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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 16 April 25, 2016
One-day strike opposes job cuts at Calif. warehouse
BY DENNIS RICHTER
AND BERNIE SENTER
LOS ANGELES — Some 40 warehouse workers organized a one-day strike at
California Cartage Co. April 6 after the company informed them that
their jobs will end April 30. The company notified the more than 200
temporary workers it hires through one staffing agency that they must
reapply with a new agency. Many of them have worked at the distribution
warehouse for years and know from experience the bosses will try to weed
out those they consider troublemakers.
Workers at California Cartage load and unload trucks and containers,
many from China, full of clothes, furniture, appliances and electronics
for retail giants like Amazon, Kmart, Sears and Lowe’s.
The warehouse workers had struck twice in the last seven months, each
time for three days, demanding work schedules based on seniority, not
manager preference. The strike last September also protested unpaid
wages, management retaliation against workers involved in organizing
efforts, and dangerous conditions, including lack of breaks and water
while working inside containers that are like ovens in the summer.
Workers and supporters held informational picket lines in February and
March demanding safety shoes, paid sick days and job placement by
seniority.
Through these actions, organized by the Warehouse Worker Resource Center
and backed by the Teamsters union, workers have begun to score small
victories, such as company-provided safety shoes and have won confidence
to fight for safer conditions.
“The [staffing] agency is like a tumor,” striker John Cartwright told
the Militant on the picket line. “We’ve got to cut them out so we can
deal with the company.”
Some 30 workers began the action marching half a mile along the Pacific
Coast Highway to the warehouse at the Port of Los Angeles, where they
gave the company and the agency notice they were striking for the day.
A picket line in front of the truck entrance swelled to over 50 people.
“I’m out here because so many other places are like this,” said Marvin
Quinonez, 26, one of a handful of workers joining for the first time.
“I’m proud to see people from our community and neighborhood standing
up. Unless we speak out, nobody is going to do anything about it.”
Workers are required to physically report to the staffing agency located
at the warehouse every workday and can be sent home without pay if there
is no work.
“What do we want? Direct hires! When do we want it? Now!” chanted
workers who kept the picket line up all day, stopping trucks for a few
minutes before letting them enter the facility. Some 20
Teamster-organized port truckers joined the picket line in the
afternoon. Pickets distributed informational leaflets on their fight to
hundreds of workers entering and leaving the warehouse.
“We are on strike because the company keeps violating our rights and
breaking the law,” Victor Gonzales, a longtime warehouse worker facing
termination, told the Warehouse Worker Resource Center newsletter.
“Cal Cartage is trying to remove us. I’ve been here for seven years
through a temp agency, but we need to create permanent jobs for the
workers in this warehouse,” he said. “The retaliation we are
experiencing has been ongoing. This strike will last one day, but our
fight will go on, until we have decent jobs, until we win.”
Toward the end of the day, the workers marched into the company and
staffing offices to notify bosses the strike was ending and they were
returning to work the next day. At a gathering afterwards they set a
time to meet the next morning to return to work together and make sure
everyone got jobs.
The following day, when California Cartage refused to return three of
the strikers to work, immediate picketing was initiated by the resource
center, the Teamsters port division and the three workers. Inside,
workers on their lunch break organized a delegation of 15 to confront
the head of the staffing agency. By afternoon the three were put to work.
Neither Cal Cartage nor the temporary agency responded to the Militant’s
request for comment on the strike.
“We turned the tables on them,” Quinonez said. “This time instead of
them bullying us, we bullied them and got our jobs back.”
At their weekly Friday meeting, the workers decided to circulate a
petition among the workforce demanding they be hired directly by
California Cartage or be guaranteed employment through the new staffing
agency.
Related articles:
Verizon workers strike against concession demands
Solidarity with Verizon strikers!
Australia gov’t presses attack on construction union rights
On the Picket Line
Union: Amtrak rail worker deaths ‘totally unacceptable’
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