EGN NEWS DESK
My husband and I work full-time for one of many wealthiest firms on the earth. So why can’t we afford to begin a household?
For 4 years, my husband, Andrew, and I’ve pushed supply automobiles for Amazon all through Southern California. My job means lots to me. Rain or shine, I make over 160 stops a day delivering packages in my neighborhood, and I’m proud figuring out that what I do makes a distinction in individuals’s lives. But for too lengthy, Amazon has taken benefit of me and my co-workers.
You would possibly assume a company price greater than $2 trillion would deal with its staff higher. At Amazon’s facility within the City of Industry, often called DAX5, we earn $22 per hour and I’m not paid for my lunch break. I work 4 days per week, for 10 hours per day, and don’t make sufficient to cowl the price of residing in California.
The vans we drive are soiled and infrequently unsafe. On high of that, we’re always monitored by cameras inside our vans trying to find the smallest infractions—even throughout our breaks.
But maybe worst of all, Amazon has tried to dam my co-workers and I from exercising our rights. They do that at my facility and others prefer it by hiring drivers by supposedly unbiased firms, known as Delivery Service Partners (DSPs), that ship packages completely for Amazon. By doing that, they declare we’re not actually their staff and that they don’t have to cut price with us if we kind a union.
And it doesn’t cease there. If you wish to be employed by a DSP, you apply for the job by the Amazon web site. The routes we drive are decided by Amazon’s algorithms. And Amazon units our schedules and has the flexibility to self-discipline and fireplace us.
Even although my whole job revolves round Amazon—whether or not it’s sporting an Amazon uniform or driving and delivering Amazon merchandise—they argue that I’m not actually an Amazon employee.
At DAX5, all of this has made us really feel powerless. For Andrew and me, the uncertainty and unhealthy circumstances we face at work have compelled us to place off beginning a household. We merely can’t afford it.
Why Amazon staff are unionizing
With how a lot we’re up towards, it appeared like there was nothing we may do to get forward in life. But then I heard about different Amazon staff who’ve been main a motion to demand their rights by becoming a member of the Teamsters Union, and I turned impressed to get entangled.
After researching the subject extra, I realized in regards to the contracts the Teamsters Union has gotten for staff throughout the nation—together with at firms like UPS. UPS is price about 20 instances lower than Amazon, however the drivers who do the identical work as me are paid considerably increased wages on common. Many of their amenities have carwashes and mechanics on web site. And as a result of they’re Teamsters, they’ve extra job safety. Meanwhile, our administration can fireplace us if we have a look at them humorous. Hearing in regards to the Teamsters made me notice that I wanted to do one thing to safe a greater future—not only for me and Andrew but additionally for the household we wish to begin sometime.
Off the clock, we began speaking to different DAX5 drivers about what the Teamsters have accomplished for staff at different firms and discovered our co-workers share a whole lot of the identical views. In November, after months of getting lengthy, exhausting conversations, a majority of drivers in our facility have been in favor of changing into Teamsters, so we launched our union.
Since then, Amazon has refused to acknowledge us and negotiate a contract. We imagine what they’re doing is unfair and unlawful. Now, staff have had sufficient. Thousands of Amazon Teamsters throughout America are taking to the picket line to demand a good labor settlement. Workers from Amazon amenities in New York, Georgia, Illinois, and California are on strike. And total, staff are picketing at a whole lot of Amazon amenities.
We don’t wish to combat with Amazon. All we wish is to come back to work, do our jobs, and earn sufficient to reside on. But Amazon has left us no different selection. If we don’t act now, Amazon’s company greed will unfold like a illness to different firms and make them assume they’ll get away with treating their staff simply as poorly.
The approach I see it, now we have to combat for our rights—they received’t be given to us without cost. At Amazon, we’re able to do no matter it takes to lastly get the respect now we have earned.
