“We’re Struggling”: Amazon Workers At Major California Air Hub Strike

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

Amazon workers’ recent historic win in New York to unionize turbocharged a labor movement now spreading from warehouses to its air cargo network. 

According to the Washington Post, workers at Amazon’s San Bernardino airfreight fulfillment center in Southern California on Monday left their posts in protest for higher pay and benefits.

“We’re not making enough to save anything … If something goes wrong with my car, I don’t have savings. I can’t afford to eat healthy food. I have to buy chicken nuggets or noodles,” said Sara Fee, a lead organizer of Inland Empire Amazon Workers United, who sorts packages at the air hub. 

Inland Empire Amazon Workers United said 150 workers from the Amazon Prime Air facility in San Bernardino walked out, while Amazon told WaPo (a Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper) it was more like 74 employees. This is the first instance of a coordinated labor action to hit Amazon’s air cargo network.

The workers are demanding a $5 per hour increase, health benefits, more safety standards inside the facility, and an end to “retaliation at the warehouse,” according to the organization’s Twitter account.

https://twitter.com/ieamazonworkers/status/1559268600992636928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1559268600992636928%7Ctwgr%5E5ab184de3d0d41ea955921a6b1e2d47946a32d26%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fmarkets%2Famazon-workers-major-california-air-hub-walk-job

The facility has approximately 1,500 workers and is the company’s seventh air terminal in California that uses Amazon Prime cargo planes to send packages across the country.

Another worker at the airfreight fulfillment center is Anna Ortega. She participated in yesterday’s walkout and hopes Amazon can increase her hourly pay because “it doesn’t make any sense that people who work here should be on food stamps or struggling financially.”

Organizers tweeted that Inland Empire, a metro area that includes the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside and borders Los Angeles County to the west, has “the largest warehouse hub in the US. It is the heart of our country’s supply chain and is made possible by hundreds of thousands of working people like us.”

This may suggest that more significant labor action in this area could create supply chain bottlenecks for Amazon and is something to keep an eye on.

Monday’s walkout highlights the growing labor movement within Amazon that is spreading after a New York fulfillment center unionized several months ago.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/amazon-workers-major-california-air-hub-walk-job

11 thoughts on ““We’re Struggling”: Amazon Workers At Major California Air Hub Strike”

  1. I have friends who work for Amazon or have family members who work there. They say Amazon doesn’t even consider them as employees unless they are in management. The drivers are mostly contracted and the hourly ones are treated like sh&t. Nothing but slave labor. All the benefits and money go to the higher ups and Jeff Bezos.

    They even won’t allow their workers to deliver anything over 30 pounds because they don’t want to pay them workman’s compensation. So they give all the heavy packages to the post office. UPS and FedEx used to work with them but after finding out that they were always being given the heavy stuff while Amazon drivers were given all the light packages and that they were not getting paid any extra for the shipments (basically taking advantage of them without any incentive), they all broke and cancelled their contracts with them.

    It’s one thing when they receive a few pallets a day of Amazon, but it’s another when they give them 30-50 a day and all of them are oversized and heavy packages in addition to shipments from other companies that they have to deliver that don’t even come close to the amount that Amazon gives them. At that point, companies have to start to wonder, “Do we work for Amazon now?”

    If Amazon can’t afford to deliver their own sh&t, then perhaps they need to find another line of business. No other company gets the special logistics privileges that they do. That’s how corrupt and twisted Amazon is.

    Reply

      1. Misty, let me put it this way, Amazon charges outside carriers/companies $0.99 per package regardless of size or weight.

        So when they give their drivers all the tiny packages and give all the other carrier companies their big, heavy, oversized package, weighing more than 30 pounds to the door, then you can see why UPS and FedEx has had enough of them when Amazon drivers nonchalantly carry the small packages to the door after them.

        Unfortunately the post office depends on them for some reason.

        Reply

        1. I agree, my husband is a rural postal carrier and he has to deliver shit tons of Amazon packages. I don’t get why the postal service has to deliver for Amazon?

          Reply

          1. Yea I’m currently working for the post office, too. This is what I’ve been seeing for almost 3 years now. During Christmas time and Prime week, we are basically Amazon employees because we literally get 120 pallets from them in 3 days and only 10-15 pallets from everyone else. It’s disgusting.

            Plus we’re so short on employees that we usually barely have enough time or manpower to deliver it all in one day. Most of us are literally casing and carrying two full routes a day. It’s insane.

      2. From the article:

        Analysts have estimated that “Amazon uses the Postal Service for 40 percent of its shipping and that the per-package cost works out to roughly $2, or about half of the standard rate charged by other big shippers.“

        40 percent is about right but $2 is bullshit. It’s $0.99.

        I wouldn’t be surprised if the postmaster general has backed door deals with Bezos.

        Reply

        1. Same here NC, Doc is suppose to have every other Sat. off but he doesn’t have a relief driver. Also if something happens and the amazon truck doesn’t show it’s double the work when the truck finally does come. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the postmaster general has backed door deals with Bezos.” Nailed it!!!!

          Reply

          2. “Also if something happens and the amazon truck doesn’t show it’s double the work when the truck finally does come.“

            Man, I truly hate Amazon with a passion.

  3. I don’t buy anything at Amazon
    Never have bought anything from Amazon
    Don’t plan to ever buy anything from there either
    Don’t give a fk who works there

    Reply

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