Workers at Amazon's Largest Air Hub in the World Push for a Union
Published on November 28, 2022 at 03:43AM
"Amazon workers at the air hub outside the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky international airport, Amazon's largest air hub in the world, are pushing to organize a union," reports the Guardian, "in the latest effort to mobilize workers at the tech company." Workers say they are dissatisfied with annual wage increases this year. About 400 of them have signed a petition to reinstate a premium hourly pay for Amazon's peak season that hasn't been enacted at the site yet. Their main demands also include a $30 an hour starting wage, 180 hours of paid time off and union representation at disciplinary hearings.... About 4,500 workers are employed at the expanding air hub in Kentucky. Those organizing have already filed two unfair labor practice charges over Amazon's response to the unionization effort, which has included anti-union talking points on televisions and its communications system for employees that characterize the effort as a third-party scheme.... Organizing efforts at Amazon have spread beyond the JFK8 Staten Island, New York, warehouse, where workers won the first union election at an Amazon site in the US in April 2022. But they have yet to repeat the success.... Employees at an Amazon warehouse outside Raleigh, North Carolina, are now collecting union authorization signatures in hopes of filing for an election by this summer.... At other Amazon warehouses in Georgia, Minnesota, Illinois and California, workers have organized strikes and petitions to push the company to increase wages and improve working conditions. Steven Kelley, a learning ambassador at the Kentucky air hub, explained that most workers were paid less than $20 an hour. He said the pay wasn't commensurate with the dangerous work the workers perform, in a location where employee turnover was about 150%, with a constant training of workers who wind up quitting. He also said the disciplinary procedures at Amazon weren't transparent or communicated well enough.... He explained that workers weren't paid enough to live without roommates and made less than other workers in transportation and logistics because they were classified as retail employees. One worker at the Kentucy air hub complained to the Guardian, "We're the lifeblood of the company, not corporate, not upper management. We're actually the ones who are sorting the freight, and loading the freight."
Published on November 28, 2022 at 03:43AM
"Amazon workers at the air hub outside the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky international airport, Amazon's largest air hub in the world, are pushing to organize a union," reports the Guardian, "in the latest effort to mobilize workers at the tech company." Workers say they are dissatisfied with annual wage increases this year. About 400 of them have signed a petition to reinstate a premium hourly pay for Amazon's peak season that hasn't been enacted at the site yet. Their main demands also include a $30 an hour starting wage, 180 hours of paid time off and union representation at disciplinary hearings.... About 4,500 workers are employed at the expanding air hub in Kentucky. Those organizing have already filed two unfair labor practice charges over Amazon's response to the unionization effort, which has included anti-union talking points on televisions and its communications system for employees that characterize the effort as a third-party scheme.... Organizing efforts at Amazon have spread beyond the JFK8 Staten Island, New York, warehouse, where workers won the first union election at an Amazon site in the US in April 2022. But they have yet to repeat the success.... Employees at an Amazon warehouse outside Raleigh, North Carolina, are now collecting union authorization signatures in hopes of filing for an election by this summer.... At other Amazon warehouses in Georgia, Minnesota, Illinois and California, workers have organized strikes and petitions to push the company to increase wages and improve working conditions. Steven Kelley, a learning ambassador at the Kentucky air hub, explained that most workers were paid less than $20 an hour. He said the pay wasn't commensurate with the dangerous work the workers perform, in a location where employee turnover was about 150%, with a constant training of workers who wind up quitting. He also said the disciplinary procedures at Amazon weren't transparent or communicated well enough.... He explained that workers weren't paid enough to live without roommates and made less than other workers in transportation and logistics because they were classified as retail employees. One worker at the Kentucy air hub complained to the Guardian, "We're the lifeblood of the company, not corporate, not upper management. We're actually the ones who are sorting the freight, and loading the freight."
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