Workers strike over immigration protections in Little Village

On the Mauser Packaging Solutions plant floor, laborers do the dirty work of reconditioning steel containers used to transport chemicals. The workers blast residue off the “dirties,” clean them and repaint them to be used again. As they work, the chemicals in the air irritate their eyes.

But for the last 12 weeks, the workers, many of whom are Latino immigrants, haven’t been cleaning or painting anything inside the facility at the end of a quiet residential street in Little Village. Instead they have been outside the plant picketing, demanding the company provide them with safer workplace conditions — and protect them from federal immigration enforcement raids.

More than 100 workers, members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 705, have struck through the summer’s heat an