New Jersey must protect warehouse workers against COVID-19 | Opinion
(NJ.com) Here in New Jersey, warehouse workers have been classified by the state as essential workers. It’s not hard to understand why.
(NJ.com) Here in New Jersey, warehouse workers have been classified by the state as essential workers. It’s not hard to understand why.
Governor Murphy has implemented important measures to protect New Jersey workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as COVID-19 cases in warehouses grow, warehouse workers at companies like Barnes & Noble, Amazon and others are demanding additional state action. The Warehouse Workers Stand Up coalition has proposed Governor Murphy enact additional and immediate measures to protect warehouse workers.
(NJ.com) Two Barnes & Noble employees who worked at the company’s Monroe Township distribution center have died from complications related to the coronavirus, the company and others confirmed.
(NorthJersey.com) Somewhat lost amid the uproar around Gov. Phil Murphy’s directive that New Jersey parks be closed to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus was another executive order issued last week: No. 122. That order calls for more restrictions on essential retail stores, such as supermarkets — including limiting stores to a 50% occupancy rate and greater protections for workers at warehouses and in manufacturing, because, Murphy said, “no one should be working where social distancing isn’t being practiced to its fullest extent.”
Last week, Barnes & Noble workers in Monroe Township protested and demanded the company close this facility for two weeks with full pay to fully sanitize the facility, allow workers to self-quarantine during this closure and implement additional protections upon reopening.
If Barnes & Noble cannot guarantee the safety of its facilities it’s time for elected officials to act.
(Reporte Hispano) (In Spanish) Un grupo de trabajadores y activistas comunitarios protestaron a las puertas del almacén de depósito (warehouse) de Barnes & Noble, para exigir que la compañía ofrezca medidas de seguridad que eviten la propagación del COVID-19.
April 9, 2020 Barnes & Noble, COVID-19, Press clips Read more >
(My Central Jersey) MONROE – Employees of a Barnes & Noble distribution center in the township are demanding action by the company after at least five employees there tested positive for the coronavirus.
April 8, 2020 Barnes & Noble, COVID-19, Press clips Read more >
(My Central Jersey) Warehouse workers at Barnes & Noble protested Tuesday afternoon for safer working conditions after 9 employees contracted COVID-19. (Photo Gallery)
April 8, 2020 Barnes & Noble, COVID-19, Press clips Read more >
(News12) Barnes & Noble workers in Monroe Township protested Tuesday after they were upset nine warehouse employees tested positive for coronavirus.
April 8, 2020 Barnes & Noble, COVID-19, Press clips Read more >
(Vice) Nine Barnes & Noble workers in a single New Jersey warehouse have tested positive for Covid-19, Motherboard has learned. Workers there are staging a protest at the factory Tuesday because they say the company hasn’t given them sufficient protections.
April 7, 2020 Barnes & Noble, COVID-19, Press clips Read more >
(CNN) Employees at the facility received a letter from management Tuesday morning telling them as many as nine of their coworkers are currently suffering from Covid-19 symptoms, according to a spokesman for the Laundry Distribution and Food Service joint board union, which helped organize a planned protest by Barnes & Noble workers Tuesday. Only five of the nine alleged Covid-19 cases have been confirmed by doctors, Barnes & Noble director of communications Alex Ortolani told CNN Business.
April 7, 2020 Barnes & Noble, COVID-19, Press clips Read more >
(NJ.com) The 800 workers at the Barnes & Noble distribution center in Monroe Township are considered essential —so, while many people are working from home to help combat the spread of the coronavirus, they aren’t.
April 7, 2020 Barnes & Noble, COVID-19, Press clips Read more >
The workers said they are angered and alarmed by news that there are nine confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Barnes & Noble warehouse. Management gave them the news in a letter earlier today, sparking
April 7, 2020 Barnes & Noble, COVID-19, Press clips Read more >
If you do not feel safe at work contact us at info@warehouseworkersstandup.org or (973) 735-6514
Based on guidelines from the government, Warehouse Workers Stand Up urges employers to follow these practices:
Chart with different scenarios and related benefits by the New Jersey Department of Labor regarding COVID-19.
A Target warehouse facility in northern New Jersey is set to become the first in the company’s nearly 60-year history to face a public union campaign when labor officials announce their intentions to unionize the distribution facility on Thursday.
Current and former employees of the Target warehouse in Perth Amboy met with city and union officials on Thursday, Feb. 20 to push for unionization with SEIU and better working conditions at the facility and across the company.
More than 50 people came out to the Target warehouse on Thursday, Feb. 20 to support the unionization efforts of Target employees.
Former employees of the Target warehouse on High Street said conditions at the facility were “like a prison” and workers were treated “like robots.”
Target Corp. had hoped to test new strategies at its 718,000-square-foot warehouse in New Jersey, but a labor-organizing effort probably wasn’t what the retailer had in mind.
