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A Chicago Teamsters local is demanding a packaging company refuse to allow federal immigration enforcement on their property without warrants, as a top tenet of their overall demands.
The workers are seeking assurances from Mauser that it will require ICE to display a warrant signed by a judge before they are allowed on the property.
The strike at Mauser Packaging Solutions’ plant in the heavily-Hispanic “Little Village” neighborhood has lasted more than two months and the Teamsters Local 705 negotiator recently refused the factory’s latest offer, according to multiple reports.
About 140 people work at the plant, which reconditions metal barrels for chemical storage – and a plurality are Latino, according to the American Prospect.
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One striking worker told the outlet that he and others are concerned that ICE may target them on a racial basis even if they are able to prove legal residency.
The Prospect reported the strike began over a separate issue: allegations of employee surveillance during discussions with union representatives amid contract bargaining.
The Illinois-based global company’s striking workers also collected a big-name voice in their court during that time: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Johnson, a former teachers’ union figure, is familiar with similar situations and also agreed with their aversion to federal law enforcement.
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“This union and this strike is leading the way to ensure that this country knows that workers run this country,” Johnson said while rallying with strikers earlier this month.
He said Mauser’s workers have the right to seek livable wages and environs “at a time in which we have a federal government coming after workers, immigrants, brown and Black people,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Johnson demanded workers get protections to ensure “ICE agents do not get to run amok [or] create fear and come in and disrupt and destabilize our communities and workplaces, whether you are at work, school, church or the barbershop.”
He noted that Chicago is a “welcoming city” – a term increasing in popularity among Democratic leaders due to the political stigma now associated with “sanctuary cities.”
In his remarks, Johnson also once again referred to President Donald Trump as a “dictator.”
Updated figures from Chicago’s official crime dashboard now show 266 homicides this year, averaging more than one a day.
Fox News Digital reached out to DHS and the Teamsters for comment.
Mauser Packaging Solutions could not immediately be reached for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Madison Colombo contributed to this report.
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