Workers from across Northeastern Illinois unite to file suit against temporary staffing agency

After years of wage-theft and other violations, immigrant workers from across the Chicago metro region united to file a class action law suit against their present and former employer, Labor Solutions AKA Staff Right.

We ask Leone José Bicchieri, CWC Executive Director:

What violations did this staffing company commit? Workers allege that Labor Solutions committed wage theft by not paying overtime nor all the hours they worked. Moreover, the suit specifies numerous violations of the Illinois Temporary and Day Laborer Services Act, a law primarily written by CWC workers which regulates the temp staffing industry in Illinois.

How big is Labor Solutions and what's the significance of this suit? Labor Solutions provides thousands of temp light industrial and warehouse jobs throughout the Chicago and southern Wisconsin areas. This case is important because the workers are hired through all four of Labor Solutions' branch offices of spread across the large geographic region spanning from Waukegan to South Chicago.

How concerned should we be about the growth of temporary staffing agencies?  Workers from the CWC and throughout Chicago region are concerned about how the degree of exploitation Labor Solutions has committed and that these deplorable practices are spreading like cancer. One only needs to look at the example of Innerpac in Cicero, IL where many of members lost their jobs (many had worked there for 20 years or more) when Labor Solutions came in and converted those permanent jobs into temp ones.

We ask Ana Gomez, Chicago Coordinating Council member, about Labor Solutions:

We have come together because we are fed up with temp staffing agencies like Labor Solutions. They exploit us because they say, “you are temps and don't have any rights!”. I worked at Labor Solutions after losing long-time permanent job. Our suit sends a message to the factories where we work that they are bringing in agencies which cheat workers. The companies we are sent to think that we are only “temporary”, but we are not going to disappear.

We ask Juana Cuevas, Waukegan Coordinating Council member, about the suit:

The Labor Solutions office here in Waukegan should be worried because my co-workers and I already won a major class suit against Custom Staffing Partners. We basically ran Custom out of the state. They shut down their office in Waukegan and are only open in Wisconsin. Our message to Labor Solutions, Custom and the other agencies: We want you out of here so we can have stable  jobs with benefits and decent treatment.

CWC Member, Airsa Pineda, Denounces Sexual Abuse at National Restaurant Association Member, Burger King

"I do not want this man to do the same to other women nor for Burger King to retaliate against women who choose to complain about what happened."

On November 14, Airsa Pineda, filed sexual harassment charges against Heartland Illinois Food Corp., a major Burger King franchise owner. Airsa has not only spoken out against sexual abuse at her workplace, but she has joined together with other CWC members to organize a Women's Rights Committee as a permanent fixture in CWC. Members are sending a message that low-wage and contingent workers in the Chicago region are uniting to stop all forms of abuse against workers—and that sexual abuse specifically must be denounced and eradicated!

Airsa Pineda (middle) calls on women to denounce sexual harassment at a press conference in downtown Chicago. Alvar Ayala of Working Hands Legal Clinic (left), and CWC Organizer, Ana Bahena (right), stand in support. Click here for photostream.

The day after the march, CWC and allies protested the continued use of temp labor via Minute Men, a staffing agency. CWC believes the temps must be allowed to organize alongside other ATMI workers to unitr the entire workforce in their call for better wages & working conditions.