The mission of Chicago Community and Workers’ Rights (CCWR) is to organize educational activities and promote leadership in defense of workers’ rights.
http://ccwr.weebly.com (español)
*Community
Defense Conference:
*Leadership Development for Latino/a Immigrant Workers in Chicago*
Questions or more info: 773-653-3664
*Leadership Development for Latino/a Immigrant Workers in Chicago*
Questions or more info: 773-653-3664
History of ATU, a struggle of immigrant workers.
The beginning:
In August of last year a group of workers came to our organization, Chicago Community and Workers’ Rights, saying that the company they worked for, Winston Brands Inc., had been firing them in pairs each week. A human resources manager, Ms. Audenia Rojas, had conducted a series of interviews with workers forcing them to testify about their own immigration status. The interviews were intimidating. Ms. Rojas had looked workers directly in the eyes and said, "You know that these documents you provided the company are no good, right? You know we can ask ICE to come and pick you up?" At first, we thought this was how the company normally treated workers, but then they told us that Ms. Rojas had recently hired to clean the company of "illegals".
No too much time to organize:
There was no time for a traditional union to act. A union takes three to four months to gain the trust of workers and to begin the struggle to organize for better wages and better working conditions. Any union would do a series of evaluations before they would start organizing workers. This process could take months and the workers did not have that time. At CCWR we decided the best option for them was to self-organize. They knew better than anyone what was happening within the company. CCWR decided that we could help the workers to form a non-profit organization to serve as an association to defend their rights and improve their working conditions. The s right to form this sort of association is protected under the Title 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
The education time:
With regular meetings, every two weeks, the workers from Winston Brands showed that they were eager to defend their jobs, and demonstrated that they would not allow the company to do whatever it wanted to do. Attendance at meetings was always over 45 people and at each meeting new people approached the organizers.
At CCWR, we have developed a leadership curriculum on grassroots labor organizing and labor rights, which we offered to the workers at Winston Brands. We originally planned to teach the 16 hour workshop over eight weeks, but the leaders of the workers, elected at an assembly to represent them, were very eager to learn. They completed the course in six weeks and were ready to face the company. On September 4th, 2011 workers gave the company a letter with 80 signatures demanding to stop harassing workers and stop the layoffs. A group of 60 workers delivered the letter to the Human Resources office, whose employees were very surprised to see that many workers making a demand together. They were not expecting a coordinated group of workers to stop working and directly confront the people who were harassing them. As a result of this action, the company suspended the layoffs.
The facts:
Winston Brands is an internet sales company with millions of dollars of annual revenue. The company has grown from 20 employees 17 years ago to 150 workers today. It is now a large company with continuous production and packaging lines and expensive machinery and equipment. Wages are not higher than nine or ten dollars per hour and the vast majority of workers earn no more than $8.50 per hour. Experienced workers make fun of the new workers the company has hired to replace those who are going to be in laid off. Nearly all of them were called from the unemployment office and usually did not last longer than one or two days.
The fortnightly meetings continued with a regular attendance of 50 to 55 people. At one of the meetings workers decided to pay $20 for the membership in the new non-for-profit organization that had been already registered in the State of Illinois as the “United Workers Association” (Asociación de Trabajadores Unidos, ATU). The purpose of the organization is to seek the education and welfare of its members.
Second Collective Action:
Based on rumors that Winston Brands human resources was letting go the executive committee of ATU on December 16, 2011, the assembly decided to deliver another letter declaring their association to represent them. They requested that the company continue to provide the same working conditions and work schedule as in previous years. This mean, for example, the work week would be shortened to 32 hours during the low season, so that there would be no layoffs or suspensions from work. The company gave no response to this written request. By this time the HR person that the company had hired to "clean up the company," was fired and expelled from the company's property by security guards.
Everything remained calm throughout December and there were no more layoffs. However, on January 4, 2012 the company called two different meetings: one for persons that company chose to fire giving them a letter of dismissal, the other for workers that the company said it did not find anything wrong with them, of course all members of the executive committee of ATU were in the second group, by company decision.
The letter was full of lies. The company said they regularly and frequently made audits of I-9 forms. In fact, no audits had been made in 17 years. They said that recently had found technical errors in I-9 forms and they needed the assistance of workers to rectify these errors. Workers were asked to return the next day with the evidence to correct the I-9 forms. However, when the workers who had been dismissed were leaving that day, their company IDs and keys were collected by security officers. To be clear, the company made it impossible for workers to enter the company until they could provide the documentation the company demanded.
For workers and activists at CCWR, it was clear that the dismissal had occurred because workers had begun to organize.
We started a picket line against the company on January 5, a very cold day. The protests were a little disorganized at first. Eventually we met with police and they explained that there were rules about where we could protest and have picket lines. The next meeting was on Saturday and was very well attended. Even workers who were still working at the company attended. Several declared their solidarity with the dismissed workers and offered to briefly stand in the picket line or collect donations for the dismissed workers.
