It all started at a village hall meeting in Elwood, Illinois. Elwood is both a rural village of 2500 people and a critical hub in the global economy. On the eve of World War II, Elwood was selected as the site for one of the largest ammunition plants in the country--the majority of TNT used by the Allies was produced in Elwood--due to its interior location, access to rail and highways, and access to water, electricity and a large pool of workers. The redevelopment of the ammunition plant--the Joliet Arsenal--in 1995 drew on these same traits, especially the access to rail, to create the largest inland port in North America. BNSF Railroad redeveloped Arsenal land into a massive rail intermodal, moving shipping containers off trains and onto semis. As the intermodal developed, warehouses for many Fortune 500 companies located nearby. These warehouses help distribute trillions of dollars worth of goods around the country.
It was at an Elwood Village Board meeting that Brandin McDonald, who had worked at the massive WalMart warehouse in Elwood, traveled from his home in nearby Joliet to describe his experience working in the warehouse. At this meeting, the village was debating whether to approve an additional 2200 more acres of warehouses as part of the proposed “Northpoint” development. Opposition to more warehouses at these meetings had focused on community quality--the tens of thousands of trucks that travel the area daily, the pollution caused by these trucks, municipal debt and TIF taxing issues--but no one had heard much from the workers, many of whom travel daily for work from the neighboring Joliet.
To the predominantly white village, Brandin described the working conditions at the warehouses. “My personal experience is that the warehouses have all these temps in them and they work you like a slave and underpay you. They also have sexual harassment, discrimination and they never give raises, benefits or permanent jobs even though you work hard.” It was a moving testimony never before heard at these many meetings. The residents of Elwood led by Just Say No To Northpoint and organizers from the Sierra Club would go on to defeat the proposed development but the work between the predominantly white and rural Elwood community and the urban, mostly people of color workers from Joliet had just begun.
Elwood and Joliet leaders would continue to meet and mutually support one another and would also educate the public on the problems of limitless development without regards to the environment, community, infrastructure and labor concerns. The solidarity would grow and the same leaders would host the Chicagoland People’s Climate March event to further draw attention to the need for environmental, community and worker justice for those living next to America’s largest inland port. This march would further collaborative efforts in the area and when it came time for Elwood residents to return solidarity to the workers who supported their fight for environmental and community justice, the environmentalists were there to support workers demands in Joliet to deny two more staffing agencies from coming into the community. Together, they won again, this time for the workers, who convinced the Joliet City Council that staffing agencies were central to the labor problem in the area. Significant, in the fact that 63% of workers in the warehouses in the area are not direct hires of the companies they make billions for, but are employed by outside employment agencies that generally do not have benefits, health insurance and pay poverty wages. While thought of as transitional employers, workers can spend years working at temp agencies at the same warehouse and not even get a directly hired, let alone receive benefits and a living wage.
While the collaboration between labor, community and environmental justice organizers has begun to change the narrative in Will County, much work lays ahead in challenging the push to continue developments that have left many in the community aggrieved. The lesson of Joliet and Elwood’s solidarity is that seeing past our own self interest and working in a principled way across communities is a way to win for both labor and environmental justice organizers.
Roberto Jesus Clack is the Associate Director of Warehouse Workers for Justice, a worker center dedicated to fighting for economic, racial and gender justice for the hundreds of thousands of warehouse workers in the Chicagoland area. He is also a native of Joliet.
Ann Baskerville is a conservation organizer with the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Photo by Daniel Peters Photography Members of the Illinois Peoples Climate Movement deliver a petition to Warren Buffett on the nationwide day of action for Climate, Jobs, and Justice on September 8, 2018. The petition called on Buffett to work towards lowering diesel pollution in the area near the BNSF Railroad Intermodal and to ensure all workers in the surrounding warehouse and distribution area are paid a living wage and have access to full-time, permanent jobs with benefits and union representation.