Yesterday morning, around 40 people gathered at a car wash in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood to stand in solidarity with Luis Perez on the National Day of Action Against Wage Theft. Perez's bosses had underpaid him by at least $4,300 during the time he worked there, according to Adam Kader, the director of Arise Chicago, a workers' center that arranged the protest. "The real problem, I think, was that wages were treated as something ... that did not have to be transparent," Kader said. Time-and-a-half records weren't kept, he often worked seven days a week, a violation of state law, tips weren't distributed properly, and Perez ended up making as little as $3 per hour on some shifts.
Wage theft is a ubiquitous problem in Cook County. Low-wage workers are most at risk. Twenty-six percent of workers said they were paid less than the minimum wage on their jobs, according to a groundbreaking study (PDF) released this past spring. Two-thirds of workers reported, like Perez, not getting overtime when they worked more than 40 hours a week and nearly half didn't even get a pay stub. In all, low-wage workers lose more than $7.3 million in wages each week due to employment and labor law violations. It's a stunning number.
That's where groups like Arise Chicago and Interfaith Worker Justice can help. Kader reported that the protesters yesterday arranged a meeting with the car wash's owner, who eventually offered $1,000 to settle the case, and Perez decided to accept the amount. "I’m very content about how today’s action went," he said in a statement. "Thank you to all of my supporters who helped me recover the wages that were owed to me. I’m very grateful for all of the companions who came out today. I hope that other workers will do the same as I -- to not be intimidated by the boss; to not remain silent."
Employees at a giant Walmart supply warehouse in rural Will County
returned to work Saturday after staging a 21-day strike in response to
alleged employer retaliation by a Walmart subcontractor.
Worker-rights advocates are calling on Chicago car wash owners to
clean up their act when it comes to providing a fair wage to their
workers, following the findings of a University of Illinois study that
found incidents involving wage theft and hazardous working conditions
appear to be a systemic problem within the industry throughout the
area.
A bridal shop worker, who claims she was exploited then fired by her former employer, was joined by a group of labor-rights activists in a picket line outside of the Little Village Discount Mall on the city’s West Side Saturday afternoon.
The alleged wage theft and mass firings of Wal-Mart warehouse contractors sparked a 100-strong demonstration by Chicago community groups at a Walmart Express in the West Loop on Thursday.
Arise Chicago led a picket line at the Little Village Car Wash
Tuesday afternoon demanding the return of stolen wages to former
employees. For eleven years, Carlos Ruiz worked at the car wash earning
below state and federal minimum wage standards. Ruiz and Arise Chicago
started working together when the organization first learned of his
salary this past summer.
Two new laws that labor unions and workers' rights groups fought
valiantly to pass in the statehouse this past year went into effect this
week. The first 
Back in April, we 