Freezing for Wal-Mart: Sub-zero warehouse temperatures spur Indiana work stoppage

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Salon.com

Amid polar vortex and state of emergency, workers defied a boss who told them to stay on the job

Josh Eidelson

Subjected to sub-zero temperatures and compelled to work despite a state of emergency, sub-contracted Wal-Mart warehouse employees halted work and forced their boss to shutdown the building, according to a union-backed group.

“They are running a slave trade,” charged Dion Stammis, an employee of Linc Logistics, the company contracted by Wal-Mart to run the Hammond, Indiana facility. Linc’s parent company, Universal Truckload Services, did not respond to multiple requests for comments; neither did Wal-Mart.

The Warehouse Workers Organizing Committee, a labor group backed by the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America union, started organizing last year against alleged abuses in the Hammond warehouse. (The same group supported 2012’s multi-week work stoppage at Wal-Mart’s top U.S. distribution center, in Elwood, Illinois.) They allege that unaddressed issues including broken dock doors and lack of heaters leave the warehouse’s workers exposed to snow, rain, ice, and freezing temperatures. WWOC organizer Sean Fulkerson told Salon that the facility “had torpedo [gas] heaters before Wal-Mart got the contract,” but “when they switched it over to a Wal-Mart facility they pulled out the heaters” because “they didn’t want to pay the gas bill.” Now, he charged, “people were getting written up for going to the bathroom and trying to warm their hands under their hand driers.”

When Linc switched sub-contractors last fall, WWJ alleges workers were told they would have to re-apply for their jobs and pay $40 each for background checks; organizers say the company backed down – and employees not only kept their jobs but got a rare raise – after a delegation of community activists and Wal-Mart retail employees confronted management in support of the warehouse workers (captured on the campaign video below).

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/01/13/freezing_for_wal_mart_sub_zero_warehouse_temperatures_spur_indiana_work_stoppage/

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A protest outside Wal-mart in Los Angeles November 7, 2013. (Credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)

[another_liberal]

1. No heat, and they were told not to warm their hands under bathroom hand driers?

Some people should go to jail doing that. This is America. No one can treat American workers like that.

The District Attorney needs to file some charges. That is clearly physical endangerment, at the very least.

[christx30]

3. Not to defend walmart

but they must have had a horrible supervisor team.
When I worked at the distribution center in San Marcos, Tx, they were bullies when it came to water. They made you drink water because they didn't want anyone getting hurt. They took safety very seriously there. It was rough, dangerous work, but I needed the money.

[Brigid]

4. That was CA.

This is IN. Employers get away with almost anything here.

[christx30]

5. Actually,

I'm in Texas.

[Brigid]

6. Oh. why did I think CA?

I need some sleep!

[christx30]

7. Happens to the best of us.

I just had a thought of the the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) choking on a bagel in the first episode and regenerating into Hugh Grant. I couldn't stop laughing for 10 minutes. I need sleep too.

[another_liberal]

9. Texas?

Jeez . . .

[Brigid]

2. Good that this stoppage is happening.

It is about time the workers in this state started fighting back.

[aggiesal]

8. I grew up in Hammond, . . .

I can tell you that it gets damn cold in Hammond,
especially when the wind comes blowing off Lake Michigan.

Good on these workers for not putting up with these
working conditions.

Good thing I now live in San Diego.