Warehouse Workers, Community Organizations, and Joliet Residents Condemn Joliet City Council For Approving Massive Warehouse Development Despite Strong Opposition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Yana Kalmyka, yana@warehouseworker.org, 347-930-9516

Warehouse Workers, Community Organizations, and Joliet Residents Condemn Joliet City Council For Approving Massive Warehouse Development Despite Strong Opposition


JOLIET, IL — Tonight the Joliet City Council approved the annexation of over 2,000 additional acres for the proposed NorthPoint development, an expansion of warehousing in Joliet and Elwood, despite mass opposition from residents. The project is now projected to stretch over close to 4,000 acres, an area six times larger than Midway Airport. The approval comes at a time when the City is already struggling to bear the labor, environmental, and social costs of a colossal logistics and warehousing industry. 

Despite the rapid COVID-19 surge, Joliet City Council refused to provide a means for virtual participation. In spite of the danger of attending an indoor event, 29 residents gave public comments and multiple emails were sent to council members. Not a single public comment was in support of NorthPoint. 

“NorthPoint attempts to justify decades of environmental degradation by promising ‘good jobs,’ but workers in the warehousing and logistics industries have heard these promises before, and they know all too well that these promises are a lie,” said Yana Kalmyka, Labor and Environmental Justice Director with Warehouse Workers for Justice, a worker center in Joliet. “As it stands, there are zero legally binding provisions in NorthPoint’s plans to protect warehouse workers who are often temporary employees and are among some of the most oppressed in the workforce.” 

NorthPoint will have damaging generational impacts on local residents, workers, infrastructure, as well as air and water quality. Experts estimate that the development will result in up to 15,000 additional trucks on Joliet roads and the use of half a million gallons of water per day. 

“I am against the NorthPoint development because our roads can’t handle tens of thousands of additional trucks on the roads a day,” said Ericka Gonzalez, former warehouse worker and community resident. “We are here to remind the Joliet City Council that the people at this meeting are their constituents, and their job is to serve the community, not corporations. We demand job commitments for benefits, healthcare, living wages, and opportunities to grow.” 

“NorthPoint promises good jobs, but the only thing I know is guaranteed are more revolving door opportunities, less livable wages, and more pollution,” said Angela Ortiz, former warehouse worker and lifelong Joliet resident. “As a former Amazon worker I can attest to the fact that these aren’t good jobs; these are traps set up for people trying to make a living like you and I.”

Warehouse Workers for Justice members and Joliet residents were joined by members of Just Say No to NorthPoint, a community organization fighting to stop the project on the basis that it is an irresponsible development that would turn surrounding communities into an unsafe and unlivable industrial zone. 

Official Hashtags: #JustSayNoToNorthpoint #NoMoreTemps #GreenNewDeal #TaxTheWarehouses