haele]

32. We were watching a 2000's Frontline look at WalMart in class Monday.

Seriously, they're a cult who's Messiah passed on. Sacrifice everything for Low costs Uberalis.

They took Walton's original "country values" philosophy -work hard, live frugally, cut waste, and keep costs low, went all Scrooge with it. I'm not saying that the idea behind WalMart was all beneficial - he was an anti-union Dixiecrat running a business, after all, but the original philosophy behind providing a wide range of reasonably priced decent quality goods to rural areas that didn't have access to them wasn't originally as bad as it has ended up after he died - before when they'd actually pay decent wages and provided benefits to their "associates" to keep the unions out.

Haele

[Art_from_Ark]

43. I worked at a Wal-Mart warehouse for a while

I think it was Number 6, in Bentonville, not too far from the freeway. There was a sign in the break room that said something to this effect: "You may think we're only paying you 790 dollars a month, but when Social Security and other payments we make for you are factored in, we're actually paying you 920 dollars a month."

That was in 1988 or 89, when Sam was still alive.

[B Calm]

44. 2014 and workers are still subjected to these kind of working conditions,

unbelievable!