Warehouse Worker Resource Center

Improving working conditions in the warehouse industry in Southern California

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Sign the Petition: No Retaliation at the Port!

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This week, on City of Los Angeles property, hundreds of workers who have faced wage theft, health and safety violations, are now facing mass retaliation for organizing.   This Friday, April 30, California Cartage is terminating all employees of staffing agency AMR/SSI- including dozens of workers who have actively and publicly spoken up for their rights, demanded better wages and working conditions, and gone on strike.  We don’t know who will be hired by the new staffing agency, and some workers who have worked there for years face job loss because they spoke up.

This is unacceptable, and we believe it is illegal.  And you can help.

Please sign our petition telling the Port of Los Angeles that this firing is unjust, and demanding that the City demand Cal Cartage retain all workers who are facing termination at this time.

We only have a few days to ensure that the Port of Los Angeles enforce the law and not allow California Cartage to make illegal terminations on its property!  Thank you for your support!

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Senator Connie Leyva Introduces Legislation on Indoor Heat

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California State Senator Connie Leyva has been a friend of warehouse workers from the beginning, when she was leader of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1428.  In 2011, she witnessed firsthand the conditions Walmart-contracted warehouse workers face in the Inland Empire, including the severe heat that has led to Cal/OSHA citing fIMG_1992acilities in Chino for not having a plan to address indoor heat.  Unfortunately, the industry has made every effort to claim they have no responsibility for these conditions.  Even rulings by the Cal/OSHA Appeals Board that indoor heat is a hazard have not brought the industry to take responsibility for the conditions their workers face.

Now, Senator Leyva has introduced SB 1167, a bill that will amend the Occupational Health and Safety Standards Board for its adoption a heat illness and injury prevention standard for all indoor employees at risk of heat illness.  The WWRC strives to make sure that the struggles of individual workers are magnified to benefit thousands, through policy and industry change.  Thanks to Senator Leyva for introducing this effort to support basic rights for warehouse workers.  We will spend the spring helping the legislature and governor understand the need for this kind of basic right.

See more at: http://sd20.senate.ca.gov/news/2016-02-18-senator-leyva-unveils-worker-heat-safety-act#sthash.zovZ0LV9.dpuf

Congressman Mark Takano Supports Eastvale Walmart Warehouse Workers

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In Eastvale, California, Olivet International warehouse workers, who move suitcases for Walmart, have been fighting for a safe workplace for over 2 years. Olivet now is trying to push out these workers and replace them with temp workers by cutting their hours, attacking workers’ families by having work schedules that change day to day and trying to limit their restroom access.

Workers are demanding that Olivet Stop the Retaliation and provide Good, Safe Jobs Now!

Thank you to our allies especially Congressman Mark Takano who has been a strong advocate to have these jobs be good jobs for our community.  Congressman Takano wrote a letter to Olivet demanding that they treat these workers with respect!

 

Indoor Heat Ruling will Help Warehouse Workers Stay Cool

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Four years ago, Domingo Blancas fell ill while working on a hot summer day in his warehouse, operated by National Distribution Centers, Inc. (aka NFI) in Chino, CA. He was hospitalized and had to have emergency surgery.  Cal/OSHA, which was already investigating the facility after a complaint from WWRC, cited NFI and the temp agency for refusing to have a plan to deal with indoor heat, a common problem in the many non-climate-controlled warehouses of Southern California.  This month, after a long legal fight sustained by Cal/OSHA, the WWRC, Worksafe and the Alexander Community Law Center, the California Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board upheld the citation, making a clear statement that warehouse employers must take the risk of indoor heat seriously.

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Today, warehouse workers at California Cartage in Wilmington face hot temperatures, indoors and out, through our extended California summer. The WWRC has been supporting California Cartage workers who filed a complaint with Cal/OSHA and have been educating Cal Cartage workers on their right to take breaks when the workplace is hot.   Unfortunately, warehouse workers need to fight and risk retaliation just to achieve such basic standards. WWRC will continue to work for safe warehouses and the right of workers to speak up without retaliation.

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Support Cal Cartage Warehouse Workers

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My name is Gregario Ceron.

I have a family and I have been working at California Cartage, a warehouse in Los Angeles, for 7 years as a forklift driver. We move goods such as televisions, tools, clothes, toys and beer for Amazon, Lowes, Wal-Mart, Miller, Sears and Kmart.

After so many years at the warehouse, I earn nearly minimum wage and still work through a temp agency. It’s a workplace where we do not know if we are going to work every day, where we do not receive benefits or sick days. Every month there is a struggle to see if I can pay the rent or have enough food for my family.

Gregorio_Family1Every day I feel the lack of respect when I cannot even call in sick because management will discipline me by not letting me go into work for a few days. We work in the sun and rain without any shade. It doesn’t matter how hard we work; management humiliates, pressures and threatens us that if we do not work more quickly, they will bring others to replace us.

That is why my co-workers and I have united to fight for a better future for our families by doing delegations, petitions, and filing a class action lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court in December 2014 in regards to millions of dollars in stolen wages from our paychecks over the last three years.

But we need your help. Please sign our petition to show that you support us and our families in our fight for better conditions at the Port!

Sign the petition today!

http://wwrc.nationbuilder.com/good_jobs_petition

 

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