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El Milagro production workers and supporters rally outside an El Milagro store in Little Village during a temporary walk-out to protest working conditions Thursday Sept. 23 2021, in Chicago.
While several workers have stopped organizing to demand reforms at the El Milagro tortilla factory in Chicago, Alfredo Benedetti said he continues to push for change.
Benedetti, part of the tortilla factory’s quality control team for nearly four years, is one of six members of the organizing committee pressuring the company to meet the demands of workers, mainly Latino immigrants, after alleging low wages and unsafe working conditions last september.
“The last few months have been stressful, mainly because of the initial attitude that the company showed against us, but it has also been rewarding because although we have not achieved everything we wanted, we have had some victories,” said Benedetti.
Workers at the El Milagro tortilla factory announced a list of wage and job improvements this week after months of organizing since late summer.
Employees are no longer required to work seven days in a row and have seen workplace improvements such as anti-sexual harassment training for managers and air conditioning in dining rooms, according to a news release from Arise Chicago, a nonprofit organization. non-profit organization that advocates for workers’ rights. El Milagro also ended a practice that required a doctor’s note to take a sick day and began paying for unused sick days, the group said.
Last year, El Milagro employees saw a round of raises ranging from $1 to $3 an hour followed by a second raise of 36 cents overall in December, said Shelly Ruzicka, director of communications and development for Arise Chicago. Before the raises, Ruzicka said, workers made between $15 and $17 an hour, with few reaching the top end. Employees now start at $16.50 an hour, with most others earning between $17 and $20 an hour. Arise Chicago estimates that the raises impacted 450 workers.
The company disputed that wage increases in recent months were the result of worker activism, saying the increases were “not due to Arise or any other outside source.” El Milagro offered competitive salaries and benefits to its employees, said Alejandra Morán, a spokeswoman for El Milagro in Chicago.
The company is listening to its employees and their demands to ensure better working conditions and is urging its workers to be patient as more changes are planned, Moran said.
“El Milagro will continue to listen and engage in positive and productive conversations with all employees as part of an inclusive and strategic planning process. However, we will no longer stand idly by when they are bullied and attacked by external agitators,” the company said in a statement.
Despite the improvements, Benedetti said he is disappointed that company leaders “have not made an effort” to meet with the committee since last summer and employees requested the meeting again in his latest letter to El bosses. Miracle.
In a letter dated March 21 addressed to the company’s president, Raulinda Sierra, and to the secretary, Jesús López, the workers allege that the company did not fulfill a verbal commitment to offer Sundays off. They also say that continual increases in the speed of work machines create “dangerous and unsustainable conditions” and waste.
Arise Chicago also raised questions about scheduling, saying third-shift workers at the company’s 31st St. location are consistently sent home early in a possible violation of Chicago’s Fair Workweek Ordinance, which requires some companies in certain industries provide predictable work schedules and compensation for changes to those schedules.
Moran said that “there are several conversations on the table” about the demands of the workers and the changes, including the possibility of closing the factories on Sunday, are “a work process.”
“As part of continuous operational improvements, our managers continue to receive training and we are adopting new methodologies and approaches to ensure the success of the company,” says the statement from El Milagro.
Ruzicka said workplace improvements began in late August and early September, with others rolling out mostly through the end of the year.
In the past, employees at El Milagro said they had experienced low wages, unsafe working conditions and sexual harassment. After a brief strike in September, the workers were kicked out of the facility, a practice that Arise alleged at the time was illegal. Workers and Arise have filed two complaints with the National Labor Relations Board against El Milagro.
Workers have also filed complaints with the Chicago Bureau of Labor Standards and the Illinois Department of Labor. Representatives from the NLRB and IDOL said those complaints remained open.
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