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It has been a great year for the Warehouse Worker Resource Center. Here are some highlights of our efforts in 2019- through education, organizing and action.

Building New Community Spaces

WWRC began the year launching the Justice Hub, a space we share with seven other community partners- Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, Inland Empire United, Unite HERE Local 11, Inland Empowerment, Worksafe and Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Collective. The hub acts as a space for organizing, education and shared strategy in the Inland Region.

Advocating for Radical Reform of Workplace Safety and Health

In March, WWRC Deputy Director Veronica Alvarado spoke at “How We Heal: Confronting Health Inequity with Structural Competency” 2019 Conference at UC Riverside about how the workplace health system is designed to benefit corporations and harm workers. Our efforts to ally with the medical field will benefit workers in the warehouse sector and across the region. You can view Vero’s talk here.

In April, WWRC and our partners Southern California Council on Occupational Safety and Health organized the first Worker Memorial Day action in the Inland Empire. In partnership with the Inland Empire Labor Council and other partners, we spoke and demonstrated on behalf of the people who died at work in 2018, especially in the Inland Empire region.

Support For Migrants In Our Community

In May, the US Border Patrol began dropping off migrant asylum applicants at the San Bernardino Greyhound station- with no money, belongings or mode of communication to get to families or other support. As members of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, WWRC staff and volunteers rushed to support the migrants and welcome them to our community, and to get them to some safe place. Throughout the year, WWRC stands up for immigrants in the workplace and in the community.

That same month, we and SB Airport Communities organized Shut Down ICE action on Prime Day at the San Bernardino Amazon Sortation Center, demanding that Amazon cut ties with ICE and other predatory government agencies.

That month were also honored by the National Employment Law Project in Washington DC, at their fiftieth anniversary dinner, for our efforts over the past decade to stand up for insecure workers in the goods movement sector.

Building New Legal Capacity for the Inland Empire

In August, WWRC expanded its capacity when we established our Legal Department. Attorney Tim Shadix, formerly of Worksafe, and Worker Advocate Ashley Chacon joined WWRC’s team to expand our legal education and enforcement work.  

La Escuelita Viva- Turning Education Into Action

Throughout the year, WWRC held its monthly Escuelita program, educating workplace leaders on the interconnected impacts of goods movement and capital on our lives, health and families, and what we can do about it. In June, we partnered with CCAEJ and Sierra Club to focus on Ergonomic and Chemicals.

Organizing for Community Benefits in San Bernardino

In September, WWRC and the SB Airport Community Coalition participated with the Global Climate Strike with a rally at the Amazon warehouse in San Bernardino, establishing the community’s demand for a Community Benefits Agreement at the proposed Eastgate Air Freight Terminal at the San Bernardino Airport, a massive logistics project on public property in San Bernardino. This action included youth from across the region and focused on the climate and environmental justice impacts of goods movement on our communities. WWRC organizer Daisy Lopez led a contingent of warehouse workers and community members to stand in solidarity with the climate and environmental justice movements.

Also in September, former San Bernardino Amazon warehouse worker Eric Guillen spoke at the first meeting of the California Governor’s Future of Work Commission, where he spoke about the way algorithmic management and high pace of work affect workers and our communities.

We also launched as the anchor of the San Bernardino Metro area for Census IE, the effort to ensure that we have a complete count for the region in the 2020 census. The WWRC, led by Census Fellow Lysandra Diaz, is leading a group of organizations walking and phoning through hard to count neighborhoods in the area through April 2020.

Establishing Good Working Standards in Los Angeles County

In October, Toll Global officially took over the Port of LA Container Freight Terminal from California Cartage, ensuring that the facility will provide good jobs to the warehouse workers who have been organizing there for the past five years. This massive victory will change conditions for hundreds of workers at one of the largest and most important warehouses in Los Angeles County, going from minimum wage and no benefits to a living wage, benefits and a voice at work.

Passing Groundbreaking Accountability Legislation

Also in October, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 485, authored by Assemblymember Jose Medina of Riverside, a bill sponsored by WWRC and the California Federation of Labor. The bill required increased disclosure of job quality and numbers from warehouse employers that receive local subsidies. This policy is a step toward a transparent and accountable goods movement sector in California.

Building Solidarity and Strategy- Nationally and Locally

In November, WWRC and partners across the country unveiled Athena, the national network to challenge Amazon. As part of this, there was a report release from the LA Economic Roundtable and LA County Federation of Labor detailing Amazon’s impacts on Southern California. We also supported CLUE-LA and the LA Fed to organize an action at Amazon’s Century City store to demand Amazon cut ties with ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies.

In December, WWRC and the San Bernardino Airport Communities stood up to Amazon and Eastgate with a community picket and rally. Over 400 people attended and called on Amazon to be accountable to the residents of the city!

Later that month, WWRC and the SB Airport Community coalition met with Senator Bernie Sanders to discuss how he can help support communities impacted by Amazon and the goods movement industry.

We truly appreciate your support and look forward to a great year together!

We are saddened to share that longtime warehouse worker leader Manuel “Simba” Reyes passed away from cancer on October 13, 2019. Manuel was a key leader from day one on the historic California Cartage campaign.  California Cartage operated a warehouse, contracting for Amazon, Home Depot and other global retailers on Los Angeles City property that had unjust and unsafe work environments for him and his co-workers. Manuel saw this happening and understood that this was not only wrong but that something could be done to change it.

