The warehouse sector that supports the multi-billion dollar e-commerce economy is booming. New Jersey shouldn’t give tax breaks to corporations that exploit the warehouse workers who make it happen.
As the governor looks to reform our state subsidy programs, New Jersey should attach enforceable labor standards to the incentives that warehouse operators, e-commerce companies, and logistics firms receive for doing business here in New Jersey.
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.
I’ve been working at Macy’s logistics in Secaucus, New Jersey for thirty-eight years. We handle jewelry, watches, and even iPads. We ship them to the stores. And we have a whole department that handles internet customer orders that ships to individual customers all over the United States. Since Amazon got… Read more >
I have been working for over fifteen years in the Freeze Central Mills warehouse. Freeze is a national company that distributes clothes with designs to retail stores. We have worked with Disney-licensed clothes, such as T-shirts with images of Mickey Mouse, that are sold online at Amazon and sent to… Read more >
Eva/S & S gave us an employees’ benefit book that says they provide fair treatment for workers. But this is not the reality. There are more than 150 workers in the warehouse, mostly immigrant women. There is a lot of turnover. Workers are fired, without a good reason, and others resigned due to poor working conditions.
I work full-time. Sometimes even 50 hours a week or more. However, I’m not considered a regular employee. They’ve never offered me health insurance; I have no paid time off, not even paid sick days.