Warehouse Worker Resource Center

Improving working conditions in the warehouse industry in Southern California

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San Bernardino Airport Communities Are Calling for Good Jobs, Clean Air and Justice for Neighbors

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(English version below)

La Agencia de Desarrollo del Valle Interior (IVDA) está proponiendo el Plan Específico de la Entrada del Aeropuerto (AGSP), un proyecto de reurbanización al norte del Aeropuerto Internacional de San Bernardino que rezonificar más de 9 millones de pies cuadrados para usos industriales mixtos en las ciudades de Highland y San Bernardino en el transcurso de los próximos veinte años.

  • El AGSP podría traer más de 9 millones de pies cuadrados de desarrollo de almacenes,
  • Miles de camiones de diésel al área,
  • Posiblemente desplazará a más de 2500 residentes

Este proyecto se encuentra actualmente en la fase preliminar de revisión de impacto ambiental de CEQA y cerrará los comentarios el 14 de marzo de 2023.

Nuestra coalición está increíblemente preocupada por el Plan Específico de la Entrada del Aeropuerto (AGSP) y cree que se necesitan los ajustes necesarios al plan antes de seguir adelante con la aprobación:

Extender la fecha límite de comentarios públicos de DEIR

  • Nuestra coalición asistió a la reunión de puertas abierta de AGSP el 12 de enero en donde el IVDA tuvo una reunión que fue inaccesible para los que no hablan inglés y no le dieron a los que asistieron respuestas consistentes a sus preguntas.
  • Debe de haber más oportunidades para que los residentes y dueños de negocios participen y hagan preguntas sobre el proyecto.

Participación Auténtica con la Comunidad

  • Más talleres para recibir comentarios y aportes en ambas ciudades
  • Interpretación y traducción disponibles en todas las reuniones y de materiales futuros
  • Más alcance en comunidades que no hablan inglés

Protección del Medio Ambiente

  • Proteger las casas, las escuelas y los parques de las rutas de camiones y el desarrollo intensivo de depósitos de contaminación
  • Al menos 1000 pies de distancia
  • No permita rutas de camiones al lado de casas, escuelas y parques.
  • Requerir 100% Cero Emisiones para 2035
  • Limitar proyectos intensivos en contaminación

Desplazamiento de Vivienda

  • Reuniones de grupo para trabajar en un plan de reubicación
  • Reemplazar viviendas para inquilinos o propietarios desplazados en AGSP
  • Los inquilinos deben ser notificados sobre cualquier oferta propuesta a los propietarios dentro de 72 horas

Normas Laborales

  • Estándares de salarios dignos y beneficios
  • No usar agencias de contrataciones temporales
  • Requerir contratación local y uso de acuerdos de mano de obra comunitaria
  • Garantizar a los empleadores de alto nivel
  • Requerir vías de capacitación y programa de aprendizaje con sindicatos locales
  • Posiciones de tiempo completo priorizadas

Seguridad Comunitaria

  • Mantenimiento de infraestructura (baches, alcantarillado, inundaciones, etc)
  • Diseñar calles caminables, ciclistas, y seguras para prevenir futuros accidentes de peatones
  • Acuerdo de beneficios comunitarios para futuros proyectos grandes
  • Establecimiento de un comité de supervisión que pueda negociar y garantizar la rendición de cuentas para la implementación de acuerdos de beneficios comunitarios

Las comunidades del aeropuerto de San Bernardino es una coalición de residentes locales y organizaciones comunitarias que se unen para apoyar el desarrollo económico saludable en nuestra región. A través de nuestra unidad, estamos luchando para brindar soluciones lideradas por la comunidad a los problemas económicos y ambientales de nuestra región.

ENGLISH

The Inland Valley Development Agency (IVDA) is proposing the Airport Gateway Specific Plan (AGSP)- a redevelopment project north of the San Bernardino International Airport that would rezone over 9 million square feet to mixed-use industrial uses in the City of Highland and City of San Bernardino over the course of the next twenty years.

  • Over 9 million square feet of warehouse development
  • Thousands of diesel trucks into the area
  • 2,500 residents possibly displaced

This project is currently in the CEQA draft Environmental Impact Review phase and will close comments on March 14, 2023.

The San Bernardino Airport Communities is incredibly concerned about the Airport Gateway Specific Plan (AGSP) and we believe that necessary adjustments to the plan are needed before moving forward with approval:

Extend the DEIR Public Comment deadline

  • Our coalition attended the January 12th AGSP Open House Meeting where the IVDA held a meeting that was inaccessible to non-English speakers and did not give attendees consistent answers to their questions. There needs to be more opportunities for residents and business owners to engage and ask questions about the project.

