Evacuate, everybody
go get that bag [SOUND] >> You just watched
a video featuring a fire that broke out at an Amazon warehouse in New York,
JFK 8 to be specific.
And that's also the warehouse that happened to Unionize in Staten Island.
Now, when workers rightfully protested in response to the safety hazard,
amazon actually retaliated by illegally suspending dozens of them.
And I'll give you their reasoning for why they did that in just a moment.
But first, why don't we get to the details of what transpired during the fire.
What the employees were expected to do, why they protested and what that led to.
Well, the fire ended up breaking out in a trash compactor on Monday afternoon.
Seth Goldstein who happens to be a lawyer for the Amazon Labor Union ALU,
said that the compactor had been smoking for weeks before the fire.
And he continues to say, God forbid, they have to replace the compactor and
lose their profits by the way.
How much could that possibly cost when you consider how much they make in profits?
One of the reasons people are unionizing at amazon is because the employer cares
about profits and doesn't care about their lives.
Where's the transparency here?
Well, something we talk about a lot on this show is that the way
the system is set up literally makes it so
these employers so that Amazon puts profit over human lives.
Because their number one priority, their number one responsibility, is to their
shareholders, not to their employees, they see their employees as a cost.
So the idea of keeping their employees safe,
even as a fire is breaking out in the warehouse, that might be costly.
The idea of preventing fires from taking place by replacing faulty equipment,
it's gonna cut into the profits a little bit, fiduciary responsibility.
This is how the system works.
Now, let me give you more details.
A fire crew was sent to the warehouse, no one was injured luckily,
and day shift employees were sent home early with pay.
That was the right thing to do, sending the employees home early.
There's a fire, they shouldn't be there, even if the fire doesn't get to them.
You have to keep in mind that we're talking about toxic fumes,
we're talking about unhealthy air quality, you don't want them to be there.
But then things get a little sketchy.
The night shift employees were not informed of the fire at all.
They had no idea that had happened, they show up to work and
they noticed that things are a little weird, smells strange.
When they arrived to the warehouse,
the night shift employees were taken into the break room and
told that they had to work despite the fire that had just occurred.
At this point, the warehouse is still pretty dangerous.
According to the employees overwhelmingly smelled like smoke from the fire.
Workers were concerned about inhaling these toxic fumes as they should be and
some couldn't even breathe.
In fact, one of the workers ended up being hospitalized as a result of being there
and as a result of inhaling those toxic fumes.
So this is no joke.
There was a fire in that warehouse, it was unsafe.
And rather than ensuring that conditions in that warehouse were safe enough for
employees to come back, they said no you got to come back to work night shift,
you got to be here.
Now, instead of returning to work around 650 of the workers
simply refused to leave the break room.
So there they are, they're protesting and they're doing so
by engaging in this work stoppage.
The work stoppage lasted nearly three hours according to the ALU.
And almost 100 workers marched into the manager's office to demand
that workers get sent home with pay, much like the day shift workers did.
Now, they also were given a pretty insulting offer for a pay raise.
Workers also protested an offer of a woo, wow, 25 cent raise that
the company had made in the past week which the union called insulting and
it is insulting when you consider inflation.
And said would amount to a pay cut due to inflation and
the fact that workers at the warehouse still, have still yet
to have their union recognized by the $1.2 trillion dollar company.
So, while the immediate situation involving this fire and
the toxic fumes was enough for them to engage in this work stoppage.
There were other issues at play as well including the insulting
offer to raise their pay by a whopping 25 cents an hour.
Yesterday Amazon decided you know what, we should probably listen to our workers,
just kidding.
No, they didn't do that.
They decided they would retaliate against the workers who decided to engage in
the work stoppage.
And so 10 of whom were union leaders by the way.
10 of them were retaliated against union leaders.
The ALU has stated that the number could actually be as high as 80 employees
in total who are retaliated against.
Now company spokesman Paul Flanagan,
said that while Amazon respects workers rights to protest, no they don't.
It is not appropriate for employees to occupy active workspaces,
break rooms or thoroughfares in its warehouses.
But, that's actually incorrect.
As Seth Goldstein mentioned, he called the suspensions of the Staten Island
workers quote, a violation of workers rights to join in a collective action
about the terms and conditions of their employment.
The workers didn't feel safe going back to work.
They were engaging in rights that have been protected for
85 years under the National Labor Relations Act, Goldstein said.
And Seth is correct.
So, the Seattle times, fact checked this and
under federal labor law, employees have a right to engage in so
called concentrated activity for mutual aid or protection.
In this case, they're seeking protection from toxic fumes in a warehouse
that just experienced a fire.
The union said that it intended to file an unfair labor practice
charge in response to the suspensions.
Now, look, we have talked about the conditions in which these
warehouse workers have been working at Amazon.
Incredibly hot conditions during the summertime, the refusal to use fans or
AC, the refusal to give these workers necessary breaks.
This obsession with tracking how many bathroom breaks they take,
how long those bathrooms takes last.
Even when you talk about some of the delivery drivers for Amazon,
we did a story talking about how the demands are so unbearable.
They have so much on their plate that the delivery drivers are reduced to
defecating in plastic bags in their vehicles.
So, none of this really surprises me.
But I hope for anyone who might have been on the fence in regard to whether or
not it makes sense for workers to organize.
Hopefully stories like this convince you, that it is a good idea, that if you don't
have collective bargaining, if you don't have organized workers.
Well, those workers really have no say over their working conditions,
over there, pay over the way they're treated,
even when there's a disaster in the warehouse they're working in.
So, just to give you a few other examples though,
Amazon employed only about 33% of warehouse workers in 2021,
it was responsible for 49% of warehouse injuries that year.
Also, the report's authors say that the reason for
Amazon's high injury rate is the company's strict quotas and obsession with speed.
Which it monitors using invasive surveillance systems that track workers
every move.
The company also pushes hurt workers to keep working while they are recovering,
even if the work will perpetuate the injury or make it worse.
So, there are certain musculoskeletal disorders like carpal tunnel or back pain.
Those things are common among Amazon workers,
according to an investigation that was done.
So, this is a real problem for warehouse workers, this is a real problem for
people who are employed at Amazon.
You might come across some of Amazon's cheesy ads where they purport to treat
their workers really well and we pay for their educational experiences.
The fact of the matter is, when you're dealing with the situation where your
employer is expecting you to come into a warehouse that just had a fire and
you can still smell smoke.
They're still toxic fumes.
No, that company does not actually care about your well being and your health.
And I'm really glad that these workers got together.
Did this sit in and decided, no, we're not gonna take it.
We're not gonna put our lives and
bodies on the line just to maintain the profits that our employer demands of us.
We're not gonna take it, and I love that they had the power to do that.
Now, the real question is, will there be consequences for Amazon after they decided
to illegally suspend dozens of their employees who took part in this?
We'll see.
We'll keep an eye on this story and update you guys as we learn more.
But, it is telling that, right now, you have politicians running
around fearmongering about high school students dressing as furries and
using litter boxes and school bathrooms.
When in reality you have workers who are being used and
abused like crazy all across this country.
They don't care about that.
They want to empower that.
But they got to distract from the fact that they want to
empower that by pointing to whatever squirrel,
whatever made up culture war issue they need to distract you with.
And today, apparently, it's furries and we'll get to that later in the show.