NEW: 100+ San Bernardino, California Amazon Warehouse Workers Walk Off Job, Demanding Living Wage, Humane Conditions
Workers stand together and fight back against the Amazon beast
100+ California Amazon Warehouse workers in San Bernardino walked off the job on August 15, 2022, demanding to earn a living wage and work under humane conditions. Submitted by Bob Maschi, Board Member, Warehouse Worker Resource Center.
WATCH (~ 7 mins, 15 secs - Transcript below)
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TRANSCRIPT FROM STRIKE MEETING:
I want to let you guys just take some time
to reflect on how monumental this moment is going
to be today. This fight is for tomorrow for
us, for them. And for anybody else that’s going to
join that building. [Cheers of si se puede!]
Si se puede! Si se puede! Si se puede! Si se puede!
[New speaker] These brave warriors have been demanding a $5 wage increase
And today, they walked out on their jobs to
to demand a living wage. Let’s give it up for them! [cheers and applause]
What you guys did today is part of what many
workers - hundreds of workers have been doing across the country,
standing up for themselves against the largest
employer in this country.
Against the richest employer in this country.
You guys are part of what is going to
make a change in this country for the
labor movement.
Let’s give it up for the workers! [cheers, applause]
All those community folks in the back, they all came
to support you guys.
[Cheers, applause]
They all came … they are part of the San Bernardino resistance
San Bernardino could become a better f*cking place
A place where people can afford to raise a family,
Can afford a home
Can afford not only to survive but to thrive
[Cheers, applause]
This system is meant to keep you guys in the dark.
And that’s why we gathered the community to inform ourselves to understand what are our
rights. To understand how to use our rights so that we can better
utilize those rights
to stand up for ourselves and to protect ourselves.
[New speaker] I’m an attorney -
I work for the Warehouse Workers Resource Center.
Congratulations everyone on taking action today. This is huge! [cheers]
You all are exercising your legal rights as workers. [audience member: Yep!]
To act together and make changes in your workplace.
And so you should know you have the
legal right to do this, and Amazon is not supposed
to try to punish you for doing this. It’s very important that
we can understand over the coming weeks and
months of your organizing and fighting. To stand
together and watch out for Amazon trying to
legally retaliate against anyone for
doing this. They might try to take people out.
You got to stand together, you got to be vigilant
and stand up for your legal right to do this kind of work.
I'm just going to say a couple words on a couple
things to be on the lookout for - to know your rights
and to know what Amazon's not supposed to do now, now that you’re fighting, right?
So you all have been organizing, you walked out today [from the job].
Amazon's not supposed to retaliate against any one of you
… for doing this.
So there's a few things to keep in mind with the
ways an employer might try to do this. So one
thing is, they might they might want to threaten,
someone. They might say, “all right, if you keep doing
this, you're going to lose your job. You can
organize, but you’re not going to get promoted. If I see you at another walkout
you're in trouble.” That's a threat.
That’s an unlawful labor practice. We gotta be on the lookout for those.
They other thing is they might do, is they might try to
… interrogate someone. They might
be like, “hey, I saw you at the walkout
other day. Who’s leading that? Who else was there?”
They can ask you questions, like “hey why’d you walk out that day?” You don’t have to answer.
…interrogation…If any manager…getting in your face
trying to intimidate them, asking them to spill the beans, that’s also unlawful.
The other thing they might do is try to say “hey, we’re watching you.” Right?
We know they are - they have cameras everywhere.
But, if they’re trying to scare you by saying, “hey
I know you were at that rally at the church yesterday. I'm watching.
We're watching you.” That's also often…
That could be illegal because they're trying to intimidate.
They’re not supposed to do things that are trying
to intimidate and chill you from exercising
your legal rights to act together.
And the other thing is, just be on the lookout for
each other because sometimes employers will
be really sneaky about how they try to fight back.
They might you know just flip someone in an area
where it's not as nice to work for a week, just
to punish them. Or they'll cut their hours just a little bit.
Or they’ll start hassling them about things they didn’t hassle them about before.
Or it can be really obvious - they might just fire someone.
You have to be on the lookout for all of that.
Because all of that, if Amazon’s doing it in retaliation
because of the organizing, that's not lawful. That’s illegal.
And we want to fight - you want to fight that.
You’re going to have to watch out for each other.
to test what happens. So again, it's an acronym
you have to remember it, but if you want, it’s called TRIP.
T - threats are retaliation. I - Interrogation.
P is for promises - if they try to promise you something
to get you to stop organizing
like, “hey, if you stop organizing, you’ll be promoted.”
And surveillance - if they’re spying on you, sneaking
around, saying “we’re watching you.” Right?
Those are the things they should not do under
the law - the labor laws in this country, okay?
So again, you have the right to legal - you have the legal right to
right to organize together. You’re exercising
that today, and you’ve got the right to keep fighting.
So, if you need to get ahold of us, that’s one way to contact us.
What I’m saying is, if you're seeing retaliation in the
workplace, again, the strongest thing to do
is stand up for each other. You see something,
say something. Contact one of your organizers here
who are leading the fight in the warehouse. Let
them know what's going on so you all can figure out
how to fight. And you can call in legal help as well.
[Chants, cheers]
When we fight! We win!
[New speaker] If they try to f*ck with one of you guys, they’re messing with all of you guys.
… We’re not going to be intimidated.
These people didn’t come by accident! They chose to f*cking be here.
They’re gonna be here with you guys. They’re gonna stand up with you guys.
We’re ready for this fight! San Bernardino has your back.
[Cheers, applause]
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BRAVO WORKERS!!! SOLIDARITY!!!
Love it!