Protestors Rally at NJ Amazon Warehouse to Demand Worker Protections At Plant Where Workers Injured, Sickened

Advocates, Leaders, and Elected Officials Rally at Amazon Warehouse in Robbinsville, New Jersey to Demand Better Protections for Workers and Fairer Production Quotas

 Today, advocates, elected officials, leaders, and workers rallied at an Amazon warehouse in Robbinsville, New Jersey to demand better protections and fairer production quotas for employees who handle the fulfillment of e-commerce orders.

Participants in today’s news event included: State Senator Linda Greenstein; State Assemblymember Daniel Benson; members and leaders of Warehouse Workers Stand Up; the New Jersey Work Environment Council; New Labor; Make the Road New Jersey; the New Jersey Communications Workers of America (CWA); Working Families Alliance of New Jersey; and the Laundry, Distribution, and Food Service Joint Board of Workers United, SEIU.

The rally in Robbinsville, New Jersey comes amid a growing push to end worker injuries at Amazon, and to improve job quality for employees who pack and process items at e-commerce fulfillment centers run by Amazon in New Jersey and across the country.

Earlier this month, dozens of Amazon warehouse workers at this Robbinsville facility were injured and sickened by an exploding can of bear repellent. And a federal OSHA investigation at the same facility in 2015 found that management had failed to properly record 26 work-related injuries and illnesses during the period July 2015 through November 2015.

Meanwhile, a new report from Warehouse Workers Stand Up reveals that these workers perform increasingly dangerous jobs and face constant pressure to meet the demands of faster delivery for e-commerce customers. New Jersey’s warehouse workers handling e-commerce fulfillment for Amazon regularly operate dangerous machines.

Since 2013, nine Amazon workers have had fatal accidents in the workplace, including one fatality at an Amazon warehouse in Avenel, New Jersey.

Amazon and other e-commerce companies choose to hire much of their workforce on a temporary basis, despite earning record profits that could easily support the creation of more high-quality, full-time jobs. According to Digital Commerce 360, Amazon has hired 100,000 temporary workers just for the 2018 holiday season.

“Amazon talks a lot about safety, it’s time for this company to take action. The relentless pace of work inside Amazon warehouses continues to put workers at risk of injury, illness and even death — especially during this busy holiday season,” said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH).

NCOSH has found a “disturbing pattern of preventable deaths” at Amazon’s facilities. The organization included Amazon in its 2018 report of dirty dozen employers who put workers and communities at risk for unsafe practices. The report found that “Amazon workers suffer injuries – and sometimes lose their lives – in a work environment with a relentless demand to fill orders and close monitoring of employee actions.”

“Despite an Amazon twitter campaign earlier this year assuring us that working there is awesome, Amazon continues to expose workers to unsafe working conditions leading to injuries and fatalities. This was highlighted at the Amazon Robbinsville warehouse two weeks ago when 24 workers were taken to the hospital after being exposed to a ruptured can of bear repellent. Amazon needs to do more than a cheap public relations campaign to make its workplaces safe,” said Debra Coyle McFadden, Executive Director, NJ Work Environment Council and Treasurer of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.

“Instead of offering massive tax breaks to employers like Amazon, New Jersey should be looking into the conditions faced by warehouse workers for large retailers like Amazon. While it might seem great to order presents at the click of a button, that convenience should not come at the expense of the safety and well-being of the tens of thousands of low wage warehouse workers in our state,” said Craig Garcia of Make the Road New Jersey, an organization based in Elizabeth, New Jersey that organizes immigrants, youth and workers to impact policies affecting their lives.

“Most of us, as consumers, like the convenience that a large multinational corporation like Amazon can provide. When we click a button, our purchase can arrive in two days or sooner.  But we don’t always think about how those products actually get to our doors so quickly. Often it’s because of a temp worker or immigrant worker fulfilling our order in unsafe conditions. Workers lives shouldn’t be on the line just so we can get our stuff a little faster. Amazon must be held accountable for dangerous conditions in its warehouses and across its global supply chain,” said Louis Kimmel, Executive Director of New Labor, an organization based in New Brunswick, New Jersey that represents and organizes temp workers and immigrant workers in warehouses.

“With the holiday season upon us, it’s crunch time at Amazon and other e-commerce distributors. Warehouse workers in New Jersey are under a lot of pressure to meet unreasonable productivity quotas.  Too often, their jobs are unsafe and lead to injuries. We came out today to show Amazon workers here in Robbinsville that we have their backs. The safety and well-being of warehouse workers is a top priority for our communities and for New Jersey. It’s time for Amazon to step up and do more to protect its warehouse workers,” said Megan Chambers, Co-Manager of the Laundry, Distribution & Food Service Joint Board, Workers United, SEIU.

-Marlene Peralta

 When emailed for comment about the working conditions and accidents at the facility today and yesterday, Amazon executives had not responded to ReporteHispano reporters. When questioned also today and earlier this year about the exclusion of Hispanic and woman-owned media from hiring advertising for employees being run by contract hiring agencies rather than directly and in the Amazon media policy of excluding Hispanic and woman-owned media from local hiring advertising in print newspapers and in NJ, Amazon and its various intermediary temporary hiring agencies have not commented as to why Hispanic and women-owned and independent media are excluded from media buying for hiring.