The second meeting took place after the first week of the strike. It was quite lively and lasted almost three hours. During the first two hours workers discussed the pros and cons of the demonstrations. They also discussed the tow incidents that had occurred in the picket line, one when the lawyer representing the workers had been forcefully forbidden from approaching the company office, and the second where a security guard took his pistol, and pointed to one of the picketers saying “poom”, tree others picketers approached and held the security guard that at this moment put back his pistol and began a discussion with the picketers. Police came and handcuff the tree picketers.
By the way, at the end of a tree-hour meeting, Fernando Huerta, a volunteer with CCWR, gave a talk about employment rights for workers that are looking for jobs with Temporary Employment Offices. We were sure that many of employees would be looking for temporary employment. Through the solidarity of Jesús and Marilú Vargas, who work for an Episcopal church “Nuestra Señora de las Américas,” in Chicago, we received enough donations from a food pantry to feed many of the families for a week. This food was distributed that same day.
On January 17, 2012 a letter was hand delivered to the company. The letter was signed by Rafael Garcia, who was elected by the assembly as president of the association of workers. The letter described how the association had been founded after workers had been dismissed and specified several labor violations that had been committed by the company. Among the laws that have been violated were the Warren Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act, the Illinois Human Rights Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The Warren Act specifies that a company cannot fire more than 50% of its production plant workers without first publicly announcing their intention to do so. The National Labor Relations Act protects the rights of workers to self-organize to improve their working conditions and to provide mutual aid or protection. The Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits employers from failing to pay workers. The Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act says that a company can not use the private information of its employees without their consent. This includes submitting their private information to E-verify. The Illinois Human Rights Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibit discrimination in the workplace.
The day of January 27, 2012 we visited the National Labor Relations Board office and filed charges against the company. Because there was no suitable public property closer, we are been forced to picket at a location a kilometer away. The same day we filed charges, we also requested permission to picket closer to the company. When the workers learned that the charges had already been placed, they cheered, applauded the decision and were reenergized to continue the struggle. In that same meeting, we learned that comrades who were still working within the company were putting together some money to give to the people on the picket line so that the protests could continue. Monetary cooperation was being collected from the workers and given to the partner in charge of the finances of the United Workers Association.
The struggle continues:
The beginning:
In August of last year a group of workers came to our organization, Chicago Community and Workers’ Rights, saying that the company they worked for, Winston Brands Inc., had been firing them in pairs each week. A human resources manager, Ms. Audenia Rojas, had conducted a series of interviews with workers forcing them to testify about their own immigration status. The interviews were intimidating. Ms. Rojas had looked workers directly in the eyes and said, "You know that these documents you provided the company are no good, right? You know we can ask ICE to come and pick you up?" At first, we thought this was how the company normally treated workers, but then they told us that Ms. Rojas had recently hired to clean the company of "illegals".
No too much time to organize:
There was no time for a traditional union to act. A union takes three to four months to gain the trust of workers and to begin the struggle to organize for better wages and better working conditions. Any union would do a series of evaluations before they would start organizing workers. This process could take months and the workers did not have that time. At CCWR we decided the best option for them was to self-organize. They knew better than anyone what was happening within the company. CCWR decided that we could help the workers to form a non-profit organization to serve as an association to defend their rights and improve their working conditions. The s right to form this sort of association is protected under the Title 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
The education time:
With regular meetings, every two weeks, the workers from Winston Brands showed that they were eager to defend their jobs, and demonstrated that they would not allow the company to do whatever it wanted to do. Attendance at meetings was always over 45 people and at each meeting new people approached the organizers.
At CCWR, we have developed a leadership curriculum on grassroots labor organizing and labor rights, which we offered to the workers at Winston Brands. We originally planned to teach the 16 hour workshop over eight weeks, but the leaders of the workers, elected at an assembly to represent them, were very eager to learn. They completed the course in six weeks and were ready to face the company. On September 4th, 2011 workers gave the company a letter with 80 signatures demanding to stop harassing workers and stop the layoffs. A group of 60 workers delivered the letter to the Human Resources office, whose employees were very surprised to see that many workers making a demand together. They were not expecting a coordinated group of workers to stop working and directly confront the people who were harassing them. As a result of this action, the company suspended the layoffs.
The facts:
Winston Brands is an internet sales company with millions of dollars of annual revenue. The company has grown from 20 employees 17 years ago to 150 workers today. It is now a large company with continuous production and packaging lines and expensive machinery and equipment. Wages are not higher than nine or ten dollars per hour and the vast majority of workers earn no more than $8.50 per hour. Experienced workers make fun of the new workers the company has hired to replace those who are going to be in laid off. Nearly all of them were called from the unemployment office and usually did not last longer than one or two days.
