“Amazon is creating prison-like conditions.” Amazon Union Organizing Reaches Upstate New York.

By Eddie Velasquez

Source: Heather Goodall

In the aftermath of the historic Amazon Labor Union victory at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, workers in Upstate New York are fighting to create a “domino effect” of union activity all across the Empire State.

Amazon Labor Union (ALU) — an independent group of aggrieved workers fed up with what they described as substandard working conditions at a warehouse in New York City — won its union vote in April, making the Staten Island facility the first successful organizing effort against Amazon in the United States. Warehouse workers cast 2,654 votes — or close to 55 percent — in favor of a union, giving a nascent ALU a major victory.

For workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Schodack, a small town near Albany, the historic victory has shown the possibilities of having a seat at the bargaining table. The one million square foot facility opened in Rensselaer County in September of 2020. Amazon leadership and area elected officials claim the facility can support 1,000 full-time workers. 

“I didn't take the job at Amazon (in Schodack) in February with the intention of forming a union,” said Heather Goodall, a single-mother helming the union campaign in the town’s Amazon fulfillment center. “But if you have a union you're going to have that united voice. A union affords you the opportunity to live a better life, to have a better quality of life, and affords you the same protections that your employer has.”

Goodall, a former licensed health and life insurance agent in New York who has previously worked in human resources, said she has been hard at work building relationships with workers and management for months. Building those relationships, she added, has helped her stand up to injustices perpetrated by management.

“I myself went down with COVID-19 for two weeks,” Goodall said. “I noticed some discrepancies in the claims that Amazon had filed due to COVID-19 in addition to how they were paying. I discovered that several employees were not paid at all or were paid partially. When I returned from (my COVID-19 episode), I saw a sign that read ‘no more COVID-19 pay, no more excuses.’”

Instead of guaranteeing pay for employees who contracted the virus, Goodall said, management asked employees to dip into their paid time off, unpaid time off, and vacation time reserves to secure pay during their sick time. According to Amazon Emancipatory, a digital chronicling of what it is like to be an Amazon employee in Indiana, there are three types of time off for an Amazon tier-one associate: 

• PTO or personal time — 48 hours per year 

• UPT or unpaid time off — 20 hours per quarter, amounting to 80 per year

• Vacation time — 40 hours first year.

In some instances, workers at the facility in Schodack have experienced an on-and-off type of working relationship with Amazon, describing it as at-will employment. 

Ali Kaplan, working in inventory control quality and assurance, has been with Amazon in Schodack for 10 months. Kaplan, who is in full support of unionizing, has been fired twice and rehired both times shortly after his termination.

“It is so hard to work there with the low wages,” he said. “I live 45 minutes away from the facility and my schedule usually starts at 4:15 a.m., so I have to wake up at 2 a.m. in the morning. I feel like I'm waking up for nothing because I'm working six days a week — getting overtime and everything — and I still even can't even afford my own apartment. I feel like I'm working for nothing.”

Goodall and Kaplan saw Amazon as an opportunity to bring jobs to a small town in an area economically decimated by deindustrialization and the death of American manufacturing throughout the decades. The Office of the New York State Comptroller estimates upstate New York’s manufacturing sector lost nearly 105,000 jobs from 2000 to 2008. 

“When Amazon came to this town, I was excited for this opportunity for our community, maybe even for my children,” Goodall said. “I had several friends who worked there and they had bruises on them all the time. I asked about what was going on and I learned that people were getting injured at work.”

After doing some reading on Amazon’s working conditions online, Goodall said she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She felt a personal connection to the poor working conditions she found. Goodall’s own son Michael Fahrenkopf, an employee of a GlobalFoundries facility in Vermont, committed suicide in 2016 at the age of 27. Goodall told media at the time she thinks poor working conditions at GlobalFoundries, as described by Fahrenkopf, are to blame for the loss of her son.

“I could not believe that the working conditions were worse than GlobalFoundries,” she said of Amazon in Schodack. “So the thought of my son, or my daughter, or another child of mine being subjected to that type of corporate culture, or putting their safety at risk… I was not willing to take any chances.”

In Kaplan’s case, he noted the opportunities laid out by Amazon are not enough, and in turn have backed area workers into a corner where Amazon is the only game in town.

“There aren't any job opportunities where I live. Wherever I apply, employers say they don’t need me,” Kaplan added. “It’s like I just go to Amazon for fun. My fiancee is working there too and we can spend more time together there. That's the only reason I'm going to work at Amazon (these days.). But the low wages, the way they’re treating me, that is not right.”

Part of what drove Kaplan to work at Amazon was the promise of having a flexible work schedule that worked with his college courseload.

“They didn't really work with my schedule and instead they registered the hours when I would be in class as unpaid time off,” Kaplan said, noting employees are typically terminated if they reach a negative number of hours in unpaid time off. “I got like 210 hours of negative unpaid time off because they did not approve my school recommendation, so they fired me for that.”

Shortly after, Kaplan said he got a call from the facility’s human resources department telling him his firing was a mistake that could be appealed. Eventually, he was rehired.

Kaplan’s woes in dealing with his work status did not end there. About a month ago, Kaplan went to the hospital after being involved in a car accident. 

