A little over a year ago we held a seminar in the Inland Empire region in southern California, to discuss the Warehouse Workers for Justice expanding organizing tactics in that area. It was only a matter of time before the WWJ expanded their focus to other transportation hubs, and it is now Chicago’s turn to see the pressure ratcheted up.
On mid-October, the group formed an organizing committee in Chicago and begun to turn up the heat on the local warehouses. Their typical tactics include lawsuits, media releases, public pressure and in-plant action, and with the growing sophistication of the use of social media, along with the swell of Occupy Wall Street activity spilling over, it is likely that this new focused effort will be more energetic than its southern California predecessor.
Because many of the retailers that own the warehouses hire outside contractors to run them, and those contractors staff heavily with a temporary workforce, normal union organizing is difficult. This generally leads the unions to target the retailers directly, much like the Janitors for Justice organizing campaigns against building owners to win rights for janitors. If you are a retailer with a logistics hub in Chicago, keep your ear to the ground!
