How One Teamsters Local Is Striking to Protect Immigrant Workers
The union wants bosses to turn away immigration authorities unless they show a signed judicial warrant, but resistance is fierce
by Sarah Lazare August 25, 2025
If it were up to Mauser Packaging Solutions management, there would be nothing in its contract with the union to stop federal immigration authorities from walking into the company’s Chicago plant whenever they want, maintenance mechanic Arturo Landa tells me as we sit under a navy blue tent with “Teamsters Local 705” printed on the canopy.
That’s alarming to the roughly 140 people who work there, about 90 percent of whom are Latino, many of them most comfortable speaking Spanish. The workers are acutely aware that in the present political climate, “even with proper documents, just based on the color of their skin, they could still get targeted,” says Landa, who is 45 years old and has worked for Mauser for 12 years.
We are across from the gray, brick face of the Mauser plant, where the ovens have stopped and the large industrial drums the company reconditions sit in stalled trucks, 11 weeks into an open-ended strike. The stillness of the plant contrasts with the bustle of the picket line, where striking workers grill meat for street tacos, and others use large shovels to clear rubble left in the street by a storm the previous night.
[The strike at the factory in Little Village, a predominantly Latino area, began on June 9 over what workers say were unfair labor practices when the company allegedly spied on workers while they talked with representatives of the union, and allegedly refused to bargain in good faith. Workers are in a contract battle, and they’re demanding improved pay, safer working conditions, guaranteed breaks, and affordable health care. The work is notoriously difficult; they use high-powered tools to clean and repaint the drums, often sanitizing them in an oven that can make temperatures in the building soar to 130 degrees, according to workers.
https://prospect.org/labor/2025-08-25-how-one-teamsters-local-is-striking-to-protect-immigrant-workers/