Criminal working conditions at megawarehouses in California's Inland Empire

Last week, I blogged about the Mother Jones investigation into labor conditions in ecommerce warehouses. Now Fair Warning and several California newspapers have an expose on the conditions inside Schneider National Inc., one of the largest warehousing/logistics firms in the country, in California's Inland Empire. The reports documents outright criminality that subjects workers to unsafe conditions and robs them of pay for the hours they work.

According to court documents and interviews with workers:
–Crew leaders such as Soto were under orders at some warehouses to force workers to sign blank time sheets, a tactic that made it easier to cheat employees out of their rightful pay.
–Workers often were paid only for the time they spent loading and unloading trucks – not for the time they put in sweeping warehouses, labeling and restacking boxes or waiting to find out if they would be assigned work.
–High heat in the warehouses and constant pressure for speed created safety problems. These and other issues triggered an investigation that led the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, in January to accuse four warehouses of more than 60 workplace safety violations and to seek $256,445 in penalties.
–Many workers, classified as temporaries despite years of service, said they were threatened with being blackballed and never being hired again if they raised questions about their pay or took part in protest or unionizing efforts. Labor leaders, who announced plans in 2007 to recruit the warehouse employees, say that the intimidation and perpetual job insecurity are key reasons why their “Warehouse Workers United” campaign has failed to unionize any workers.
–Workers also were subjected to other indignities, such as being forced to pay $1 per week to rent a shirt with a company logo, and being required to show up every day, only to be sent home some days for lack of work.

State Investigators, Workers Cite Labor Abuses in Warehouse Empire

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eh1eh

Well if it’s good enough for the folks making the products then why should the people who only label it and put it on trucks be treated any better. I’m so proud of you America. Keep on being consistent so stuff is cheaper. [big roll eyes]
Mike Norman

And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea!
EH

Is that two-hundred and fifty thousand AMERICAN dollars? I bet they’re hurting now.
- http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair
  
  Waaaah, regulations are killing job creation!
  
  (pays OSHA fine with change in couch)
DreadJester

Humm, makes me wonder about how my job would be viewed since 3 of the 5 points made are similar to my workplace which is located in middle America.

-We swipe into out of work with an electronic time card and never actually get to see our hours ourselves. The supervisors can change the hours and our pay rates at any time from the office.

-Because we work in a corrugated factory there is no AC. Corrugated is put together using steam so temperatures in the factory are generally 5 to 10 degrees hotter inside than it is outside. During summer months it easily reaches temps of over 100 degrees.

-Only way I can get uniforms so that I don’t ruin my own clothes is to pay money each week for them. The uniforms also have the company logo on them.
- pKp
  
  Is there a union in your workplace ?
- IronEdithKidd
  
  Why don’t you call the anonymous tipster line that your state’s OSHA office undoubtedly offers? And your state’s department of labor?
  
  Or would you perfer to simply whine about it on the intertubes?
TimRowledge

Maybe things would actually be better if Foxconn ran the place? At least they seem to have some faint interest in not appearing to be utter bastards.
- BombBlastLightingWaltz
  
  “Faint interest in not appearing to be utter bastards” …. hilarious. Thanks for the wit.
pjcamp

Man! Unions are so awful!
catherinecc

America, Fuck Yeah.
Palomino

I remember reading a deeply disturbing article delving into the dark world, believe it or not, of how coupons and rebates are processed. I shook for days.
- blissfulight
  
  Can you post the link?
  - Palomino
    
    I’ll try to find it, I rarely post about what I’ve read without posting a source. Thanks for the push. I remember the clearing houses were in Mexico. Searching for “Mexico” “coupon” and “rebate” = a Japanese Seizure.
    - blissfulight
      
      I already went looking for it, but I didn’t have enough information to drill too far down in the results. Mostly curious (dark, deeply disturbing, shaking…sounds interesting).
  - Palomino
    
    Yeah! Found the company name, Young America Corporation. I may be speculating, but it looks like the internet has been successfully washed. I read the article awhile ago.
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_America_Corporation
    
    But check this out. Young America, Minnesota, where Young America Corp is supposedly located and named after, and one of the largest employers, has disturbing poverty level statistics:
    
    http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Norwood-Young-America-Minnesota.html
    
    Still looking for that article. I may have to got to the library.
blindidiotgod

Amazon.com wins the high heat category, their workers were dropping like flies last July.:

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917,0,7937001,full.story
- BombBlastLightingWaltz
  
  Ain’t capitalism a bitch.
ocker3

Some people say that Unions are no longer needed, and I point to examples like this. Unions help make Gov regulators aware of when laws are being broken, and there aren’t enough Gov inspectors to go around.
bman177

I think the heat is kind of a non-issue, you can’t really expect the whole thing to have a/c, I worked at an auto parts warehouse in Texas for about 2 years so I know what heat in a warehouse is like, just keep hydrated and you’ll be fine.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LI4MUVWT2FIS7SHFRM6KKQK3PQ Pjay
  
  I was thinking something similar. My company makes metal alloys. Here in Iowa, the July temps are often close to 100 degrees outside. (Gotta love Iowa. We get as hot as Texas and as cold as Alaska.) In our casting rooms, we’ve measured ambient air temperature at 135 degrees in the summer quite often–MUCH hotter than Amazon’s warehouses were reported to get. It is not possible to air-condition a metal casting area. (My office sits above a casting room. It’s air-conditioned, but the air-conditioners don’t help much because heat rises.) Because molten metal splashes, our casters are required to wear 100% cotton long-sleeved shirts and have the cuffs rolled down and buttoned at all times. We provide cooled rest areas, cooling headbands, and free electrolyte beverages, and we encourage employees to go to these cooled areas when they feel any symptom of heat illness and to stay hydrated. Those of us who don’t work in metal production areas walk through frequently to make sure casters don’t show signs of heat illness. The symptoms of heat illness are posted on every available surface.
  
  BTW, my company has never had anyone taken out of our buildings by stretcher or wheelchair. We did have one employee who did not care for electrolyte beverages (Gatorade-type) who got a heat-related magnesium deficiency that caused severe muscle cramps, who was taken to an acute care center by a coworker. That has been the extent of out heat-related injuries.
  
  These are not desirable jobs, for the most part, obviously. With few (but notable) exceptions our casters are people who could not, due to education or inclination, do another type of work. They need a job, and the job needs doing. Most Americans don’t seem to want illegal aliens to do them, so what do these people suggest?
ian_b

This is what “Putting America back to work” looks like. Either we demand a fair labor standard, or accept the idea of a serf caste bringing us cheap stuff.