There’s a lot of union organizing and mobilizing going on in the news.
In the Chicago area, it’s reported to be happening with nurses, graduate teaching assistants, baristas, retail workers and museum staff. Amazon workers have organized independently around key issues. Elsewhere in the U.S., the Teamsters union has gained a foothold in Amazon warehouses and with a fresh UPS contract to show off, it would like a bigger piece of Amazon.
Then there’s El Milagro in Chicago, which tells a different story about unions, one that many in the labor movement don’t like to talk about.
For around two years, workers at the tortilla manufacturer have waged a brave campaign for higher wages and better treatment. With help from the advocacy group Arise Chicago, they have had news conferences and briefly walked off the production lines to make their case. They also hauled the company before the National Labor Relations Board. And they have cited victories, including a wage increase, an end to illegal seven-day workweeks and other improvements.
But it has all happened without the discernible involvement of a labor union.
Earlier this month, employees cheered El Milagro’s agreement to settle an NLRB case alleging it threatened and harassed workers for speaking up. The company pledged to advise workers of their rights and not to interfere with such “concerted activity.”
Through spokespersons, El Milagro has denied breaking laws and said higher wages and other changes have resulted from its own worker outreach, not the influence of Arise Chicago, which it has called “outside agitators.” Last week, a spokesperson said the company is now neutral about union membership.
The El Milagro crews remain unorganized, without the security of a union contract. Ask around about this, and it can be hard to get people in the labor movement to talk. Few want to discuss potential organizing targets or the business of other locals.
Robert Bruno, labor professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said history may weigh heavily here. He said unions traditionally have trouble making inroads when the workforce has many undocumented workers. They are protected under labor law but can be vulnerable to employer threats, he said.
Organizers here remember Rudy Lozano, an activist in political and labor causes who tried to organize the former Tortilleria Del Rey. In 1983, Lozano was murdered in his home by a reputed gang member. Investigators produced no evidence linking the crime to his activism, but many still wonder.
Twenty years ago, a union successfully organized at Azteca Foods in Chicago but could never get a contract.
Bruno said it’s an open question whether most workers at El Milagro want a union. High turnover in some places makes that hard to attain.
In addition, falling membership has forced locals to slash budgets for organizing. “There has not been a pedal-to-the-metal approach to organizing,” despite success at places like Starbucks, Bruno said.
El Milagro would seem a worthy target for a union drive. It has about 450 employees and has been in business for decades. But one union leader, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive issues, said organizers may see it as a low-margin business with lots of competition.
“There’s just not a successful model of organizing tortilla factories in Chicago. … Most unions, if they’re going to put resources into organizing, they’ll look for places with numbers [of workers] and with some expectation that it’s a stable business,” they said.
The situation is different from the movement at coffee shops or universities, experts said, where people are organizing themselves and tapping into a union for help.
“It’s a new generation,” the union leader said. “Most people, if they’ve entered the workforce since 2001, have come into declining economic fortunes. They realize government can’t help them. They have to self-help.”
El Milagro workers in the past have said they are undecided about union affiliation. Arise Chicago previously said more than 100 workers have signed petitions complaining about the company, but if that’s a proxy for the people willing to go public and sign union cards, it’s not enough.
The Rev. C.J. Hawking, executive director of Arise Chicago, declined last week to discuss unions in the El Milagro campaign.
For all the organizing wins in some places, unions still face a tough road. Membership is growing, according to the most recent government data but not as fast as nonunion jobs.
Also, organizing by itself isn’t the answer. The point is to get people contracts that improve their lives. It’s a separate game, one that Starbucks workers have discovered. They aligned with an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union in more than 300 stores across the country but now are trying to negotiate contracts for each one. It threatens to devour union money and worker patience.
At El Milagro, it’ll take a contract backed with solidarity to make workers’ progress permanent.
El Milagro workers walk a picket line in 2021.
Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
