Our Story

Over the last 15 years, we have organized thousands of warehouse workers in Northeast Illinois, and advocated for hundreds of thousands of workers in our state.

Now, we’re fighting with hundreds of workers, across multiple counties, at the intersections of labor, policy, environmental justice, and restorative justice.

Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ) is a worker center, founded in 2008 by the United Electrical Workers (UE), to fight for better jobs and healthier communities on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of workers in Illinois’ logistics industry. WWJ got its start organizing Walmart workers with the hope of making a notable difference in the lives of local warehouse workers, which eventually culminated in the Walmart strikes in 2012 and 2019.

Walmart, an early pioneer in modernizing the logistics industry, has since ceded its position as “lead firm” to Amazon. In our 15+ years of organizing, we have found the same issues that led Walmart warehouse workers in Elwood to come together in 2012 and 2019 – wage theft and racial discrimination, respectively – are still present in the industry today. This was made clear in 2022, when we came together with workers at Amazon’s MDW2 cross-dock in Joliet and staged two walkouts after the company’s total inaction following threats of targeted, racial violence against Black workers at the facility. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

WWJ exists to change that; we stand with workers and against greedy corporate giants, like Walmart and Amazon, to show them that workers have the power, not bosses.

That’s why WWJ is continuing its work to expand our base of warehouse workers ready to build the power necessary to force concessions from industry and pressure the state to stand up for the rights, economic security, and dignity of warehouse workers and their families. 

Because nothing moves without us.