The fortnightly meetings continued with a regular attendance of 50 to 55 people. At one of the meetings workers decided to pay $20 for the membership in the new non-for-profit organization that had been already registered in the State of Illinois as the “United Workers Association” (Asociación de Trabajadores Unidos, ATU). The purpose of the organization is to seek the education and welfare of its members.
Second Collective Action:
Based on rumors that Winston Brands human resources was letting go the executive committee of ATU on December 16, 2011, the assembly decided to deliver another letter declaring their association to represent them. They requested that the company continue to provide the same working conditions and work schedule as in previous years. This mean, for example, the work week would be shortened to 32 hours during the low season, so that there would be no layoffs or suspensions from work. The company gave no response to this written request. By this time the HR person that the company had hired to "clean up the company," was fired and expelled from the company's property by security guards.
Everything remained calm throughout December and there were no more layoffs. However, on January 4, 2012 the company called two different meetings: one for persons that company chose to fire giving them a letter of dismissal, the other for workers that the company said it did not find anything wrong with them, of course all members of the executive committee of ATU were in the second group, by company decision.
The letter was full of lies. The company said they regularly and frequently made audits of I-9 forms. In fact, no audits had been made in 17 years. They said that recently had found technical errors in I-9 forms and they needed the assistance of workers to rectify these errors. Workers were asked to return the next day with the evidence to correct the I-9 forms. However, when the workers who had been dismissed were leaving that day, their company IDs and keys were collected by security officers. To be clear, the company made it impossible for workers to enter the company until they could provide the documentation the company demanded.
For workers and activists at CCWR, it was clear that the dismissal had occurred because workers had begun to organize.
We started a picket line against the company on January 5, a very cold day. The protests were a little disorganized at first. Eventually we met with police and they explained that there were rules about where we could protest and have picket lines. The next meeting was on Saturday and was very well attended. Even workers who were still working at the company attended. Several declared their solidarity with the dismissed workers and offered to briefly stand in the picket line or collect donations for the dismissed workers.
The second meeting took place after the first week of the strike. It was quite lively and lasted almost three hours. During the first two hours workers discussed the pros and cons of the demonstrations. They also discussed the tow incidents that had occurred in the picket line, one when the lawyer representing the workers had been forcefully forbidden from approaching the company office, and the second where a security guard took his pistol, and pointed to one of the picketers saying “poom”, tree others picketers approached and held the security guard that at this moment put back his pistol and began a discussion with the picketers. Police came and handcuff the tree picketers.
By the way, at the end of a tree-hour meeting, Fernando Huerta, a volunteer with CCWR, gave a talk about employment rights for workers that are looking for jobs with Temporary Employment Offices. We were sure that many of employees would be looking for temporary employment. Through the solidarity of Jesús and Marilú Vargas, who work for an Episcopal church “Nuestra Señora de las Américas,” in Chicago, we received enough donations from a food pantry to feed many of the families for a week. This food was distributed that same day.
On January 17, 2012 a letter was hand delivered to the company. The letter was signed by Rafael Garcia, who was elected by the assembly as president of the association of workers. The letter described how the association had been founded after workers had been dismissed and specified several labor violations that had been committed by the company. Among the laws that have been violated were the Warren Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act, the Illinois Human Rights Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The Warren Act specifies that a company cannot fire more than 50% of its production plant workers without first publicly announcing their intention to do so. The National Labor Relations Act protects the rights of workers to self-organize to improve their working conditions and to provide mutual aid or protection. The Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits employers from failing to pay workers. The Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act says that a company can not use the private information of its employees without their consent. This includes submitting their private information to E-verify. The Illinois Human Rights Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibit discrimination in the workplace.
The day of January 27, 2012 we visited the National Labor Relations Board office and filed charges against the company. Because there was no suitable public property closer, we are been forced to picket at a location a kilometer away. The same day we filed charges, we also requested permission to picket closer to the company. When the workers learned that the charges had already been placed, they cheered, applauded the decision and were reenergized to continue the struggle. In that same meeting, we learned that comrades who were still working within the company were putting together some money to give to the people on the picket line so that the protests could continue. Monetary cooperation was being collected from the workers and given to the partner in charge of the finances of the United Workers Association.
The struggle continues:
CHICAGO COMMUNITY AND WORKERS’ RIGHTS
3200 S. Kedzie, Chicago IL, 60623
Martin Unzueta 773-653-3664
Pablo Hernandez 773-440-7773
Alberto Anzo 773-412-2613
Virgilio Hernández 773-426-7042
Gildardo Mercado 773-640-6737
Alex Linares 773-879-8324
3200 S. Kedzie, Chicago IL, 60623
Martin Unzueta 773-653-3664
Pablo Hernandez 773-440-7773
Alberto Anzo 773-412-2613
Virgilio Hernández 773-426-7042
Gildardo Mercado 773-640-6737
Alex Linares 773-879-8324
