Punching In: Atlanta Amazon Workers Try Two-Part Safety Campaign

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.

Amazon Fighting Two Fronts in Atlanta| DOL Event Sparks Republican Ire

Tre’Vaughn Howard: Amazon workers in Atlanta are pushing forward with a two-fold effort to combat workplace safety concerns.

What started as employees at Amazon’s ATL6 facility in Atlanta seeking working bathrooms and water fountains has grown to federal workplace safety hazard complaints with two federal agencies, according to a labor organizer connected to the effort.

Employees at Amazon’s ATL6 facility in Atlanta recently filed workplace safety hazards complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Labor Relations Board.

“We’re actively engaged in both of those fights,” said Bianca Agustin, the co-executive director of United for Respect. UFR joined those employees at Amazon’s facility in late September to protest on the worker’s workplace safety concerns.

Workers allege they have been exposed to occupational hazards like temperatures reaching over 100 degrees and an alarming rate of vehicle break-ins in the facility parking lot. Amazon said in a statement that claims about the site being unsafe are false.

“The safety and health of our employees is and always will be our top priority—it comes before everything else we do,” said Eileen Hards, an Amazon spokesperson. “The recordable injury rate at ATL6 was below average at 3.55 in 2023 against an industry average of 6.8 for employers our size.”

Hards noted Amazon is one of few companies to have air-conditioning at their fulfillment centers. Amazon has industrial fans on center ceilings, encourages workers to take cool-down rest breaks, and provides heat-related illness training, Hards said while also referring to a post on the company’s efforts to combat heat in the workplace.

Still, Agustin says ATL6 employees have had to work even when the air conditioner breaks and managers have refused to give them water at times. Workers fear losing their jobs by speaking out about these conditions, she said.

“We’re continuing to fight the retaliation that’s happening in the facility, and really working with a ton of both national and community partners to try to raise standards,” she added.

Instead of settling the workers’ claims with the NLRB, Amazon has opted to challenge the constitutionality of the board. This adds to a growing list of challenges by companies seeking to challenge either the constitutionality of federal agencies’ in-house judge systems or the removal protections those judges retain.

While OSHA still has an open inspection into the facility, Agustin says one warehouse worker who went public on the OSHA complaint and was later fired has filed a whistleblower complaint with the federal agency.

“We’re working very hard to get people to realize that we have some ability to fight back,” Agustin said. “But it definitely had a chilling effect on the organizing. People are very fearful that Amazon will just terminate them.”

Amazon workers in Atlanta are pushing forward with a two-fold effort to combat workplace safety concerns.

Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Rebecca Rainey: House Education and the Workforce Committee Chair Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) last week questioned the political nature of an event at the US Labor Department headquarters meant to honor unions, including the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Fire Fighters.

In a letter to the DOL, Foxx asked the agency to hand over details from the gathering at the Frances Perkins building which celebrated nine unions being inducted into the agency’s “Century of Service Honor Roll of American Labor Organizations,” which recognizes unions that have existed for over 100 years.

The unions included: the American Train Dispatchers Association; Fraternal Order of Police; International Association of Fire Fighters; International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers; National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees; National Federation of Federal Employees; National Postal Mail Handlers Union; Service Employees International Union; and United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers.

The designation was created in 1992 during the George H. W. Bush administration by Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin and includes more than 50 labor unions across North America, according to the DOL. Labor organizations are added as they pass their 100-year anniversary.

Foxx said the “timing and apparent one-sided nature of this event are highly suspect” given that it was scheduled 49 days before the election and featured only union speakers.

“The Committee is concerned the event and panel discussion is another example of a pro-union pep rally held at DOL’s national headquarters at taxpayer expense,” Foxx’s letter said.

When asked to clarify what ethics concerns Foxx had with the event, AnnMarie Graham-Barnes, deputy communications director for the committee’s Republicans said that there’s no requirement to hold the event and noted that none of the inductees were established in 1924.

“So any suggestion that they’re recognizing a centennial doesn’t pass the smell test,” she said. “It looks like an attempt to justify an event that DOL was going to hold regardless in order to further the political agenda of the Biden-Harris administration.”

While many of the unions at the event have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, three appear to have not. The FOP endorsed former President Donald Trump. The IAFF declined to endorse a candidate after endorsing Biden in 2020. And the National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees doesn’t appear to have made an endorsement, based on their website and social media.

A DOL official said that the event has been held by both Republican and Democratic administrations in the past, and that the agency was also playing catch-up from the Trump administration, which didn’t honor the centennial of any labor organizations.

“The Department of Labor throughout this administration has engaged in good faith with responding to requests for information from members of Congress,” Jesse Lawder, a DOL spokesperson, said. “We will continue working to provide information that contributes to our shared mission to serve the workers, job seekers and retirees of this country.”

We’re punching out. Daily Labor Report subscribers please check in for updates during the week, and feel free to reach out to us.