It is now a misconception that temporary
work is actually temporary.
It's like a brave new world, right? War
is peace. Up is down, left is right,
temp is
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perm. One of the ways that you can tell
that temp work is such a large player in
Chicago is the sheer number of temp
agencies that line the streets. We went
for a ride with Leon to learn more about
how they operate. The problem with temp
labor is that it's set up to fail the
workers at the bottom. You have the
client company at the top that gives out
contracts to the staffing agencies. In
order to win that contract, staffing
agencies have to under bid other
staffing agencies. And by the time they
win a bid, they have under bid other
agencies. And the only way they can make
even a small profit is by shorting
workers hours, charging them for rides,
getting kickbacks from check cashing
agencies. And temp labor in a way isn't
looked at as an industry. Our argument
is that it's a sector and it's an
industry and the industry is dealing in
moving human beings. So instead of
moving tomatoes, I move human beings
around. It feels to us like in the last
10 or 15 years that the idea of using a
temp agency is no longer something that
client companies do a little here and a
little there, but it really feels like
it's the new way that people work. How
do you operate in what might essentially
be kind of like a post union landscape
in a country that no longer like
produces many of the things that we
consume? The theory for us doesn't hold
water because the vast majority of temp
laborers in our experience uh are at the
poverty level or below. And we're not
going to rebuild the economy through
part-time temp
labor. As we passed Ron's staffing, Leon
mentioned Carlos Centennos, one of the
most extreme examples of how a worker
can fall through the cracks in this
triangular employment. And a few years
ago, one of their workers was killed. um
when at a shampoo factory uh several
hundred gallons of water mixed with acid
fell on him and he suffered thirdderee
burns and even though his skin was
peeling from the acid, neither the
warehouse nor the temp agency would call
911. He was finally taken to seek
medical care in a co-orker's van. It
took 98 minutes to get from his place of
work where the accident occurred till he
got to the emergency room and uh and
then he spent 3 weeks suffering in the
hospital and he died.
It's like a brave new world, right? War
is peace. Up is down, left is right,
temp is perm.
If there is an injury on the job, the
temp company might say, "We're not at
the work site. We don't control what
work that temporary worker is doing."
Meanwhile, the workite employer will
say, "Look, we are not the employer of
this worker. How can we be held
responsible for this injury?"
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While the conditions are harsh and the
treatment borderline abusive, these jobs
are still highly sought after. Even
qualified workers like Reggie Hudson, a
construction worker with 20 years of
experience, struggle to find work.
So, Reggie, uh, you're looking for temp
work today? Yeah. Yes, I am. Has it been
a problem getting temp work? Oh, yeah.
I've been having bad experience with
temp agencies. Why do you think it is
that you're not able to get temp work? I
feel that, you know, I've been
discriminated. Uhhuh. You know, because
of uh me being a black American. And so,
where are we going right now? Uh we
going MVP right now. Mhm.
Discrimination against employees is
illegal. But with this triangular
employment relationship between the work
site employer, the staffing agency and
the temp, it can be quite difficult to
even know that discrimination is going
on. Well, I went inside and you know,
they was saying they had worked for
people and that uh if you had steel
steel toes, you know, they'll send you
out. So, you have steel towed boots.
Yeah. And that's cuz you used to work
construction, right? Correct. And how
much were you making on union
construction jobs like? Uh $36 an hour.
$36 an hour. How much you going to make
if you get called in tomorrow? Uh I
think she said start off with like 12
$12. That's that's a big that's a big
loss, but I'm willing to to to do that
and supply for my family. So what do you
think the chances are of like them
saying to come back or to call at 4:30?
It's up for grabs. There has been
extensive research. We see that most
temp agencies who locate in cities are
locating in the segregated immigrant
neighborhoods rather than the
African-American neighborhoods. So just
by where they're setting up shop,
they're seeking to recruit a particular
kind of worker. But then when
African-Americans go to that staffing
agency and put in their application,
they may not get called back unlike
their immigrant or Latino counterparts.
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The clustering of temp agencies in
immigrant neighborhoods is most acute in
New Brunswick, New Jersey, a small city
outside of New York. Temp agencies
target workers who live here, but send
them to work an hour south, where most
warehouses are
located. Like people we met across the
country, Margarita Leis' day starts well
before the sunrise.
media
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transport.
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It'll be
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How much money do you make per hour?
And so is that enough to sort of make
ends meet?
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And do you think that's I mean unfair
essentially cuz you're you're working
for these companies that make these
things but potentially you can't buy a
lot of them.
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Is there a message that you would have
to people who don't know that this is
how the goods that they buy get to them?
They're people like
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you. Warehouse
It is now a misconception that temporary
work is actually temporary. We've
definitely seen temps working for 10
years, 15 years at one employer every
day as though he or she were a regular
employee.
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Retailers and warehouse companies are
responsible for making profit. And while
unpleasant, one very effective tool is
relegating workers to permats.
How many people want a full-time
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position? Go out, do the type of work
that gets noticed. But if you want to
get on the carousel of
opportunity, you got to show up. You got
to be consistent. You got to be
committed to doing this.
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