Whitmore v. Kraft Foods Global, Inc.
District Court, N.D. Illinois · 2011-06-27 · cited 7×
In this case, plaintiff Steven Whitmore, an employee at a Kraft Foods plant, sued in Illinois state court under the Illinois Minimum Wage Law and the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act, seeking back pay for time spent donning and doffing required protective equipment at the start and end of shifts. Kraft removed the case to federal court, arguing that the claims were preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act because they required interpretation of a collective bargaining agreement that expressly excluded compensation for such activities. After a stay pending the Seventh Circuit's decision in a similar case, the district court lifted the stay and granted Whitmore's motion to remand. The court held that the state-law claims were not completely preempted because they turned on whether the CBA could waive minimum wage protections rather than on disputed interpretations of the agreement itself, and any reference to the CBA for wage calculations did not convert the claims into federal ones. The court noted that if the plaintiff later relied on the CBA as an independent basis for recovery, removal might become appropriate.