ICIRR Special: Making Our Politicians Accountable
Undocumented workers paid less than half of minimum wage to clean Oberweis’ Ice Cream Stores
Read the full press release here.
Meet Jim Oberweis.
When he mounted a campaign for Senate last year, Oberweis famously used undocumented immigrants as a scapegoat for various economic problems facing the country. In one campaign advertisement, Oberweis claimed “10,000 illegal aliens a day” are taking American jobs and demanding free health care – “enough to fill Soldier Field every single week.” While Oberweis wildly exaggerated statistics about undocumented immigrants during his Senate campaign, he has also taken advantage of them at his company.
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Meet Rosa Ramirez and Jorge Ibarra -- two undocumented workers who live and work in northwest suburban Chicago.
Rosa, who is 41, and Jorge, who is 34, were both hired on May 1, 2005 to clean three Oberweis Dairy stores. The stores are located at 9 East Dundee Road, Arlington Heights, 1405 Palatine Road, Hoffman Estates, and 30 South Roselle Road in Schaumburg.
Ramirez and Ibarra – both of whom were born in Mexico and came here to find work – tell a story that is all-too-typical for undocumented workers, even though it is a story many would not dare to tell on the record.
“In all of our jobs – including our job with Oberweis – employers take advantage of us because they know we don’t have papers,” said Rosa in an interview on Thursday, November 3, hours after the complaint to the state’s Department of Labor was filed. “Because we are afraid of asserting our rights and asking for decent salaries and benefits, they know they can pay us terrible wages. We hope these abuses cease for all of us immigrant workers,” she says.
Ramirez and Ibarra have brought a complaint to the Illinois Department of Labor against Oberweis Dairies for violating Illinois and federal minimum wage laws and failing to fully pay its employees. The complaint was filed jointly last Thursday by the statewide Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and the Day Laborer Collaboration, project of the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative.
“Mr. Oberweis has exploited these workers twice,” says Joshua Hoyt, Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “First he exploited them for cheap labor, and then he exploited them by demagoging their illegal status for cheap votes. We have asked that the Illinois Department of Labor conduct a full investigation into Mr. Oberweis’ employment practices. No one likes a hypocrite,” Hoyt continued, “and Mr. Oberweis’ hypocrisy just shows how our economy is powered by the labor of undocumented immigrants like Rosa and Jorge. When even an anti-immigration demagogue like Mr. Oberweis uses the undocumented to make his fortune, it drives home the point that we need immigration reform that allows the undocumented to come out of the shadows and earn their citizenship.”
On Friday, Department of Labor spokesperson Anjali Julka said the claim “is being reviewed and investigated.”
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Complaint details two violations
In stark contrast to Oberweis’ claim about how undocumented immigrants were “taking American jobs,” the complaint shows that Oberweis was literally taking money away from Ms. Ramirez and Mr. Ibarra – money they had clearly earned.
The complaint details two specific violations: 1) The company did not pay these two workers the agreed-upon amount for their work, and 2) The company failed to pay these workers a minimum wage.
“The agreement between the parties was that Ms. Ramirez and Mr. Ibarra would each receive $350.00 on a semi-monthly basis, with payments to be made on the 15th and the final day of each month,” the claim states. Instead, they were paid a single semi-monthly check of $350.00 to compensate both of them. In other words, each received only $175.00 on a semi-monthly basis. Based on how many hours they worked, Ms. Ramirez and Mr. Ibarra were both paid well below the Illinois minimum wage of $6.50 per hour. Each is owed an additional $350.00 per month.
In sum, their hourly rate was approximately $3.23 per hour -- less than half of the hourly minimum wage in Illinois.
Both Ms. Ramirez and Mr. Ibarra worked at Oberweis through the end of May of 2005 and quit their employment “when it became clear that they would not be paid the wages that had been agreed to and that they were, in fact, being paid less than the minimum wage,” according to the complaint.
Workers jointly employed by Oberweis, contractor
The complaint clearly states that even though “Ms. Ramirez and Mr. Ibarra were hired by a cleaning subcontractor, they were in fact jointly employed by the contractor and the Oberweis Stores.” According to the complaint, both Ramirez and Ibarra “used cleaning supplies, materials and equipment provided by the Oberweis stores” and “were supervised and given instruction by Oberweis store managers.”
The complaint also notes that they “performed their work at Oberweis’ facilities exclusively during the course of their employment” and “typically worked side-by-side with Oberweis employees for much of their shifts.”
Next steps
ICIRR and The Chicago Workers Collaborative say they hope the case will be assigned to a compliance officer who will meet with Ms. Ramirez and Mr. Ibarra, meet with Oberweis, and request all relevant records.
Tim Bell, Executive Director of the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, also points to a disturbing trend -- labor-related abuses of undocumented workers are increasing. “The exploitation of any worker hurts all workers,” Bell says. “If a company is paying workers $3.23 an hour – that’s what happened in this case – it is lowering the bar. We need better enforcement of what these companies are doing. This case clearly shows that Oberweis’ interest in attacking immigrants stems not from his stated desire to protect the jobs of native-born workers; rather it is to stir up anti-immigrant sentiments and policies to terrorize his own undocumented employees so that they will not complain when mistreated, cheated, and disrespected. What he did not count on was the bravery of Rosa and Jorge to bring to light his true motives.”
Meanwhile, advocates for immigrants say that this complaint is far from an isolated case and serves as another persuasive argument for immigration reform in Illinois and the United States. Hoyt adds that what Illinois really needs is “comprehensive immigration reform.”
“Our economy needs people like Jorge and Rosa,” he says. “And Jorge and Rosa need to be able to work legally and get on the path to citizenship – instead of being exploited by people who refuse to recognize their existence.”
For Rosa Ramirez, the message is urgent. When she started her job at Oberweis Dairies last May, she says she did not know anything about Oberweis’ campaign commercials about immigrants, largely because she watches Spanish-language, not English-language television. Now, she’s quite familiar with Oberweis’ views – and how he can treat undocumented immigrants in the workplace.
“We should let the world know how Oberweis exploits us. It’s obvious that Oberweis and other companies need our labor. The government should give us legal status and stop the hypocrisy. We should all be treated as equals.”
Fr. Brendan Curran, of St. Pius V Parish in Chicago, added at the press conference, “We applaud the courage of Jorge and Rosa for coming forward with their complaint. We and many others will fight to ensure that Jorge and Rosa don’t get punished for coming forward with their story.”
Oberweis’ workers with similar stories or who suffer retaliation as a result of Jorge and Rosa’s actions are encouraged to call the Chicago Workers' Collaborative Legal Clinic, 312.543.8245.
The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights is a state wide coalition of 130 organizations dedicated to promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees to full and equal participation in the civic, cultural, social, and political life of our diverse society.
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