ULINE, a Wisconsin-based office supply company owned by one of Donald Trump’s biggest financial aid, has announced that it will be a source of work for workers working in US warehouses. What was paid to the workers who worked at the company was paid. Guardian.
According to sources in the US and Mexican countries, Mexican workers earned roughly the same as their US counterparts paid by an hour, according to sources in the US and Mexican countries. One pay stub seen in the Guardian showed Mexican workers were paid a weekly bonus of about $38 per day, plus about $225 before tax. Apart from that, they were also paid daily food costs.
In comparison, former American warehouse worker, based on his experience, said Uline’s American warehouse staff had made between $30 and $35 an hour when they left the company in 2023. I said that. advantage.
Most ULINE warehouse positions in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania currently pay between $25 and $35 per hour.
The new revelation follows the story published by The Guardian in December. This is about the so-called “shuttle programs” of the companies that were using to bring workers from warehouses in Mexico to warehouses in the United States, particularly in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Rather than normal work, Mexican workers travel to the US using tourist visas and visas targeting employees who are temporarily entering the US, with specialized training known as B1 visas. did. Sources that know firsthand about the issue claim that Mexican employees stayed for 1-6 months and did their usual work at the company.
ULINE, a shipping company that made $8 billion in revenue in 2024, has 13 distribution centers and employs more than 9,000 people across the US, Mexico and Canada. The company is founders of Dick and Liz Wooline. Dick Wyline has established himself as a billionaire mega donor, giving tens of millions of right-wing candidates and political causes. Liz Uraine is also a conservative donor. A report from the Federal Election Commission shows they collectively gave $130 million to support Donald Trump during the 2024 election cycle. One television ad funded by Dick Wylein’s super PAC during the 2024 presidential election, the Repair PAC, led to the then-Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris as “invasion of immigrants at the US-Mexico border. ” was attacked by allowing him to do so.
ULINE has refused to answer Guardian questions about the shuttle program. It is unclear whether the program is still in place or if it has been cancelled.
Since the publication of that story in December of The Guardian, additional sources have moved forward to discussing their own experiences with the company.
One person who joined the shuttle program told the Guardian that employees at ULINE’s Mexican facility were encouraged to register for the program amidst the US workforce shortages during the pandemic. Sources who rejected the name due to concerns about company retaliation said he had traveled to the US on a tourist visa.
He said ULINE will “sell” Mexican employees on promises of independence, leisure travel and weekly bonuses if they participate.
However, the terms of the arrangement are stressful, he said: employees understood that they would travel to work in US warehouses, but they said they were travelling strictly for training purposes. I was instructed to tell him that.
In fact, “We did the same job here (Mexico),” he said. “You knew you were going to do the job, they told you that, but I say we’re training so we don’t get into trouble. I told them.”
Traveling from Mexico to the US can be stressful for workers who understand that they are entering the US by misrepresenting the nature of the trip, sources told the Guardian. A source who spoke with the Guardian said there were no major incidents, but they said border officials seemed to suspect the trip and stopped them because of questions.
“I was a little worried,” the person said. “They were detaining them at the airport and asking a lot of questions.”
Two other former ULINE workers who were non-Hispanic Americans and who asked not to name them described other aspects of working for a company that made them uncomfortable. Both claimed that the company relied on not only full-time staff in both the US and Mexico, but also on a significant number of temporary workers contracted through Wisconsin agents. Former ULINE workers claimed on an independent account that these temporary workers were exposed to the frigid, sometimes freezing temperatures of the warehouse without wearing jackets, hats or gloves.
According to one former employee, Uline’s permanent warehouse worker had to wear a uniform with a red Uline polo, a blue zip-up jacket, blue work pants and a single-coloured shoe. In winter, permanent staff wear fleece and thin hats, but not thick coats.
The temporary contract staff, mostly Hispanic, were given the best that said ULINE.
“The manager said he broke the code, so they weren’t allowed to wear hats or gloves of any kind. In the winter in Wisconsin, there were times when there were single digits at night,” he said. said. “And if they caught them wearing them, they were told to take them off. If they were caught the second time, they were told to go home and then they came back. It wasn’t.”
The person added: “They didn’t treat them like humans.”
A person who worked at ULINE for about four years reminded me one night that it was “absolutely extremely cold.” They simply “scream” to temporary contract workers by their managers.
“I told him I didn’t care and I wrote me because it was -6. It didn’t even make sense. It’s unethical,” the person said.
Another former worker independently supported the account, saying that he worked at multiple warehouse sites, but none of the workers were treated as badly as temporary workers were treated on ULINE.
“It’s worse than any job I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. He added that he had frequent cold-related injuries.
“You’ll see their hands, they could barely move their fingers and they had to go through it. They just couldn’t stop and take a break.” He said. The workers added that it is easy to replace, especially temporary staff.
“There was a temporary employee who ran his legs (and) he couldn’t tell the management team. He had a family who fed him, so he worked through it,” he said. I did.
Uline did not answer questions about former workers’ claims regarding the treatment of temporary workers.
