[Workers were locked out Thursday night and had to wait for hours
to get their personal belongings. On Friday, they were let in — but
an armed security guard was there.] [[link removed]]

EL MILAGRO EMPLOYEES LOCKED OUT OF FACTORY DURING WALKOUT WHILE
PROTESTING PAY, WORKING CONDITIONS  
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Francesca Mathewes
September 24, 2021
Block Club Chicago
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_ Workers were locked out Thursday night and had to wait for hours to
get their personal belongings. On Friday, they were let in — but an
armed security guard was there. _

Two workers from the 31st Street El Milagro Factory hold up a giant
burrito and a giant tortilla with a sign that reads "Mistreatment
Tortillas" at the walkout on 26th Street., Francesca Mathewes/Block
Club Chicago

 

LITTLE VILLAGE — An employee-led work stoppage at the El Milagro
tortilla factory turned into a lockout Thursday night.

The employees at El Milagro tortilla factory partnered with Arise
Chicago to stage a two-hour walkout at 2140 S. Western Ave. as they
call for safer working conditions and higher wages. But they were
locked out with their belongings inside, and they were only allowed to
collect their personal items after hours of negotiations with the
factory’s leaders.

Workers were allowed back in Friday morning to work, but an armed
security guard was present.

The walkout had been planned beforehand. Workers informed management
they would leave the factory at 5 p.m. Thursday and return after two
hours. They released a letter prior to the march, asking for
management to meet with employees to talk about working conditions and
wages by Wednesday.

The workers marched down 26th Street, ending at the Little Village
Discount Mall. Organizers estimated 40-50 El Milagro employees and
supporters attended.

But when the workers tried to return to their shifts, they were locked
out of the factory — with many personal items, including cary keys,
wallets and medicine, locked inside.

A notice taped to the door instructed workers to report to Human
Resources on Friday.

Leaders from Arise Chicago, which is helping the workers organize,
were present. They told workers what was happening was illegal and
began contacting the factory’s management.

A sign posted by management at the El Milagro factory reads, “SECOND
SHIFT CLOSED FOR TODAY (9/23/21). PLEASE REPORT TO HUMAN RESOURCES
BEFORE RETURNING TO WORK (9/24/21). – THANK
YOU.” CREDIT: Francesca Mathewes/Block Club Chicago

“We’re going to report this to the National Labor Relations
Board,” Jorge Mújica, the strategic campaigns organizer for Arise,
said while gathering workers at the entrance of the factory.

It appeared there was one supervisor inside, but he refused to speak
with organizers. 

Laura Garza, Arise’s worker center director, contacted Phil
Crookman, plant manager of the 21st Place and Western location,
multiple times. But Garza said Crookman refused to come to the factory
and allow workers inside.

Crookman declined to comment to Block Club Chicago. 

Irma Gonzales, who has worked for El Milagro for more than five years,
is pregnant and had medication she needed inside the factory.

“I’m really bothered. I’m really upset,” Gonzales said in
Spanish. “We submitted a letter saying exactly what we’re doing,
which we have a right to do. We said we’d be taking a two-hour
stoppage.

“We said we would be returning to work and we got back in time, but
they’ve locked the door on us. I’m really upset.” 

Garza called the Police Department to the factory to report the
lockout. Two officers arrived and tried to negotiate with a supervisor
inside, eventually calling in three more officers. 

After negotiations between organizers, police and management, the
supervisor allowed officers to escort employees one by one to get
their personal items. 

Employees and organizers waited outside the factory parking lot for
the 10 p.m. cleaning shift to arrive to inform them of the lockout.
Those workers then joined the walkout, organizers said. 

“We need a change in general in our working conditions,” Pedro
Manzanares, who works at another El Milagro factory, said in Spanish.
Manzanares joined the 21st Place workers outside that factory in
support. 

Manzanares said that during the summer, temperatures in the factories
were dangerously high.

“One of the principle issues is the heat: We work in excess heat in
the production area,” he said. 

Pay raises are one of the other major issues that workers and
organizers are raising with the tortilla company. 

Mújica said El Milagro started advertising wages of $16 per hour for
new hires earlier this summer, while workers who have been with the
company for years are still making $15.40. Workers at the 36th Street
location signed a letter demanding a pay raise for more senior
employees, which was met by management.

But when workers at the 21st and 26th Street locations asked for the
same, they were denied, Mújica said.

“Management then hired a consultant; we call them union busters,”
Mújica said. “He told workers that there would be
‘consequences’” for organizing and people who walk out will be
replaced.

Arise Chicago started working with employees at El Milagro during the
pandemic, when the company closed its location at 2919 S. Western Ave.
in April 2020 after a worker died of COVID-19. By September 2020, more
than 80 workers
[[link removed]] had
tested positive for COVID-19. 

Mújica said that the group’s partnership with the workers at El
Milagro is now in the “middle stages” of organizing, and they will
have more information after Wednesday’s management meeting deadline
passes. 

“We know a lot of people were scared to come out and still did, and
we know this is going to keep growing,” Manzanares said.

Manzanares said that if management does not meet the Wednesday
deadline, workers will take further action. 

#ElMilagro
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worker Martin “I was able to go I to work today. 1st shift workers
wanted to walk out to support the locked out 2nd shift. We were
greeted by a security officer with a gun intimidating us”
#ElMilagroElMaltraro
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pic.twitter.com/ZyXh7JmEWU [[link removed]]

— Arise Chicago (@AriseChicago) September 24, 2021
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