Mark Gruenberg at People’s World reports that four years ago, Miguel Reyes, one of the 21 Workers at SureBuilt, Incorporated, a Construction Parts Factory located in the Chicago Suburb of Melrose Park, Illinois, got badly hurt on the job. A year later, Reyes got hurt again. Both times, the company did virtually nothing. It’s injuries like Reyes’s that led the SureBuilt Workers to seek help from the Arise Chicago Workers’ Center, which specializes in helping Spanish-speaking Workers, and it linked them up with International Union of Painters & Allied Trades (IUPAT) District 14. SureBuilt began paying a Union-Buster hundreds of dollars a day to “persuade” the Workers not to Unionize, there will be a Union Recognition Election at the plant on July 23rd. To publicize it and draw more public support, Reyes and other Workers held a final sun-splashed outdoor rally and press conference on July 21st to tell their stories and why they want a Union. It’s a familiar tale for exploited Workers nationwide, whether they’re in big cities such as metropolitan Chicago or toiling in a factory or in rural areas, such as Nebraska and Texas, working in farm fields or food plants. Employers use every trick in the book they can to low-ball the Workers, including exploiting their limited English wherever that is possible. Pay is low, benefits even lower, and Workers who speak up for themselves are intimidated or fired. Under the current GOP Trump regime, the bosses may even call ICE on them, with its agents nabbing them and carting them off to prison camps here or abroad. That hasn’t happened at the Surebuilt Plant in Melrose Park - yet. Lots of injuries have, however, Workers told reporters and supportive politicians. SureBuilt also operates 10 other plants nationwide. 

To Continue Reading This Labor News Story, Go To: Hazardous work prompts July 23 union vote at Illinois plant – People's World

Graphic Courtesy Of People’s World.