Contractors strike against Amazon over ‘total disregard for worker safety’ – Sourcing Journal

Two weeks after the union was formed with the International Brotherhood of carters84 contract workers for Amazon demonstrated outside the e-commerce giant’s warehouse in Palmdale, California delivery station on Thursday.

The delivery drivers and dispatchers protested Amazon’s wages and what the union described as “utter disregard.” occupational safety.”

While the delivery drivers drive Amazon vans and only deliver Amazon Packages are not directly employed by the Seattle company. You are employed by the third party and former Amazon partner Battle-Tested Strategies. The Delivery on the last mile The company agreed to voluntarily recognize the union, and Palmdale workers joined Teamsters Local 396.

“It has been two weeks since we informed Amazon that we have formed a union to address the unacceptable conditions faced by Amazon delivery drivers, but Amazon has refused to sit down to address these.” solve problems,” said Jessie Moreno, an Amazon driver who is participating in the information post. “We know that employees are the backbone of Amazon and that without us, the packages will not be delivered. Today we are sending a message to Amazon to take our union and our safety seriously.”

Amazon ended its partnership with Battle-Tested Strategies on April 14, citing breach of contract, although the contract officially ends on June 24.

When the contractor voted to form a union, Amazon spokeswoman Eileen Hards said that Battle-Tested Strategies “had a track record of non-performance and had been notified of termination for poor performance well in advance.” [the] Notice.” She continued, “This situation is more about an outside company trying to distract from its history of failing to meet its obligations.”

Hards reiterated those comments in a statement to Sourcing Journal after the union demonstration, but pointed out that Battle-Tested Strategies was tried five times for breach of contract, specifically for failing to follow proper safety procedures, maintaining the fleet and paying insurance providers .

Battle-Tested Strategies did not immediately respond to Sourcing Journal’s request for comment.

Last year, the 1.2 million-member union launched one Amazon department focused on organizing the tech giant’s warehousing and logistics staff.

The union already represents around 340,000 UPS workers, with both parties initially operating at the national level contract negotiations prior to the expiration date of the current agreement on July 31st. And more than 1,100 DHL Express Dock and tugboat workers at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) also voted to form a union.

According to the Teamsters, Amazon drivers organized with the union over concerns about their safety in extreme temperatures, which regularly top 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Palmdale in the summer.

In 2023 alone, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited seven Amazon facilities for ignoring security risks. In April, the government agency said Amazon failed to provide adequate medical treatment for traumatic and chronic injuries at a logistics center in Castleton, NY

OSHA is currently conducting 20 open inspections at Amazon facilities in the United States.

“We are risking our health to deliver the packages from Amazon,” said a second driver, Michael Lieb. “It feels like an oven in the back of these vans and Amazon won’t fix that.” air conditioner although we’ve been asking about it for years. I’m dizzy from the heat, but I don’t have time to take a break because we’re under a lot of pressure to deliver all the packages. We hold Amazon responsible for this.”

The union deal will raise drivers’ wages to $30 an hour by September and, in theory, also guarantee workers’ rights to drive safe equipment and refuse unsafe deliveries. However, the union argues that realizing the contractual protections will require an overhaul of Amazon’s “exploitative” measures. Work practices methods exercises.

“Nobody can live on $19.75 an hour in California. It’s half what other workers doing the same work at other companies make,” said another Amazon driver, Cecilia Porter. “This is one of the richest companies in the world and the workers who make it profitable shouldn’t have to choose between paying our bills and feeding our families.”

Although there is now a major union push against Amazon in both the US and UK that is gaining traction, only one warehouse has successfully organized so far. That would be that “JFK8” bearings in Staten Island, NY, whose workers voted to be represented by the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) last April. Amazon appealed and delayed acceptance of the election results at JFK8 and has not yet entered into negotiations with the ALU.

Workers at two separate warehouses in New York, including a second, smaller warehouse on Staten Island, voted against unionizing. And in Bessemer, Alabama, multiple times The trade union votes failedeven after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Amazon illegally intervened in the first attempt at voting.

Over in England, workers in a warehouse in Coventry strike for 14 days between January and April. The facility’s staff are also demanding formal union recognition after membership more than doubled during the strike action.

The GMB, the union representing UK-based Amazon workers who want to organise, said its members at the fulfillment centers in the English towns of Rugeley and Mansfield will be voting over the next few weeks on whether to launch an industrial action campaign .