Workers at Authentico Foods say they worry a temporary shutdown will stretch longer than two weeks and claim the layoffs are retaliation for organizing.
The tortilla and tamale maker, based in Archer Heights, is laying off 60 factory workers at three production sites beginning Monday. The company said it expects to resume production April 15.
Authentico cited “an excess of inventory and limited purchase orders for the next few weeks.”
Workers were told of the layoffs in letters handed out Wednesday.
Authentico Foods did not return calls for comment.
Authentico employees have been working with Arise Chicago, a workers rights organization, for more than two years. The layoffs came about a week after workers requested a meeting with management, according to Arise Chicago. Workers also delivered letters on March 1 and Nov. 6.
“I decided to get involved to improve conditions for all of us,” machine operator Aldo Jiménez said in Spanish, translated by Arise Chicago’s Shelly Ruzicka. “I wanted them to respect us as workers but as people.”
Workers filed a retaliation charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday. Arise Chicago said it believes the layoff announcement also violates employment laws.
Manuel Henriquez said he was bothered by the way the employees were notified.
“It’s not like face-to-face. They just gave us this letter that really didn’t feel like the right way for the company to inform us,” Henriquez said in Spanish, translated by Ruzicka.
Henriquez, who has worked at the company for over a year, said management has pressured workers to increase production, then sent workers home early.
“Now, there’s fewer hours, and I think since starting to organize, it feels like they’ve been cutting our hours,” Henriquez said.
Henriquez said without wages, he is concerned about how he can support his family of five. He worries the layoff will extend past two weeks.
“The cost of living and with inflation going up, this is gonna be really hard,” he said. “We’re really impacted by the decision.”
Jiménez also said he worries about how he will support his family, which includes kids in school and his mother. He described the layoff as “an economic rupture.”
“I am going to have to try and look for other work, like a short-term job, but I don’t know how long it might take to get a job to replace those wages,” Jiménez said.
