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People’s Climate March
September 8, 2018 @ 12:30 pm - 5:00 pm
This year’s march is taking place in Elwood, Illinois and will begin at O’Connor Park with a march to the BNSF offices in Elwood.
Join us in rising for climate, jobs, and justice! We will be marching alongside the members of the Sierra Club, Warehouse Workers for Justice, and many other inspiring organizations. Amy Walsh will be speaking at the rally to share how pollution affects her family and why we need to do better.
More information (taken from the event website for the People’s Climate March Chicago)
Will County, Illinois is home to the third largest port in the world, behind Hong Kong and Shanghai. Shipping containers full of consumer goods from Southeast Asia arrive at the Port of Los Angeles by cargo vessel and then are placed on rail and semi trucks. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad, owned by Warren Buffet, moves the containers from Los Angeles to Elwood, Illinois. This is a video of the Burlington Northern Sante Fe (BNSF) Railroad Intermodal yard in Elwood, Illinois from a truck driver’s perspective.
Once in Elwood, tens of thousands of semi trucks pick up the containers and deliver them to warehouses. This google map shows the BNSF facility in Elwood and the surrounding warehouses. The Union Pacific intermodal and Amazon warehouses are to the north in Joliet. Another Amazon warehouse operates on the eastern edge of Will County in Monee, Illinois. Note: Amazon received Illinois tax credits for building these warehouses.
Diesel Pollution
Check out this map for counts of Diesel Particulate Matter 2.5. Click different days to see the measurements on each day. All of the data was collected from public right of ways, so we do not have any data from the actual warehousing or intermodal facilities.
Labor Issues
See: Warehouse Workers for Justice; Documentary on 2012 Unfair Labor Practices Strike at WalMart Warehouse in Elwood
ProPublica Series on Warehouse Work: Explosion of Temporary Worker System
Little Village Connection to Temp Work