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Warehouse Worker Resource Center

Warehouse Worker Resource Center

Improving working conditions in the warehouse industry in Southern California

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Press Releases

WWRC Testifies Before U.S. House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections

November 17, 2022 by Elizabeth Brennan

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This morning, speakers who are part of the Athena coalition testified before the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections in a hearing to examine the unsafe and untenable conditions warehouse workers face:

  • Sheheryar Kaoosji, Executive Director, Warehouse Worker Resource Center

  • Eric Frumin, Director of Health and Safety, Strategic Organizing Center

  • Janeth Caicedo, Make The Road NJ Member and Sister of Edilberto Caicedo, a warehouse worker who died on the job

“A core issue of warehousing is pace of work. Workers are pushed to move as quickly as possible in these workplaces, in order to keep up with the rapid pace of delivery necessary to keep the supply chain thin and running smoothly. Amazon has accelerated these forces, moving workers rapidly through their facilities in order to keep up with the rapid pace of their operations. Amazon’s intention is not to store products, but rather to keep them moving and flowing through their systems, in order to have as thin and quick a supply chain as possible. This is the state of the art–what the rest of the industry aims to match,” stated Sheheryar Kaoosji, executive director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center.

He continued, “When you order a product to arrive in 24 or 48 hours, there is no magic robot or process that makes that happen. The product moves fast because people run. People move quickly and get injured,”

This hearing was organized in response to the ongoing demands of Amazon workers, and after the deaths of three Amazon workers in New Jersey. In September 2022, the Athena coalition led over 30 civil society and worker organizations to ask Congress to conduct a hearing to investigate Amazon’s warehouse safety crisis.

“Amazon distinguishes itself by using high tech to injure its workers more than other employers do in two ways: First, they push workers harder than other employers using algorithms. Second, they use robots to make their jobs even more dangerous. Injury rates in their robotic facilities are higher than in others.” stated Eric Frumin, Director of Health and Safety at the Strategic Organizing Center.

He continued, “Andy Jassy could issue a directive this afternoon to stop firing workers whose bodies require a break from the pressure. Nothing is preventing him from doing so.”

We are glad the Subcommittee and the public had an opportunity to hear about the ongoing safety crisis at Amazon. Specifically, we heard from speakers’ testimony that:

  • The crisis is a direct result of Amazon’s punitive management practices that use constant surveillance and threat of termination to push workers to the breaking point; the company’s use of retaliation and union busting that prevents workers from advocating for safer conditions; and the high-turnover model that prioritizes profit over safety, even during natural disasters and extreme weather.

  • These unsafe conditions are preventable. Because major employers like Amazon are unwilling to put people before profits, members of Congress have the responsibility to pass laws, like legislators in California did, to prevent ongoing injuries and deaths.

  • Amazon’s model is a threat to workers everywhere. As the second largest private employer in the country, Amazon and its labor practices have an outsized impact on our economy, and sets precedent in the retail, warehousing, and logistics sectors.

“On August 19, 2019, I received a call that my brother Edilberto was at the hospital with a very, very dangerous injury in his brain. He died four days later. It was a drastic change in my life, in my family’s life, and nothing, nothing has been the same again. My mom, who is 93 years old, still feels that he will come one day to tell her what happened,” stated Janeth Caicedo, Make the Road NJ member and sister of Edilberto Caicedo, a warehouse worker who died on the job.

She continued, “I think the accident was the company’s fault. The company didn’t follow OSHA regulations. There was no interest in keeping a safe workplace at all. The company was accepting contract after contract and piling people inside the warehouse without maintaining any type of safety protocol. The equipment was also unsafe. The company didn’t keep up the machines and didn’t provide adequate training. These conditions would end up killing my brother.”

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Filed Under: Featured, Press Releases

Workers Strike Amazon Air Hub in San Bernardino

October 14, 2022 by Elizabeth Brennan

Contact: media@warehouseworkers.org

In the heart of America’s Supply Chain, Amazon Warehouse Workers are Demanding Higher Pay, Safe Working Conditions

San Bernardino, Calif. — Amazon warehouse workers are on strike to protest Amazon’s unfair labor practices and retaliation in response to worker demands for better, safer jobs with fair wages and an end to threats and intimidation. 

