Fired Walmart Warehouse Workers Win $50,000 in Back Pay
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/16036/fired_walmart_warehouse_workers_win_back_pay/
Monday Dec 23, 2013 3:34 pm By Jeff Schuhrke
Mike Compton, one of nine workers fired after protesting alleged wage theft at Walmart's Elwood, Ill., warehouse, won back pay and vindication this week. (Warehouse Workers for Justice Facebook)
Workers in Walmarts vast fulfillment network who say they have been treated illegally at work have gotten some good news for the holidays. Last Monday, just days after a Walmart contractor agreed to pay out $4.7 million for alleged wage theft to more than 500 warehouse workers in southern California, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) secured a settlement over illegal retaliation against employees at the retail giant's distribution center in Elwood, Ill.
Nine workers affiliated with Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ)a Joliet, Ill.-based workers center backed by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)who alleged they were fired for workplace organizing will receive a combined total of $52,381 in back pay, according to WWJ.
It came at a good time, says Mike Compton, one of the fired workers. All nine of us needed it. Some of us were getting in pretty tight spots.
Both the Illinois settlement and the California agreement are with the same Walmart contractor: Schneider Logistics, which operates many of the retailers warehouses around the country. (In the Illinois case, the NLRB also implicated two staffing agencies formerly used by Schneider at the Elwood distribution center: Roadlink Workforce Solutions and Skyward Employment Services.)
FULL story at link.