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.

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.

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.

(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.