This Cyber Monday, Say No to Sweatshop Shipping

[Omaha Steve]

Take the pledge: http://act.americanrightsatwork.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5068&track=20121108_adv_cyber_monday_e


Have you ever wondered how the stuff you buy online arrives so incredibly fast?

Here's the real deal on online shipping – the whole system is built on unsafe, low-paying, temporary jobs. Workers in the U.S. shipping centers and warehouses that fulfill online orders for major retailers like Amazon and Walmart are subject to dangerous, sweatshop-like working conditions. These workers are consistently asked to work at unreasonable and backbreaking speeds, often in unsafe temperatures and for shamefully low wages.



This system won't change until we stand up together and let online retailers know that we care more about how they treat their workers than the speedy shipping they're offering us.

That's why this Cyber Monday – Nov. 26 – the biggest online shopping day of the year, we're launching a major campaign in protest. Join us by pledging not to buy anything online from major retailers that day. We'll send a powerful message that consumers choose safe, sustainable jobs over steals and deals.

Stop Sweatshop Shipping. Sign the Cyber Monday Pledge now >>

Working conditions in these warehouses are often inexcusably unsafe – temperatures can soar up to 120 degrees,2 making them literal sweatshops. