FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Barrons, Persaud, Mitchell and community leaders are outraged that local property owners sign lease with Amazon without contacting local leaders in East New York
PRESS ADVISORY FROM THE OFFICES OF:
– NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL MEMBER INEZ BARRON
-NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMBER CHARLES BARRON
-NEW YORK STATE SENATOR ROXANNE PERSAUD
-COMMUNITY BOARD 5 CHAIR ANDRE T. MITCHELL
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CONTACT: 718-257-5824
Community leaders including Council Member Inez Barron, State Assembly Member Charles Barron, State Senator Roxanne Persaud and Community Board 5 Chair Andre T. Mitchell are outraged that local property owners signed leases with Amazon without communicating to local leaders. Amazon has a history of labor abuses. Amazon announced through the media that it has signed leases to build 2 new shipping centers, a half-mile apart in East New York. The new “delivery stations,” planned for 12555 Flatlands Avenue and 2300 Linden Blvd are expected to open in 2021.
It was only recently that 600 workers at Amazon’s warehouse on Staten Island in New York City, which began operations in late 2018, signed and delivered a petition to management calling on Amazon to improve working conditions. They also called attention to reports of high injury rates at the facility there, which were found to be three times the national average for warehouses, based on the company’s injury reports to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Overall, workers all across the country have reported low wages, unusually long hours, timed bathroom breaks, surveillance of work productivity/speed, intense isolation from others, physically demanding quotas, and other difficult conditions to work under at Amazon facilities.
The community leaders, elected officials and residents support job creation in the community but not at the expense of the well-being of the workers and community. They demand that any company that comes into East New York must treat people with dignity by providing jobs that pay a living wage (not just a minimum wage), access to healthcare, a pension, a safe and healthy work environment, and the right to unionize. In addition, we are gravely concerned about environmental issues such as traffic congestion and air pollution caused by Amazon’s trucks. The community leaders will be sending letters to the Governor’s office, the Mayor’s office, the Economic Development Corporation (EDC), and the local property owners expressing their concerns.
The lease agreements with Amazon, whose CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos, who is one of the richest people in the world and has a personal net worth of over $172 Billion, and the fact that Amazon, which has made tens of billions of dollars in profit during this pandemic, is only offering minimum wage. That is disrespectful, insulting and exploitative.