Workers walked off the job mid-shift Friday and will hold a rally and picket line in front of their facility, KSBD, the massive Amazon air hub in San Bernardino. 

Inland Empire Amazon Workers United are demanding a $5/hour increase in pay, safe working conditions and an end to retaliation. The strike comes during “Prime Week,” when workers must process extra volume for Amazon’s major sales event. 

“Workers at KSBD and across the country are standing up for what we deserve. We have been targeted, threatened, and intimidated by Amazon managers and Amazon consultants and today we are on strike,” said Rex Evans, who works at KSBD. “Amazon has the resources and the power to improve the quality of jobs of the people who make them profitable, but they choose to spend millions on consultants instead of warehouse workers.”

At the end of 2021 workers were told with limited notice that the warehouse would be closed two additional days without pay,  meaning workers would have no pay for a total of four days around the holidays. This closure caused financial hardship for many people working at KSBD, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck. That catalyzed a group of workers to start organizing: 

  • At the beginning of 2022, workers delivered a petition around the surprise closure to management and eventually won a policy change. 
  • In July at the start of Amazon’s “Prime Week,” workers delivered a petition signed by more than 800 employees at KSBD demanding a wage increase of $5/hour. Dozens of workers confronted management about workers’ difficulty making ends meet on Amazon pay, especially as the cost of living skyrockets. 
  • Aug. 15, more than 150 workers walked off the job after Amazon ignored their demands. 
  • In August and September more than 100 workers confronted management about safety measures during an historic heat wave. 
  • In September, Amazon announced it would raise wages by just $1 at KSBD. In response,  workers gave Amazon a deadline of Oct. 10 to respond to their demands. 
  • On Oct. 11 workers announced they will go on strike to protest Amazon’s unfair labor practices and shameful response to their demands on Oct. 14. 

“Amazon is bringing in outside consultants and managers who have tried to undermine what we are doing,” said Alfonso Rodriguez, who works at KSBD. “We are awake and we want to fix what is going on in this building. We want to make Amazon a better and safer place to work.”

The facility, also known as KSBD, is a critical leg in the Amazon logistics network and is one of only a few “air hubs” nationwide. 

The facility opened in March 2021 amidst community concern and opposition around job quality and air pollution. A 2018 study found that even before this facility opened, Amazon’s flights into and out of airports in Riverside and San Bernardino counties released an estimated 620,000 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The two counties also have the worst ozone pollution in the US, largely due to the warehousing industry.

Amazon promised quality jobs, but has failed to deliver. Since the opening, workers have organized in response to low pay, illness-inducing heat, and brutal working conditions. In addition to a new rest area, workers have also won an increase in pay for night shifts.

The warehouse is located at the former Norton Air Force Base. Amazon currently operates 14 flights a day in and out of the 24-hour facility. Amazon has said its goal is to operate 26 flights a day. The number of workers at the warehouse fluctuates, currently about 1,300 but more than 1,800 in peak season, demonstrating the lack of stability in these Amazon jobs.

The Inland Empire Amazon Workers United is supported by the Warehouse Worker Resource Center and many community-based organizations in the Inland Empire including Inland Congregations United for Change, Teamsters Local 1932, Inland Empire Labor Council, Sierra Club San Gorgonio and the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice. 

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About the WWRC

The Warehouse Worker Resource Center is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3), organization founded in 2011 dedicated to improving working conditions in the warehouse industry in Southern California. We focus on education, advocacy and action to change poor working conditions in the largest warehousing hub in the country.

 

Filed Under: Featured, Press Releases

Amazon Warehouse Workers Document Extreme Temperatures in Western Air Hub, Demand Safety Protections

September 16, 2022 by Elizabeth Brennan

Contact: media@warehouseworkers.org

Bracing for California’s Heat Wave, Workers Demanded and Won Extra safety Precautions to Protect their Coworkers from Extreme Heat

San Bernardino, Calif. — Warehouse workers at Amazon’s West Coast Air Freight Fulfillment Center, also known as KSBD, in partnership with the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, released a new report Thursday that documents extremely high temperatures at the warehouse and grave inconsistencies with Amazon’s own temperature monitors.

