Workers At Walmart Warehouse Claim Wage Theft

From The Huffington Post:

A group of eight workers has accused Wisconsin-based Schneider Logistics, a Walmart contractor, and Reliable Staffing, an Illinois-based temp agency, of violating state and federal labor laws at the Elwood, Ill., warehouse where the workers load and unload trucks and containers carrying goods bound for Walmart stores in the Midwest.

Schneider is contracted to run what is effectively a Walmart distribution center. The warehouse inked its contract with Walmart back in 2006.

Reliable and other staffing agencies supply the workforce for Schneider and other warehouses like it in the Chicago area, and much of the staffing comes on a temporary rather than direct-hire basis. The suit could involve hundreds of warehouse employees if it is certified as class-action.

As In These Times first reported, the workers claim their employer reneged on the promise of a $10 hourly rate for their work, a “piece rate” for each of the items they schlepped and bonuses for “team lifts” on especially heavy goods. Robert Hines, who’s been working on and off in Chicagoland warehouses on a temp basis for years, said he wasn’t compensated for what was often grueling work.

This type of behavior is par for the course for WalMart and it's contractors.