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Article

7 Sep 2009

Author:
Harold Meyerson, in Los Angeles Times

L.A.'s warehouse workers: invisible and exploited [USA]

Los Angeles has long been a place where it's easy...to labor in obscurity. Just ask any of the 90,000 workers employed at the immense warehouses of Ontario and Fontana...Though many have worked full time in the same job for years, a majority of them are actually employed by one or another of the 270 temp agencies that dot the local terrain...The temps...get no benefits and make little more than minimum wage. A complaint that the Change to Win labor federation...has filed with the Labor Department documents a wide range of alleged abuses to which workers at dozens of warehouses have been subjected... The temp system at the warehouses is exquisitely calibrated to...protect retailers from the legal liability that comes with being an employer of record. [refers to Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Target]