Authentic Community Engagement

  • More workshops to get feedback and input in both Cities
  • Interpretation and translation available at all future meetings and materials
  • More outreach in non-English speaking communities

Environmental Protection

  • Buffer homes, schools and parks from truck routes and pollution intensive warehouse development, at least 1,000 ft distance
  • Do not allow truck routes next to homes, schools and parks
  • Require 100% zero emissions by 2035
  • Limited pollution-intensive projects

Housing Displacement

  • Working group meetings for relocation planning
  • Replacement housing for any displaced renters or homeowners in AGSP
  • Tenants should be noticed about any proposed offer to homeowners within 72 hours

Labor Standards

  • Living wage and benefits standards
  • No use of temporary agency hires
  • Required local hire and use of community workforce agreements
  • Ensure high road employers
  • Required training pathways and apprenticeship program with local labor unions
  • Full-time positions prioritized

Community Safety

  • Infrastructure maintenance (potholes, sewage, flooding, etc)
  • Walkable, bikeable and safe street design to prevent any future pedestrian accidents
  • Community benefits agreement with future large projects
  • Establishment of an oversight committee that can negotiate and ensure accountability for the implementation of community benefits agreements

SB Airport Communities is a coalition of local residents and community organizations coming together to support healthy economic development in our region. Through our unity, we are fighting to provide community-led solutions to our region’s economic and environmental problems.

Dozens of Cal Cartage Workers Terminated- We Are Fighting Back

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This morning,warehouse workers are at the Los Angeles Harbor Commission demanding that California Cartage retain employment for all workers at their warehouse at the port.  Cal Cartage appears to be violating the City Service Worker Retention Policy by not keeping workers on the job after changing staffing agencies this Monday.  This retaliatory action will not stand.  Workers are speaking up and demanding respect.

And these workers know they are not alone.  Over 2200 of you have signed the petition to demand these workers be retained.  On Wednesday, Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino, who represents District 15, which includes Wilmington and the Port, sent this letter to the Port of Los Angeles demanding workers be treated with respect, provided with a living wage and labor peace.  California Cartage is proving to be a bad actor on multiple levels and has no right to operate at the port with impunity.  Thank you to Councilman Buscaino and other councilmembers who stand with these workers.

U.S. Government Issues Complaint Against Major Warehouse on City of LA Property

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Trial Will Be Held on Retaliation against Direct and Subcontracted Workers

 

Port of Los Angeles, CA (March 29, 2016) – After a 6-month investigation into allegations that managers at a major warehouse serving retailers including Amazon, Lowe’s and Kmart Sears, routinely violated U.S. labor laws, harming both company employees and those employed on site by a staffing agency, Region 21 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has found sufficient evidence of law-breaking to issue a Complaint against the company, California Cartage, which operates on property owned by the City of Los Angeles at 2401 E. Pacific Coast Highway.

 

The complaint, which will go to trial as Case 21-CA 160242, finds merit in the allegation that California Cartage managers:

  • Threatened workers with termination if they took collective action;
  • Interrogated workers when they took heat breaks; and
  • Discouraged workers from taking collective action through implicit threats.

 

The workers at this warehouse at the largest port complex in the nation have been demanding basic respect, safety, and fair scheduling at their workplace, and have faced retaliation since the beginning,” said Celene Perez, Co-Director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, which filed the charges and has been supporting the workers’ efforts. The workers first raised concerns in late 2014, when they filed a Class Action lawsuit alleging violations of the City of Los Angeles Living Wage. Since then, they have secured a Cal/OSHA complaint around workplace health and safety hazards that resulted in citations in November 2015, and gone on strike twice to protest the company’s persistent violation of U.S. labor laws under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

 

The complaint was issued against California Cartage management for their actions against workers both directly employed by them and subsidiary Orient Tally, and against workers employed through a staffing agency. “We know that Cal Cartage is in charge of all the conditions in here, and it’s good to see the NLRB is holding them responsible for their treatment of all workers, temp and direct,” said Victor Gonzales, a California Cartage worker who has worked at the warehouse through staffing agency AMR for over five years.

Workers Seek Investigation into High Injury Rates

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Guadalupe PalmaBy Guadalupe Palma

Over the last several months warehouse workers have drawn attention to serious problems with their working conditions and subsequent retaliation against those who have spoken up.

Warehouse work is strenuous and hard on the body. For hours on end workers lift heavy boxes in the same pattern as they load and unload shipping containers and trailers. Workers are asked to do the humanly impossible or risk losing their jobs every day. It is more common to meet a warehouse worker who has been injured than one who is healthy.

This week workers took action to address serious injuries associated with this repetitive motion. Warehouse Workers United on behalf of workers filed a complaint with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Monday Sept. 24 detailing a high rate of injury associated with unreasonable quotas. They are seeking an immediate investigation of the facility.

It’s the latest move in workers’ attempts to improve warehousing jobs in the Inland Empire, Southern California’s San Bernardino and Riverside counties just east of Los Angeles.