“People who I work with closely, who I call friends, have suffered from heat illness this summer,” said Rex Evans, who works at KSBD. “When we saw the forecast that it would be even hotter, we had to take action. We had to protect ourselves.”

Over the summer, at least half a dozen workers documented heat illness at KSBD and as temperatures soared into the 90s and 100s, the workers at KSBD formulated their demands and directly approached Amazon warehouse management on Aug. 31 and Sept. 2 to win protections from extreme heat.

Then workers representing every department at the facility took thermometers to work for seven days and recorded the temperatures throughout the day. At one point, on Sept. 4, workers recorded a temperature of 121 degrees in an outdoor work area.

“We understand how serious heat illness is. It can kill,” said Alfonso Rodriguez, who works at the facility. “We do physically demanding work, moving thousands of pounds of freight a day. Without regular breaks, access to water and a chance to cool your body down, even the healthiest person is in danger.”

The data the workers collected confirmed extreme temperatures at the facility and affirmed that their advocacy was merited, underlining the need for improved health and safety protections.

“Workers in California have a right to a safe work environment and that includes protections from heat,” said Tim Shaddix, legal director at the Warehouse Worker Resource Center. “But collective action is critical to actually hold a company, especially one as large as Amazon, accountable to the people essential to their business.”

Since workers approached facility management they have won:

  • Increased, yet inconsistent, preventative cool down breaks
  • Increased access to water, ice and electrolyte packets
  • Increased fans inside the facility, permanent fans yet to be installed
  • Outdoor employees have been moved indoors one time
  • Increased rotation for outdoor employees

“It is an unfortunate fact that in our country, workers have to come together to hold their employees accountable to the rules and protect themselves and their co-workers in dangerous situations like this heat,” said Sheheryar Kaoosji, executive director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center. “We know that when workers are not in a position to protect themselves, we see increased violations and injuries.”

BACKGROUND

KSBD opened in March 2021 and is one of three major U.S. Amazon air hubs. Amazon currently operates approximately 14 flights a day in and out of the 24-hour facility. At the San Bernardino facility workers process prepackaged merchandise that is flown or trucked in from other Amazon facilities for outbound shipments in either planes or trucks. Freight from KSBD serves markets across the country.

Workers at KSBD work both inside a 658,500 square foot building with inconsistent ventilation and outside on the San Bernardino International Airports tarmac. Workers’ jobs require physical labor and shifts are generally ten hours a day. About 500 of the roughly 1,400 employees work outside for the duration of their shifts. Amazon also requires a high rate of work of its employees.

###

About the WWRC

The Warehouse Worker Resource Center is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3), organization founded in 2011 dedicated to improving working conditions in the warehouse industry in Southern California. We focus on education, advocacy and action to change poor working conditions in the largest warehousing hub in the country.

Filed Under: All Posts, Featured, Press Releases

Statement of Solidarity with Workers Organizing at SoCal Amazon Facility, ONT8

September 9, 2022 by Elizabeth Brennan

Contact: media@warehouseworkers.org

San Bernardino, Calif. — In response to Amazon warehouse workers announcing their intention to form a union at the Amazon fulfillment center in Moreno Valley, Calif., known as ONT8, the Warehouse Worker Resource Center issued the following statement:

The WWRC stands in solidarity with the people who work at ONT8 and congratulates them on their effort to form a union. In a region where more than 200,000 people work in hundreds of different warehouses, it is critical that we all stand together to call for better pay to keep up with the cost of living in Southern California, safe workplaces free from sexual harassment and injury, and a reduction in congestion and harmful emissions.

The community and the people who work in warehouses in the Inland Empire are demanding accountability from the corporations that operate the warehouses in our neighborhoods. For too long, retailers like Amazon and Walmart have extracted resources from our community. The workers at ONT8, like the workers at Amazon’s air freight facility in San Bernardino and community members in Riverside and other communities, are standing together to demand change to improve the lives of the people who live here.

###

About the WWRC

The Warehouse Worker Resource Center is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3), organization founded in 2011 dedicated to improving working conditions in the warehouse industry in Southern California. We focus on education, advocacy and action to change poor working conditions in the largest warehousing hub in the country.

