‘Toxic’ Laundry, Melting Aprons: Mauser Strike Hits Two Months

Many employees at Chicago’s Mauser Packaging Solutions dread laundry day, and not for the usual reasons. The workers, who recondition steel drums used in the transport of materials like acetone, ammonia, and paint, say they have inconsistent access to uniforms and protective equipment.

“The fear of a lot of the workers is that they don’t have a uniform and have to wash their clothes, and that they have to mix it with their children’s or wife’s clothes, and they don’t know what the impact will be,” said Arturo Landa, a shop steward at Mauser and member of the bargaining committee.

Their contract expired April 30. Since June 9, 160 Mauser employees, members of Teamsters Local 705, have been on an unfair labor practice strike after Mauser illegally surveilled union members who were speaking with their business agent during a break, the union said.

“There’s been at least three other ULPs with multiple allegations since the start of the strike as well,” said Nicolas Coronado, the union's chief negotiator. These include an incident where the company allegedly sent mass text messages to members which referenced the closure of another Mauser facility, “which we see as directly trying to coerce and harass,” Coronado said.

Workers are calling for consistent access to uniforms and safety equipment, a raise, and immigration provisions in the contract. Fellow Teamsters are honoring the picket at Mauser locations in California and Minneapolis: while workers there are not on strike, they are not reporting to work, Packaging Dive reported.

COMPANY TEXTS

Mauser presented what it called its last, best and final offer on July 21st, Coronado said. “And we said, ‘Respectfully, we’re not going to present this piece of sh*t proposal to our folks because it’s not representative of any kind of movement from the company, and our folks are worth more than that.”

Days later, workers received a text in Spanish, apparently from the company, reading: “Don’t let yourself be fooled: the Teamsters have their own agenda, and you’re not part of it. Just see the Mauser plant in Seattle: 20 well paid jobs were lost! Tell the union that you want to VOTE on Mauser’s offer.”

The message referred to a statement released by Teamsters Local 117 honoring workers’ fight after Mauser shut down a Seattle facility in the midst of contract negotiations. That same week, a flyer with Mauser’s logo circulated in the Chicago facility, with similar language.

Mauser did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

IMMIGRATION PROTECTIONS

Immigration protections are a key issue for many workers. “For example, if ICE comes, [the company] should inform the union,” said Landa. “Because we’ve seen that [this administration] has detained people even if they have the right papers. We are afraid that at one point they could come and arrest people just for the color of their skin.”

The union is also fighting for language committing Mauser to not let ICE onto workplace property unless they have a signed judicial warrant, which the company has thus far refused, said Coronado.

“A lot of this [contract] language that they don't want that doesn't even cost the company a dime, it's stuff that relinquishes the control that they have,” Coronado said.

On August 5, hundreds of community and labor supporters rallied alongside the workers outside of Mauser’s corporate headquarters. Among them were Congressman Chuy García and the AFL-CIO “It’s Better in a Union” bus tour.

MYSTERY CHEMICALS

“I think what they give us [for safety] is insufficient,” said Raul García, who unloads trailers filled with barrels to be refurbished. The barrels come stacked two or three high and can weigh as much as 55 pounds, but can be heavier if chemicals remain inside. “All that smell, you’re breathing it in … you get a headache from the chemicals because it’s not ventilated.”

García said that the safety equipment they do receive—including aprons made of plastic or thin fabric, plastic arm sleeves, and a helmet with a face shield—don’t fully protect them. He said that the plastic aprons can fall apart or melt on hot days, and wants the company to provide thicker, more durable alternatives.

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“Two months before we went out on strike, I was unloading a trailer and the chemical inside fell on my pants. I didn’t notice until it started to feel hot and cold on my leg.” García doesn’t know what chemical he was exposed to, because he’d unloaded several barrels before he’d noticed.

“It’s hard to breathe in the trailer,” García said. “the air is really hot and you’re moving around tossing barrels, breathing heavy, plus the chemicals. You get dizzy.”

“Sometimes the trailers have plastic barrels that the factory doesn’t [process], but that have to be moved,” said Nicolas Trejo, who unloads barrels from the trailers. “And those smell really strong; they are poisonous. They have a skull with a 6 [denoting that a material is in hazard class 6, and is either toxic or infectious].”

“We’re [exposed to] a lot of dust and smoke,” said said Jose Ruiz, who removes residue from barrels through a process known as shot blasting, where the barrel is placed into a machine fed with small shards of iron and contaminants are “blasted” off through centrifugal force.“The machines don’t seem to have the required maintenance to suction the dust [that is produced],” he said.

“The system they have is like when we have a vacuum at home. When the filter is clean, it suctions the dust really well. But when it gets clogged up, the dust spreads through the factory.”

Workers are provided masks, said Ruiz: some are respirators, and some are “like the ones we used during covid, which don’t help much.” The respirators struggle to withstand the dust: “The filters get clogged really quickly,” he said.

NEW UNION BETTER

Workers said their previous union did not advocate for them, or have a regular presence on the job site.

“The representative would show up and say ‘Hey, we weren’t able to negotiate more than this, and the contract is signed. You can take it or leave it,’” said Ruiz.

In 2018, a driver for the company—then known as Meyer Steel Drum—who was a member of the Teamsters connected the workers with his union, Ruiz said, and the difference was night and day. “They welcomed us like we were important. I’ll never forget it.”

The 82 percent of workers who participated in the election voted unanimously to join Teamsters Local 705 in 2019. Now, in contrast, workers have received bargaining updates throughout the process in English and Spanish.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Weeks in, morale remains high on the picket line. “We go out and shout,” Landa said, “I come up with chants, organize food, and keep track of the list to make sure no one forgets [their shift.]”

Even so, he said, the strike wasn’t inevitable. “We didn’t want it to reach this point,” Landa said. “We wanted to bargain.”

Trejo said he feels encouraged by the community which has turned out to back their fight. “Sometimes people come, they bring food, they bring coffee, they drop by and offer their support. Chuy García came, we had a conference over zoom with Bernie Sanders. We’ve gotten support from a lot of people.”

“All we’re asking is for them to treat us like human beings, like workers, not like pack mules,” Ruiz said.

For sample contract language to defend immigrant members, see our guide here.