Last week we concluded a 50-mile, six-day pilgrimage for safe jobs from the Inland Empire to Los Angeles’ city hall. During the WalMarch, workers and their supporters called on Walmart to take responsibility for working conditions in the warehouses on which it relies. As the largest retailer in the world, Walmart effectively dictates the standards of operation in the logistics and distribution industry, which impacts the lives of 85,000 warehouse workers in Southern California.

The complaint, filed against employers Walmart, NFI, and staffing agencies Warestaff and Select, documents repetitive lifting at extreme rates that have led to back injuries of multiple warehouse workers within the last year at an NFI warehouse in Mira Loma, California dedicated to moving Walmart goods.

According to the complaint: “The workers who do this work are required to perform at an extreme rate under the pressure of managers who aggressively pressure workers to meet quotas with threats, harassment and, eventually, firing of less productive workers.”

Workers are required to work at an extremely fast pace. For example, one worker could move boxes between 10 and 100 pounds as many as 2,000 times each 8-hour shift.

Jose Gonzalez, whose medical records pertaining to his back injury are part of the complaint filed with Cal/OSHA, is 22 and fit, until he started working in a warehouse. “I am young and I was healthy until the pace inside the warehouse wore me out and used me up. Now it is tough for me to walk and stand,” he told me.

The Department of Occupational Health and Safety requires employers like NFI, Walmart and Warestaff to take preventive action whenever there have been at least two similar injuries of workers who hold the same position within one year. Documents provided by Warestaff, one of the staffing agencies that employs workers at the NFI warehouse, record a number of injuries in the last year that are commonly caused by repetitive motion.

It is separate from an earlier filing with Cal/OSHA that is still under investigation. The July 18 complaint documented instances when workers were discouraged and even prevented from reporting injuries formally. It also raised concerns about dangerous machinery, lack of training, inadequate access to clean drinking water and required pay for protective equipment.

Walmart’s contractors, including logistics firms Schneider and NFI, have been cited for breaking the law, including health and safety violations, wage and hour violations, and retaliation against workers who speak up. Walmart’s contractors are under investigation by a state agency for health and safety violations and workers have filed a federal lawsuit about stolen wages by Schneider, a Walmart contractor, and subcontracted staffing agencies. Walmart, to date, has ignored workers’ concerns.

En Irvine, trabajadores de bodega en huelga piden reunión con Walmart

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Trabajadores de bodega, acompañados por trabajadores de Walmart y lideres comunitarios, intentan hablar con Walmart sobre condiciones de trabajo ilegales

Seis días después de comenzar una huelga, y el lanzamiento de una peregrinación de 50 millas, los trabajadores de bodegas del Sur de California llevaron su llamado por mejorar las malas condiciones de trabajo y un alto a las represalias directamente a la administración de Walmart.

Los trabajadores de bodega, incluyendo los que están en huelga—no son parte de una unión de trabajadores reconocida—se dedican a mover y transportar bienes y mercancía de Walmart. Ellos están marchando para exigir mejoramientos básicos pero fundamentales en el trabajo tales como: ventiladores para combatir el calor de 100 grados, herramientas que funcionan adecuadamente, agua potable, y descansos de trabajo regulares. Al igual, están pidiendo un fin a las represalias cometidas por sus empleadores, NFI y Warestaff, una agencia de empleo.
“Soy padre de dos hijas hermosas, y ellas son la razón por la cual trabajo,” le compartió Carlos Martinez, trabajador de la bodega de NFI en Mira Loma, California, a dos representantes de Walmart en frente sus oficinas de Irvine. “En el trabajo, cuando fui maltratado por un supervisor, le pedí ayuda al gerente de supervisores y en vez de llegar a una solución, el resultado fue una represalia en mi contra. Deseamos tener una reunión con Walmart. Queremos que las condiciones de trabajo para los trabajadores de bodega mejoren.”

En su visita a la oficina regional de Walmart en Irvine, los trabajadores de bodega fueron acompañados por trabajadores de las tiendas de Walmart, y lideres comunitarios como Angie Rodriguez, trabajadora de la tienda de Walmart en Baldwin Park, Tefere Gebre, director de la federación de uniones del condado de Orange, Rick Eiden, vice president de UFCW Local 324, y Kimberly Claytor, presidente de la federación de Maestras/os de Newport-Mesa.

“El dolor de los trabajadores de bodega es nuestro dolor,” dijo Angie Rodriguez. “Su lucha es nuestra lucha. Hemos visto cambios negativos y la falta de apoyo en el trabajo. Estamos aprendiendo más sobre lo que está pasando con los trabajadores de bodega. Ahora, más que nunca, es tiempo para un cambio positivo en Walmart”.
Los trabajadores también entregaron a los representantes de Walmart una carta firmada por casi 40 mil simpatizantes de los trabajadores apoyando la huelga en contra de prácticas laborales injustas de NFI y Warestaff. Pero a pesar del intento, los representantes no pudieron prometer llevar acabo una reunión entre los ejecutivos de Walmart y los trabajadores de bodega.

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