[Wages and safety concerns are behind the push but the company is
fighting fiercely to defeat the union drive, workers say]
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‘PEOPLE FEEL INTIMIDATED’: THE BATTLE TO UNIONIZE SECOND US
AMAZON WAREHOUSE
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Steven Greenhouse
September 29, 2022
The Guardian
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_ Wages and safety concerns are behind the push but the company is
fighting fiercely to defeat the union drive, workers say _
Amazon workers protest at the Staten Island warehouse in New York, on
1 April., Andrea Renault/AFP/Getty Images
Heather Goodall, a 50-year-old Amazon worker, began pushing for a
union at her Amazon warehouse just outside Albany, New York
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was alarmed about safety problems – items often fell off the
warehouse’s 27ft-high racks, she said.
“We’ve had packers who had items fall on them. Several complained
about concussions,” Goodall said. “You can see wires protruding
out. It could cause lacerations. It might take someone’s eyes
out.”
In early summer, Goodall turned into a dynamo, fighting for improved
safety and a union, asking co-worker after co-worker to sign pro-union
cards seeking a unionization election. She obtained so many signatures
that the National Labor Relations Board
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(NLRB) has set a union vote from 12 through 17 October, with the vote
count set for 18 October.
Goodall is hoping the ALB1 warehouse in Schodack, a dozen miles south
of Albany, will become the nation’s second unionized Amazon
facility, after workers at an 8,300-employee warehouse in Staten
Island
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New York, voted to join the Amazon Labor Union in April. The
Albany-area workers will vote on whether to join that same independent
union, although Goodall says Amazon is fighting fiercely to defeat the
union drive.
Kimberly Lane, a co-worker who is helping lead the union drive, said:
“The biggest issue is wages.” Lane has worked there for two years
and makes $16.20 an hour. “Some new hires are starting at $16.35,”
she noted, adding: “It’s ludicrous to live on that wage with this
cost of living. Some of these workers are the only breadwinners in
their household, and they have three children, and to pay for food,
gas and car maintenance, the numbers don’t add up.
“The second big reason people want to unionize is safety,” Lane
continued. “It seems that every day somebody gets injured.” She
talked of a worker who recently had the tips of two fingers cut off
while she was trying to remove something stuck in a machine. Lane said
the workers have counted 175 ambulances coming to the warehouse since
it opened two years ago.
“The overarching safety issue is the combination of this very
high-pressure, high-speed work environment with a physically unstable
environment because of the way they cut corners in handling
materials,” said Eric Frumin, health and safety director of the
union-backed Strategic Organizing Center.
The US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York has
launched an investigation of the Albany-area warehouse. The attorney
has asked the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) to visit not just that warehouse, but Amazon warehouses in
Chicago, Orlando, Colorado and Idaho
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The US attorney’s office said it was investigating injuries
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resulting from workplace hazards, worker rate requirements and the
pace of work, and whether Amazon accurately reported on-the-job
injuries.
The US attorney has a form asking Amazon workers to answer numerous
questions
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among them: “Have you seen workers working in unsafe ways to try to
meet their productivity/rate requirements?” “Do you believe that
Amazon discourages workers from reporting injuries?” and “Do you
believe Amazon managers retaliate against workers who report
injuries?”
Patrick Flaningan, an Amazon
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“We’ll of course cooperate with OSHA in their investigation, and
we believe it will ultimately show that these concerns are
unfounded.” Flaningan added: “The safety and wellbeing of our
employees at ALB1, and across the company, are our highest priority.
Across our network we’ve invested billions of dollars in new safety
measures and technologies to protect our employees.”
Goodall said that ever since the union drive began, she had been
repeatedly called into managers’ offices. Amazon once called the
police on her
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was outside the warehouse, asking workers to sign union cards. “They
are literally going through everything they can to fire, suspend or
write up every worker that is associated with the union,” Goodall
said. “A lot of people feel threatened and intimidated.”
On 26 August, Amazon surprised Goodall by giving a final written
warning – one step from being fired. She said managers accused her
of two things: first, driving the wrong way in a one-way Amazon
parking lot lane (she said the adjacent lane had been blocked) and
second, using her mobile phone to take photos of the warehouse’s
interior. Goodall told the Guardian that in late June she pointed out
several safety problems to her supervisor – of boxes stacked
dangerously and awkwardly in the 27ft-high racks – and he gave her a
go-ahead to take photos to document the problem. She subsequently sent
some of those photos to OSHA.
Seth Goldstein, a lawyer for the Amazon Labor Union, said Amazon’s
final warning to Goodall constituted illegal retaliation against her
for supporting a union and being a whistleblower to OSHA. “It’s a
clear case of retaliation,” Goodall said. “They’ll do anything
in their power to get me out of the building.”
In late August, Amazon fired Michael Verrastro, a 60-year-old packer
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after he kicked an empty box (which touched a fellow employer) out of
frustration that several pieces of Amazon technology he sought to use
that morning were malfunctioning, making it harder for him to meet his
production quotas. Verrastro was told he was fired for violating
Amazon’s workplace violence policy.
“I was stunned,” he said.
Verrastro said he was terminated not long after he told an Amazon
anti-union consultant: “I don’t like the aggressive way that
Amazon is fighting the union.” Verrastro, who has been battling
aggressive prostate cancer, said he might have been fired in
retaliation for what he told the consultant and because his cancer
treatment was costing Amazon so much. Now without health insurance, he
is alarmed about how he will pay for his cancer treatment.
“This is wrong,” Verrastro said. “I’m going to fight this.”
Any claims of retaliation are “absolutely false”, Amazon’s
Flaningan said. “We do not retaliate against employees for
exercising their federally protected rights.” He added that Amazon,
like any employer, asks its workers to meet certain minimum
expectations and then might “take appropriate and consistent action
when they’re unable to do that”.
At the ALB1 warehouse, Amazon has anti-union consultants speak to
workers one on one and requires workers to attend anti-union meetings,
where Amazon consultants badmouth the Amazon Labor Union, saying it is
unproven, will not accomplish anything and will charge lots in union
dues.
“Our unionization efforts are going well,” Lane said. The
pro-union workers talk to co-workers at the warehouse exit, in the
parking lot, in their apartments, in other people’s homes and in
bars. “The problem is we have to constantly fight Amazon management
violating our rights to talk to people and to hand out literature.”
Union supporters their literature keeps disappearing from bulletin
boards and break rooms.
Amazon denies violating any laws in fighting the union. “Our
employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union,”
Flaningan said. “We don’t think unions are the best answer for our
employees. Our focus remains on working directly with our team to
continue making Amazon a great place to work.”
Even with a final written warning hanging over her head, Goodall
continues to campaign tirelessly for the union, knowing the vote is
just weeks away. She fears that Amazon managers are eager to find a
reason to fire her.
“That’s why we need a union,” Goodall said. “There won’t be
a Heather Goodall at every warehouse.”
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* Amazon Organizing Drive
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