Dockworker Says Trucking Company Fired Him for Voicing COVID-19 Concerns

CHICAGO — A dockworker has sued Estes Express Lines Inc., accusing the trucking company of firing him when he refused to work in an area that had been occupied by other employees who were diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus.

In a Nov. 30 complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Jamaal Watts says Estes Express “exhibited reckless disregard” for his safety when it forced him to work in a contaminated area around contagious co-workers.

According to the complaint, Watts, who worked in Estes’ Joliet, Ill., warehouse, learned in April that at least two co-workers …