Filed Under: All Posts, Featured, Press Releases

Workers Walk Off the Job at Amazon Air Hub in San Bernardino

August 15, 2022 by Elizabeth Brennan

Contact: media@warehouseworkers.org

In the heart of America’s Supply Chain, Amazon Warehouse Workers are Demanding Higher Pay, Safe Working Conditions

San Bernardino, Calif. — Amazon warehouse workers walked off the job Monday at a warehouse in San Bernardino, the heart of the U.S. supply chain.

Inland Empire Amazon Workers United are demanding an increase in pay, safe working conditions and an end to retaliation. About 900 workers have signed a petition calling for the base pay rate to be raised to $22 an hour. Workers currently start at $17 an hour.

“Amazon could deliver a higher standard for workers, but they don’t,” said Sara Fee, who has worked at the air hub since it opened in March 2021. “A warehouse is just a warehouse. A company is just a company. The people are what makes it all work and we are strong and united to fight for what we deserve.”

In July, 24 days reached 95 degrees or hotter at the San Bernardino airport. After workers confronted managers about dangerous heat conditions, Amazon created an additional rest area to counter heat. Unsafe heat conditions remain in many work areas, and workers are demanding additional protections.

“Working in the heat feels like you are suffocating.. You need to take breaks and you can overheat really easily. They don’t make it easy to take breaks to allow your body to cool down,” said Melissa Ojeda, who has worked at the facility for more than a year. 

The facility, also known as KSBD, is a critical leg in the Amazon logistics network and is the largest air facility on the West Coast and one of only three “air hubs” nationally.

Workers submitted a petition to the management of the air freight facility during Prime Week in July. In part the petition said “We as Amazon Associates work hard to ensure that the building hits the numbers it strives for and work together in order to provide satisfaction to all of our customers. The average rent in California is $1,700 and the average rent in San Bernardino is $1,650. With our current starting pay of $17/hr in a 40 hour work week, we make approximately $2,200 take home pay– meaning that over 75% of our income is going into rent alone….We can barely afford to live in today’s economy.”

“I would like this job to be long term. If workers are heard and there is a change, we can make it a good place to work,” said Daniel Rivera, an associate at the warehouse for over a year. 

The facility opened in March 2021 amidst community concern and opposition around job quality and air pollution. A 2018 study found that even before this facility opened, Amazon’s flights into and out of airports in Riverside and San Bernardino counties released an estimated 620,000 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The two counties also have the worst ozone pollution in the US, largely due to the warehousing industry.

Amazon promised quality jobs, but has failed to deliver. Since the opening, workers have organized in response to low pay, illness-inducing heat, and brutal working conditions. In addition to a new rest area, workers have also won an increase in pay for night shifts.

The warehouse is located at the former Norton Air Force Base. Amazon currently operates 14 flights a day in and out of the 24-hour facility. Amazon has said its goal is to operate 26 flights a day. The number of workers at the warehouse fluctuates, currently about 1,300 but more than 1,800 in peak season, demonstrating the lack of stability in these Amazon jobs.

The Inland Empire Amazon Workers United is supported by the Warehouse Worker Resource Center and many community-based organizations in the Inland Empire including Inland Congregations United for Change, Inland Empire Labor Council, Sierra Club San Gorgonio and the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice. 

###

About the WWRC

The Warehouse Worker Resource Center is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3), organization founded in 2011 dedicated to improving working conditions in the warehouse industry in Southern California. We focus on education, advocacy and action to change poor working conditions in the largest warehousing hub in the country.

Filed Under: Featured, Press Releases

Report: Amazon’s California Injury Rate Jumped 30% in 2021, Despite Company’s Safety Pledge

April 12, 2022 by dean

ONTARIO, Calif.  — A disturbing analysis of newly released Amazon injury records shows that injury rates at its facilities increased by a staggering 20 percent from 2020 to 2021.  The report finds Amazon warehouse workers were seriously injured at twice the rate of other warehouse employers at 6.8 per 100 workers, as compared to 3.3 per 100 for all other employers in the warehouse industry. 

Download the PDF report. 

A review of California-specific data shows that injury rates in California increased 30 percent, to a rate that was over 60% higher than the rate of injuries at other warehouse companies in the state.

