Good jobs, warehouses, trucks could be big topics in April elections

When members of the Will County Jobs with Justice Coalition met in November at the Unity Community Development Corp. building off Route 53 in Joliet, they discussed safety concerns with all the truck traffic in that area.

Their fears were realized right in the middle of their meeting when they heard the sound of a semitrailer crash into another vehicle in the intersection right outside.

It’s a problem the members of the coalition are all too familiar with.

The Will County Jobs with Justice Coalition is composed of labor, community and faith groups in the area and aims to “create meaningful progress for working people,” according to its Facebook page. Its members have been active in holding events such as discussions about the economic and environmental effects of warehouses in Will County and a Peoples Climate March in Elwood last year.

Although good jobs generally are a big concern of the coalition and the larger regional and national organization it’s affiliated with, its Will County members have become particularly interested in the expansion of warehouses and truck traffic. Locally, Warehouse Workers for Justice has teamed up with groups such as Just Say No to NorthPoint, which was a major force fighting the controversial Compass Business Park in Elwood.

“A lot of people are talking about this issue right now, so it’s an easy way to bring people together,” said Roberto Jesus Clack, associate director of Warehouse Workers for Justice.

The members already scored a victory when the Joliet City Council turned down two staffing agencies after hearing from the Warehouse Workers for Justice, which is a part of the coalition.

Clack acknowledged that although the group was able to persuade the council on that issue, it is going to have to work to reverse other trends, such as large municipalities giving large corporations significant tax incentives to come to the area.

“I think that people need to ask questions about if this is what we need to be doing while the infrastructure is suffering,” Clack said. “Can [these companies] do more to make sure they’re paying their share?”

With municipal elections approaching in a few months, coalition members see an opportunity to advocate for the topics they care about. Although their participation is limited because of the group’s nonprofit status, Clack said, they’ll be focusing on educating the electorate about the topics and asking candidates questions about what they would do to ensure the quality of life for residents.

For a few individuals in Will County, these concerns have pushed them to run for office in April.

Suzanna Ibarra, the chairwoman for the Will County Progressives, is a candidate for the Joliet City Council in District 5. She’s running against incumbent Terry Morris.

Ibarra said she knows that development isn’t stopping in and around Joliet, but one of her main takeaways from conversations with District 5 residents is that there is a need for higher-paying local jobs. If elected, she said, she wants to work with other members of city government, the Will County Center for Economic Development and all other concerned parties to enhance the local labor union workforce.

She echoed Clack’s feelings about getting some large corporations that come to Will County to contribute more through quality jobs and investment in infrastructure.

“We have something here they want,” Ibarra said.

Both Clack and Ibarra said they would like to see local governments enter into community benefits agreements, which are contracts used to ensure that particular projects create opportunities for the local workforce and residents. Other cities around the U.S. have negotiated community benefits agreements with developers for big projects in the past several years, according to the Partnership for Working Families.

In Elwood, months after Mayor Doug Jenco effectively ended progress toward the Compass Business Park by canceling a public hearing on the annexation agreement, some residents continue to feel the need to ensure their voices are heard in local government.

Residents such as Tricia Maas and Jodie Bertucci, who both were active and vocal in their opposition to the proposed industrial park, are running for seats on the Elwood Village Board.

Bertucci has lived in Elwood for
30 years and said she wants to maintain its quiet, small-town feel. When Compass Business Park threatened that, she sprang into action, going to Village Board meetings, asking questions and knocking on her neighbors' doors to get them involved.

Bertucci said she wants to be a trustee to ask those tough questions and try to find other ways for the village to raise revenue and ensure that good jobs are coming with the development. She added that the way some of the board members handled the Compass Business Park issue at the time, in not sharing much about how they felt, bothered her with so much at stake.

“They owe us transparency,” she said.