New Jersey Temps Fight Agency Efforts to Block Their Rights

It’s 5:30 in the morning and the warehouse is already buzzing. Workers are unloading trucks, breaking down pallets, folding boxes, and packing orders to be shipped to local stores.

Most of the workers at this New Jersey warehouse are immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean, and most are temps, hired by one of the 200 temp agency branches that advertise warehouse and light manufacturing jobs in the state. These agencies take a cut of workers’ wages while companies save on recruitment, benefits, and payroll costs. Companies use the temp agencies to shirk their responsibilities, since temps are officially agency rather than company employees.

For many immigrants in New Jersey, particularly those without legal status, temp work is one of few employment options, but they face low pay and perilous working conditions. In a forthcoming survey of 400 temps conducted by the workers center New Labor, 94 percent reported that they had experienced some form of harm at work, such as wage theft or favoritism.

A high percentage of New Jersey’s temp workforce is undocumented, say organizers. The Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants are putting even more pressure on temp workers to stay silent about workplace abuses. In recent months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun targeting New Jersey warehouses, putting temp workers at increased risk of incarceration and deportation.

But New Jersey’s temp workers, who have long fought for their rights on the job, are continuing to organize—including through a new strategy of workplace-based action committees.

STOPPING HARASSMENT

A temp worker committee at the national packaging company Menasha in Edison, NJ, is pushing back against homophobic harassment and longstanding dangerous working conditions. Committee members reported that LGBTQ workers faced daily mockery and were sometimes assigned more difficult tasks, with little interference from managers. Meanwhile all temps at Menasha were contending with dizzying production speeds and unpaid overtime.

In the last year, a group of seven workers decided they had had enough. Though they faced retaliation for speaking out, the group filed a complaint with the NLRB.

While their case is pending, the workers decided that they could organize outside of formal channels. After documenting their working conditions, the group drafted a letter to both their temp agency, Staffing Synergies, and Menasha management. They also agreed on an escalation plan: to hand deliver the letter and stage an action if they got no response.

Both the temp agency and the company initially denied knowledge of the workplace issues. But under pressure, they ultimately agreed to work together to curb harassment by supervisors and slow the line speed. The company also created a QR code posted inside the warehouse that workers can use to make direct complaints.

Workers still fear reprisals for organizing, but they feel that their workplace is noticeably calmer. They say that unpaid overtime has been eliminated, and that supervisors are more respectful.

The group’s experience demonstrates that even in the absence of formal union representation, small workplace committees can change jobsite conditions. When the issue is important, workers take a stand even in a pervasive climate of fear.

BATTLE FOR TEMP RIGHTS

Temp worker organizing has a remarkable track record in New Jersey.

In 2023, after years of struggle, NJ temp workers and their allies won a Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights that guarantees temps information about their work assignment, equal pay when they perform the same work as direct hires, and protection against retaliation for speaking up for their rights.

The campaign for the Bill of Rights began during the Covid pandemic, when undocumented temps found that they were not eligible for unemployment insurance and had few workplace protections. In some instances, temp agencies received Paycheck Protection Program loans but did not distribute the extra funds to workers.

This sparked protests for fair pay and access to protective equipment, as well as a fight for temp worker protections at the state level. Temp workers testified and demonstrated at the state capitol, pressuring legislators and the governor to pass what would ultimately become the Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights.

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New Labor was critical in winning the Bill of Rights. The organization got its start in the early 2000s and launched its temp campaign in the 2010s, when a committee of workers from various temp agencies came together to discuss issues they faced at work. In 2018, they launched a successful legislative fight for paid sick leave—and the organizing continues, as workers counter the current attacks.

FIGHTING NEW CHALLENGES

Temp industry lobby groups are now pushing new legislation to roll back some of the Bill of Rights’ provisions.

In response, New Labor members are educating and organizing temp workers toward both state and workplace-level change. They are also proactively filing claims when state inspection and enforcement falls short. The group has filed wage theft claims, fought violations of the Bill of Rights, and filed Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement applications, recovering $130,000 in unpaid wages.

New Labor’s large temp worker committee has split into workplace-specific groups that are planning actions that go beyond legislative enforcement. Workers’ successful organizing at the Menasha warehouse shows the potential of the model.

IT CAN’T STAY LOCAL

The fight against exploitative working conditions for temps cannot remain local. Many of the temp agencies that hire workers in New Jersey have branches in other states and temp workers from New Jersey are sent to job sites in Pennsylvania and New York.

Further, agencies can easily close one branch location or rename their operation in the face of worker activism. For example: Infinity Staffing Solutions became Lyneer Staffing after it received worker complaints—though it used the same logo and provided the same temp staffing services. Lyneer operates not just in New Jersey, but in at least seventeen U.S. states.

Temp worker organizing needs to extend across state lines so workers can collaborate in targeting temp agencies in multiple markets. Paired with local action, a cross-state strategy could bring meaningful change for temp workers throughout the country.

Reynalda Cruz is Mexican and an organizer with New Labor in New Jersey who worked for temp agencies for many years and now educates temp workers about their rights and how to resolve problems at work. Liana Katz is a PhD candidate in Geography at Rutgers University. The authors thank Lou Kimmel, Carmen Martino, and Matt Schmieder for their input on this article as well as Anna Barcy, Germania Hernandez, and Julia Ortiz for their ongoing collaboration.