His determination, resilience, and loyalty to defend his right to a safe and just workplace for himself and his co-workers, quickly became an integral part of their campaign to achieve the treatment and pay that all workers should receive. Whenever an issue arose, he took it upon himself to talk with others in order to resolve it– his patience and commitment will not be forgotten. After years of strikes, protests, strategy and action, he and his co-workers just this year won good conditions and a voice on this job at this warehouse. We know that the campaign would not have been able to happen without the relationships that Simba helped build. 

His family remembers Manuel as a loving, joyful, and caring person. He was always looking for opportunities to help and talk with others and was able to be a force of support and love for many people. Because of this, he played a vibrant role in the community, often connecting with friends and community members at parades and events in Long Beach. The Warehouse Worker Resource Center has been lucky to struggle alongside Simba. We are grateful for the commitment and passion he had for the campaign and all that came out of it. 

The Warehouse Worker Resource Center is asking for any contributions of money in order to support Manuel’s family during this time. These donations go directly to Manuel’s family, not to WWRC. You can follow the link here.

This following clip shows how the surge of warehousing and trucking has had detrimental impacts on the quality of air in Inland Empire communities. The rise and dominance of the logistics industry has hit the area hard and we have paid for it with the quality of our air and the breadth of the employment opportunities available. When 25,000 diesel-emitting trucks blow through our communities everyday, it is clear how our region has been taken advantage of and our health betrayed for the sake of profit. With one of the world’s wealthiest companies, Amazon, becoming the Inland Empire’s largest private employer, it seems like there would be more opportunity for equity throughout the region. Instead, what has spread throughout our communities, along with poverty, are thick layers of smog, covering schools and homes and clustering around workplaces. For workers, especially those in the transportation industry, this means traveling to and from work along routes that are heavily polluted in order to get to worksites that are hubs for diesel emissions. Workers then go home to their families in neighborhoods that have become places of rest for this toxic air as well. Pollution and the health concerns that come with it pervades, threatens, and shortens the lives of our communities. And because there is no way to contain the toxicity of this pollution, the dangers and health risks that Inland Empire community members face daily are threats to everyone. 

That is why the Warehouse Worker Resource Center is working alongside our partners to pass legislation that will curb these patterns and mitigate the harmful effects that all warehousing has on our communities and the environment. Our work on AB485, a law that would require warehouse corporations that take government subsidies to disclose information about their operations and what they will offer the community in terms of jobs and benefits speaks to the increasing need to make these powerful corporations answer to the community members they are setting up shop next door to. 

More information on our partners, the Sierra Club and their My Generation Campaign can be found here:

On September 20th, the Warehouse Worker Resource Center participated in an action in San Bernardino as part of the Global Climate Strike, a movement to address the worsening effects of climate change. The Global Climate Strike has been led by youth activists across the world with strikes being organized in 150 different countries. We worked within our coalition of organizations to plan San Bernardino’s climate strike: the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, Inland Congregations United for Change, 350 Riverside, Sunrise IE, Teamsters Local 1932, Sierra Club’s My Generation Campaign, and Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice all helped to plan and participate. Our coalition understands the burdens that mounting amounts of pollution has forced on our communities. In a report put out by CCAEJ, they discuss an eight year study done by USC that found that children in the San Bernardino area have slower lung growth and the weakest lung capacity of all children studied throughout the state. With Amazon sitting as the largest private employer in the Inland Empire and 102 straight bad air days occurring in San Bernardino last summer, the strike and the location helped to amplify our message– our air is becoming increasingly unbreathable and corporations like Amazon are to blame.

The strike had our orgs and community members meet to rally together before marching to a nearby Amazon facility. There, youth community members spoke about how they’ve experienced the impacts of the climate crisis. Many people spoke to how they’ve seen friends and family members suffer through lung disease and illnesses, revealing a grim reality: having trouble breathing, having conditions that disrupt your ability to breathe are commonplace in the Inland Empire.

“Muscoy in San Bernardino has hundreds of corporations coming through polluting and building warehouses next to homes and schools. They are using our communities for profit. We have seen tons of activity in pollution from gas and diesel coming in and out of our communities. This summer alone, we had 80 bad smoggy air days. Down the street, the San Bernardino Airport wants to expand which means more pollution from the trucks and planes. We don’t know if these jobs will be good for our community and this warehouse right here is owned by the same developer, Hillwood.” 

-Angela

“The very industry that’s harming our environment and our health is the same industry that employs our family, friends, and fellow community members. And a lot of times, we feel these are the only jobs available to us.” 

-Dania

In planning the action, the coalition learned that the Amazon facility we would be marching to was temporarily closed due to retrofitting of the facility in order to install automation machinery. This served as a reminder of the cold truth of the impacts of Amazon’s obsession with streamlining efficient production lines– the need for human labor and people to fill those jobs will soon be obsolete if they are allowed to continue. As we continue to fight for sustainable solutions to the injustice we experience, we must remember that sustainability also means long-term commitments and security for workers and their families.

The testimonies that were given by the youth community members speak to how prevalent and invasive the problems stemming from warehouse development and air pollution have come to be. The turnout at San Bernardino’s Climate Strike point to the mounting urgency to address the climate crisis. Each warehouse that is developed in our region without community collaboration poses a threat to our well being. In our work with our partners in the San Bernardino Airport Communities, we are fighting to put checks on the development of the Eastgate project at the San Bernardino International Airport through a community benefits agreement in order to preserve the health of our communities and mitigate the harmful impacts of the project on the environment. As we continue to fight for a more sustainable future, we work to build solutions that are community-derived and worker-centered. 

You can learn how to become involved in the SB Airport Communities fight against the Eastgate project here:

https://sbairportcommunities.org/