Posted on 10/14/2022 9:28:25 PM PDT by fluorescence
Scores of Amazon employees walked out of the Amazon Air Regional Air Hub in San Bernardino Friday, Oct. 14, to protest what they have called unfair labor practices and retaliation in response to their demands for better, safer jobs and a $5 hourly pay raise.
Crowds gathered on the corner of a street leading to the 659,000-square-foot warehouse, known as KSBD, where roughly 1,400 employees work.
Jane Chung, a spokesperson for the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, wrote in an email that 100 employees, or half the shift, went on strike Friday afternoon.
Night shift workers also were expected to walk out, Chung said.
Workers aired their grievances about their pay and working conditions to those in attendance and watching a livestream on social media.
The Inland Empire Amazon Workers United Twitter and Facebook accounts rallied around the hashtags “AmazonStrike” and “PayUpAmazon.”
“Workers at KSBD and across the country are standing up for what we deserve,” Rex Evans, an employee at the San Bernardino warehouse, said in a news release. “We have been targeted, threatened, and intimidated by Amazon managers and Amazon consultants and today we are on strike.
“Amazon has the resources and the power to improve the quality of jobs of the people who make them profitable, but they choose to spend millions on consultants instead of warehouse workers.”
In a statement Friday, Amazon wrote: “We value employee feedback and provide a number of ways for employees and managers to communicate directly with each other. While we are always listening and working on ways to improve the experience, we’re proud to offer compensation packages that not only include great pay, but also provide comprehensive benefits for regular full-time employees.”
Friday’s strike at KSBD was the second such demonstration in as many months.
On Aug. 15, dozens of employees walked out of the Third Street warehouse at the former Norton Air Force Base with the same demands. Six weeks later, Amazon announced a $1 pay increase for hourly workers as part of a $1 billion investment in front-line employees.
The Amazon employee group in San Bernardino denounced the $1 raise and subsequently gave the e-commerce giant until Oct. 10 to meet its demands.
With no response, the workers announced they would strike Friday.
“Amazon is bringing in outside consultants and managers who have tried to undermine what we are doing,” Alfonso Rodriguez, who works at KSBD, said in the release. “We are awake and we want to fix what is going on in this building. We want to make Amazon a better and safer place to work.”
The response should be that that location is being closed. And, there should be a sign adjacent to it stating, This Space For Rent.
No business should be subject to Blackmail by Leftists in Leftist states with the outrageous costs of living voted for by idiots who then demand that a business compensate them for their idiotic political policies.
But, Bezos himself is a Leftist so who knows what he will do.
what’s the basepay???
Min wage in Ca. is $15.00 an hour Amazon starts at $18.50 we have about 3 million NEW illegals in the country now these workers are being ridiculous!! Amazon is not union they offer a GREAT benefit package AND start at $3.50 above min wage!!
Wage-price spiral in action. Say Amazon raises the wages — then Amazon raises prices to pass on the increased labor cost — then the employees want more money — then the prices go up again — then . . . .
OK, so they want 23.50+ , thx...
Ten years ago, Jeff Bezos planned to restrain labor costs by steadily investing in automation.
The cost, complexity, and develop time for automation turned out to be much higher than anyone imagined.
Jeff Bezos resigned as CEO and appointed himself Executive Chairman of Amazon about one year ago.
I think Bezos clearly saw there was no way he could keep the lid on labor unrest anymore, so he dumped 100% of the responsibility onto a new CEO.
The distinction should be made between private sector bargaining and public sector extortion. In the case of the latter, the taxpayer is not represented. But for strikes in the private sector, those are the affairs of the business — the consumer will push back should the overall business value decline.
Public Unions and Minimum Wage must be outlawed.
Re: Minimum Wage must be outlawed.
I disagree.
Because of massive legal and illegal immigration, we have a massive surplus of low skill workers.
Wages for low skill labor have been artificially suppressed for decades.
American business has been equally damaged by the massive surplus. We are at least a full decade behind where we should be with our investments in expert software and labor saving devices.
The reason the work is not "safer" can be answered because, as the last line of the fund raising ads asking for even more money to support PBS says "people just like you."
The people who rob the workers during deliveries are not the decent citizens who look like Judge Smails.
Some punk stole one of my Amazon packages. When they found out it was not worth anything to sell to buy drugs they threw the contents into the dumpster as I saw later in the afternoon. I should order things easier to pawn, I guess.
Porch pirates are not people just like me.
My niece works at an Amazon facility in the Inland Empire. She loves it there and $18.50 is like a godsend to her. She’s 43 and just got her GED about 5 years ago. Sweet girl but not a rocket scientist, and certainly not deserving of a wage of $23.50 based on her skill set.
Cities have their own minimum wages.
Milpitas in South SF bay is 18.50 currently.
Menlo Park near Palo Alto is 19.25 as I understand it.
It’s probably 15 down there though.
Bezos is a multi-billionaire liberal. Why doesn’t he give workers anything they want?
Couldn’t happen to a better company. /s
Because of massive legal and illegal immigration, we have a massive surplus of low skill workers.
I can’t follow your point.
Minimum wages do not address that. All we have done is assure a higher floor for wages and higher inflation. The relative position on the wage scale remains the same.
With the automation and innovation you mention, we will only create a vast unemployable lower class, no matter the minimum wage.
Easier to shut down the distribution site.
I wonder what a five dollar per hour raise would actually cost Amazon? What are the real numbers?
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