Workers at Ballco Manufacturing in Aurora staged a one day strike on Thursday September 20, 2007 to protest the unfair firings of eight of their co-workers the day before. The next day the company illegally fired all the workers for participating in the strike. Workers and their advocates are prepared to sue the company under the Civil Rights Act and the National Labor Relations Act.

The first eight workers were fired as part of a series of terminations targeting immigrant workers. Despite having no evidence as to the workers immigration status, the company claimed old Social Security No-Match letters were motivating the firings. No match letters sent by the Social Security Administration indicate errors such as typos or name changes that don't match a person's SS#. Over 70% of such errors affect workers who are citizens or legal permanent residents, yet employers like Ballco are using them to discriminate against immigrants. And now they are punishing workers for exercising their legal right to strike.