Warehouse Workers for Justice, also known as the Warehouse Workers Justice Center, is a workers’ center that conducts labor organizing campaigns among warehouse workers in the Chicago area. The group opposes business practices by companies such as Walmart and Home Depot, which outsource warehousing to third-party companies that use temporary employees. The organization conducts protests, strikes, petitions, and lawsuits to organize warehouse employees in support of higher wages and challenges companies on behalf of employees to recover withheld wages and implement enhanced workplace safety standards. ^{1 2}

The organization also operates a project called the Workers Outreach Program, which is funded by the Woods Fund of Chicago. ³

Background

Warehouse Workers for Justice was founded in 2008 as an attempt to conduct labor organizing in the logistics and distribution industry in Illinois. The organization opposes the use of third-party warehousing and distribution companies by major retailers, namely Walmart, and has heavily criticized the use of third-party subcontractors to fulfill various areas of a company’s supply chain, citing work by David Weil, former head of the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division in the Obama administration, titled “The Fissured Workplace” that alleges that “this shift has resulted in increased theft of wages, rising numbers of workplace accidents and widening income inequality.” ⁴

The organization operates similarly to a labor union, employing many of the same tactics as unions such as strikes and protests, but does not collectively bargain on behalf of employees and typically works to organize workers at non-unionized warehouses. The advocacy it conducts is typically centered at raising pay for warehouse workers to at least $15 per hour, enacting paid sick leave and holidays, and improving safety conditions, often filing complaints with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). ^{5 6}  

Activities

Since its founding in 2008, Warehouse Workers for Justice has taken legal action which it claims to have resulted in recovering $2 million in missing wages including for “missing hours, short checks, illegal paycheck deductions and fees, unpaid show-up pay, payroll card abuses, unpaid overtime, [and] payroll card abuses.” The group also claims credit for over $10 million in wage increases at “key facilities in the Chicago distribution hub.” The group states that average warehouse wages were $9/hour when the organization was founded. ⁷

WWJ has also advocated for the enactment of paid sick leave policies at warehouses, advocates for reinstating fired employees, and “works closely with OSHA officials to ensure legal compliance in area warehouses.” ⁸

WWJ also claims credit for eliminating the “piece-rate system” in the largest warehouses in the Chicago area, which involved “paying a team of two workers a set amount for unloading a shipping container.” WWJ conducted “legal tactics and organizing” to end the practice. ⁹

Worker Outreach Program

Warehouse Workers for Justice also operates a project called the Workers Outreach Program, which is funded by the Woods Fund Chicago. The program provides free resources to warehouse workers in Cook County and Will County in Illinois regarding unpaid wages, workplace safety and discrimination, driver’s license reinstatement and offense expungement, and public health. The program also operates a hotline to connect workers with organizers. ¹⁰

1. “Win.” Warehouse Workers for Justice. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://www.ww4j.org/win.html
2. “Who We Are.” Warehouse Workers for Justice. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://www.ww4j.org/whoweare.html
3. “Home.” WWJ Worker Outreach Program. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://wwjworkeroutreach.org/
4. “Industry.” Warehouse Workers for Justice. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://www.ww4j.org/industry.html
5. “Win.” Warehouse Workers for Justice. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://www.ww4j.org/win.html
6. “Organize.” WWJ Worker Outreach Program. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://www.ww4j.org/organize.html
7. “Win.” Warehouse Workers for Justice. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://www.ww4j.org/win.html
8. “Win.” Warehouse Workers for Justice. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://www.ww4j.org/win.html
9. “Win.” Warehouse Workers for Justice. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://www.ww4j.org/win.html
10. “Home.” WWJ Worker Outreach Program. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://wwjworkeroutreach.org/