For years, Amazon’s warehouses and related logistics operations in California have led the nation in the number of serious injuries among warehouse workers. In 2021, the injury crisis for its warehouse workers got even worse. Compared to 2020, Amazon’s California warehouse workers suffered ten injuries for every 100 full-time workers – a 30% increase from the already high rate of 7.7 per 100 full-time workers in 2020. 

“Too many people who work in Amazon facilities get injured. The data shows that this company continues to prioritize speed and profits at a terrible cost to the health and well being of its employees,” said Sheheryar Kaoosji, executive director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center. 

California is a major market for Amazon. In 2021, Amazon had a total of 123 fulfillment centers, sortation centers and delivery stations in California, with a total of 77,664 workers. 

The Injury Machine: How Amazon’s Production System Hurts Workers, published April 12 by the Strategic Organizing Center, examines Amazon’s safety and injury trends across a five-year period, focusing on the most recent employer-reported data from 2021 released earlier this month by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). According to the report, the company’s crushing work pace, punitive surveillance programs and the prevalence of robotics technology only heightens pressure on workers and fuels the nation’s second-largest private employer’s alarming injury rates, despite Amazon executives’ promises to improve safety at its warehouses.

“Amazon’s back-breaking work pace is only getting worse,” said Eric Frumin, Director of Health and Safety at the Strategic Organizing Center. “The very same year that Amazon promised to address worker safety, injury rates shot up 20 percent, facilities with robotic technology became more dangerous — and Amazon spent millions of dollars to mislead the public about the reality in their warehouses. The company’s obsession with speed is crushing tens of thousands of workers each year, and Amazon seems to have no plan to stop.”

Nationally, workers at Amazon facilities suffered nearly 40,000 injuries in 2021, according to SOC’s analysis. While Amazon employed 33% of all U.S. warehouse workers in 2021, the company was responsible for 49% of all injuries in the warehouse industry last year.

Key findings in the California data include:

  • The Redlands, Calif. fulfillment Center (known as ONT9) had the highest year-on-year increase in 2021 of any large Amazon warehouse in the state. After already being the third-worst large warehouse in the state in 2020, the overall injury rate at ONT9 jumped by another 26% in 2021 – a clear indication of the management’s failure to focus on the most urgent safety problems in the state.
  • Workers at 51 of the largest logistics centers in California suffered a total of 5,848 injuries and illnesses in 2021, of which fully 5,119, or nearly 90%, were serious enough to either force the workers to stop working entirely, or require them to switch to another job.
  • At 36 of those 51 sites, so many warehouse workers were injured that the injury rates exceeded Amazon’s already terrible 2021 national average warehouse injury of 7.9 cases/100 workers.

Among these were the massive multi-thousand-employee facilities in San Bernardino (ONT5), Moreno Valley (ONT6), Rialto, Eastvale, Bakersfield, Beaumont and Fresno, which together accounted for over 1700 injuries in 2021.

The SOC report also finds that new robotic technology in 2021 that Amazon claimed “could make work safer for employees” may not have had that impact. Serious injury rates at Amazon’s sortable facilities with robotic technology grew by 20 percent from 2020 to 2021. In 2021, these facilities had a serious injury rate of 7.3 per 100 workers — 28 percent higher than the rate at non-robotic sortable facilities (5.7 per 100). 

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The Warehouse Worker Resource Center is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) dedicated to improving working conditions in the warehouse industry in Southern California. We focus on education, advocacy and action to change poor working conditions in the largest hub of warehousing in the country.

Filed Under: All Posts, Featured, Press Releases

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News & Updates

WWRC Testifies Before U.S. House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This morning, speakers who are part of the Athena coalition testified before the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections in a hearing to examine…

Read More

Workers Strike Amazon Air Hub in San Bernardino

Contact: media@warehouseworkers.org In the heart of America’s Supply Chain, Amazon Warehouse Workers are Demanding Higher Pay, Safe Working Conditions San Bernardino, Calif. -- Amazon warehouse…

Read More

Amazon Warehouse Workers Document Extreme Temperatures in Western Air Hub, Demand Safety Protections

Contact: media@warehouseworkers.org Bracing for California’s Heat Wave, Workers Demanded and Won Extra safety Precautions to Protect their Coworkers from Extreme Heat San Bernardino, Calif. --…

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