“Even though I was in a car accident and I had a doctor’s note, they did not take that into account. I accumulated 80 hours of negative unpaid time off and I got fired again for that,” Kaplan said. “Five days later I got a call from the facility’s local human resources department and they asked if I wanted to go through the appeals process again. I said ‘sure, why not?’ and  joined again”

Ping-ponging his way through a precarious employment situation made things clear for Kaplan.

“Our general manager is not looking at you like a person,” Kaplan said. “He is looking at you like a robot. That is why they cannot even find people to work for Amazon right now. They are having to offer us an extra shift. They know no one is going to work for $16 an hour doing (arduous work).”

On his thoughts regarding the potential for an Amazon union in Schodack, Kaplan said he has already pledged his support.

“I am on Twitter and I see other unionization efforts like Staten Island and the work at the Starbucks locations,” Kaplan said. “I am seeing people who are happy with their job. I want to be like that too.” 

As unionization efforts have developed, conditions at the facility have worsened. Goodall and Kaplan recalled specific concerns raised by other employees.

“I've had several discussions now about (the temperature at the shipping dock),” Goodall said, noting temperatures can hit upward of 90 degrees when workers unload trucks in the summer. “I am very concerned because those trucks reach between 100 and 110 degrees. These workers are not getting extra breaks and we are no longer allowed to pass out water to them.”

Employees, Goodall said, are concerned about management’s expectations of them.

“Employees that are not properly trained are being placed on equipment to try to get 45 items off the shelf in an hour or pack 200 items,” Goodall said. “These expectations that could put their jobs at risk are oftentimes unattainable, which causes a lot of stress and a lot of injuries.”

In some cases, employees working 10-hour shifts only receive two 15-minute breaks and a 30-minute lunch break, Goodall said.

“The breaks are counted as the time between the last item you scanned before going on break and your next item scanned,” she said. “Oftentimes, it's hard to get to the break room or an area of the warehouse, scan your badge, and stay in compliance with the already limited amount of breaks we have.”

Goodall has met with officials from the New York Attorney General’s office regarding the harsh working conditions. The next step for Schodack workers may be decided later this month or in early July, as workers prepare for a potential election.

 “The more people we get, the better,” Goodall said. “Now we know what Amazon's objections are, so we actually are a lethal weapon now. We're ready to hit Amazon and they're eventually going to have to concede.”

Central New York

At a fulfillment center in Clay, a suburb of Syracuse, unionization efforts have stalled. 

“Amazon has ruined all the organizing that was going on there,” said Seth Goldstein, an attorney with ALU.

Earlier this year, Jason Main and Ashley Mercer were putting together a unionization campaign. The couple had experience with the collective bargaining drive in Staten Island and sought to mobilize workers in central New York at a relatively new facility. The Clay fulfillment center opened this spring and had a ceremonial ribbon cutting in mid June.

Just a few weeks after opening, Mercer filed a claim with the NLRB in May accusing Amazon of unsafe working conditions. Mercer, who was six months pregnant at the time, alleges she was tasked with picking up cigarette butts, glass, and other garbage at the fulfillment center’s parking lot in 84-degree weather.

“The way they treated (Mercer), they forced her out and at 84-degree heat to pick up cigarette butts,” said Goldstein, who is helping the couple file the NLRB claims. “That is a travesty.”

Another NLRB claim was filed by Main, who was suspended several times before he was fired. Main claims he was fired in retaliation for bringing up the possibility of unionizing the Amazon facility.

“(Main and Mercer) were spreading the word, they wanted to unionize,” Goldstein said. “There was active organizing going on. They had every intention of engaging in union activities.”

Goldstein said the first thing he wants to do is get Main reinstated. 

“We are asking for full back-pay, any consequential damages, and front-pay if (Main) decides not to go back to work,” Goldstein said. “We're looking at compensation for the full gamut of losses that he could suffer. In addition,  I'm asking for manager training at the facility. They need to be trained by the NLRB to respect people's rights.”

Amazon, Goldstein said, is creating the conditions for unionization.

“People want to have a union. People are frustrated with being treated unfairly at work. Amazon is creating prison-like conditions. These are real human rights violations.”

The campaign to unionize the Clay warehouse, Goldstein said, is about having the right to bargain collectively as a unit.

“No longer will employees be at-will employees,” he said. “They will have due process. We are looking at $30-an-hour in Staten Island. Mercer thought $25-an-hour in Syracuse would be fair. We're looking for people being treated with dignity and respect, which doesn't happen right now.”

In a statement issued to a Syracuse tv station, a spokesperson from Amazon denied action taken against Mercer and Main had anything to do with unionization efforts.

As the couple waits for the claims to be processed, Main said he doesn’t want to speak about his run-in with Amazon for fear of being blacklisted by other employers.

“(Mercer and I) have a baby on the way,” he said. “Any union efforts are getting demolished. Anyone who makes an effort to bring in a union in upstate New York gets fired.” 

Eddie Velazquez is a freelance journalist based in central New York, covering education, housing, and local politics. You can find more of his work on his website, and on his twitter feed.