Today, at a news conference, recent Target warehouse employees in Perth Amboy, New Jersey went public with details of their mistreatment on the job.
A labor clash is brewing at a Target Corp. warehouse in New Jersey where the retailer is testing a new approach to distribution.
My name is Tamara Clay from Camden, NJ, I’m a warehouse worker and as a proud union member I’m speaking out about the state of our industry. I’m old enough to have experience in plenty of warehouses. Because of that, I can understand why warehouse workers across the state are… Read more >
Reporte Hispano – 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.
WCBS – With hundreds of new warehouses popping up in New Jersey, the group Warehouse Workers Standup is demanding the state withhold subsidies for developers who don’t adhere to a code of conduct to raise working standards.
NJ.com – OSHA fined the same location $7,000 in 2015 for a violation of “recording criteria.” It also investigated an Amazon facility in Avenel in 2013 after a worker was crushed and killed by equipment. Citations in that incident were issued to Genco, a third-party logistics firm operating the facility, and four temporary staffing agencies.
App – Outside, a group of labor advocates called on Amazon, the large e-commerce retailer, to improve safety conditions and programs inside the warehouse, two weeks after one worker was critically injured and two dozen others were sent to the hospital after a can of bear repellent fell off a shelf and discharged.
New Jersey’s policymakers and elected officials are urged to take immediate action to pressure warehouse distribution centers to adopt the proposed code of conduct. Where possible, they can use
legislation and economic development policy to require implementation of the code of conduct. Enforcement of the proposed code of conduct by New Jersey’s local and state officials is crucial for improving job quality for warehouse workers and for giving New Jersey’s working families a better future.
The Guardian – A coalition of labor advocacy groups is pushing New Jersey to enforce a “code of conduct” for warehouse workers at Amazon and other major online retailers, which includes a minimum wage, stabilized work hours and the right to unionise.
Wall Street Journal – Labor groups are pressing for greater protections for warehouse workers in New Jersey, one of the biggest and fastest-growing distribution areas in the U.S., after an accident at an Amazon.com Inc. facility there that sickened dozens of employees last week.
App – New Jersey’s sprawling Ports of Newark, Elizabeth and Bayonne and its network of highways are helping to fuel the Garden State’s transformation into the warehouse state, an engine fueled by e-commerce deliveries.
But labor unions and community organizers said it comes at a high cost: dangerous workplace conditions and low wages.
NJTV Online – More than 50 warehouse workers, union representatives and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka rallied about being overworked and underpaid after a newly released report by Warehouse Workers Standup showed employees face constant pressure to meet the demands of faster delivery in unsafe work environments.
App – Warehouse Workers demand safety and respect at the Port of Newark
The incident “implies a profound lack of safety planning and training,” said Alberto Arroyo, co-manager of the Laundry, Distribution & Food Service Joint Board of the Workers United/SEIU union, and Debra Coyle McFadden, executive director of the NJ Work Environment Council, in a joint statement. The two groups are part of Warehouse Workers Stand Up, a coalition that is campaigning for reforms to protect warehouse workers.
Una de las cosas que más lamenta la mexicana Liliana Morales es no haber podido hacer una fiesta o un regalo a su hijo mayor después de que este se graduara con honores y fuera becado y aceptado en Montclair. Pero los $1,250 que dedica al alquiler mensualmente, las facturas, la baby sitter para el menor de sus tres hijos dejan poco margen a esta madre soltera de 34 años que trabaja en uno de los sectores más pujantes: el almacenaje para el comercio electrónico en Nueva Jersey.
Warehouse workers and representatives of labor unions and community groups kicked off that fight Tuesday in front of an Amazon distribution center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge Township. They staged a rally to launch a campaign to pressure Amazon and other e-commerce shippers to increase wages and allow warehouse workers to organize.
Letting Amazon know that we make the holidays happen and we demand a living wage and the freedom to form a union.
(northjersey.com) A group of New Jersey workers stood in the cold outside an Amazon Books store in Manhattan on Wednesday to remind shoppers that their online purchases are made possible by warehouse employees who often are underpaid and denied normal workplace benefits.
(CBS) “All we’re asking Amazon is to respect their workers, pay them a decent wage. We’re asking for a code of conduct,” said a 73-year-old woman who said she makes $10.90 an hour.
“Management sees that we are immigrants who are willing to work hard. These companies try to take advantage of us. They know we came here to work hard because we believe in the American dream. Instead of rewarding its workers, they try to exploit us more every day. But I… Read more >
“I work at a clothing distribution center. I work at that warehouse for 20 years and I’m still paid less than $15 an hour. Many of us are paid less than $10 an hour. Who can live with that?” Miguel Rosario, Distribution worker.
(My Central New Jersey) Warehouse workers at a clothing distribution facility that services such large retailers as Amazon, Walmart, Macy’s and JCPenney held a two-hour strike Wednesday morning.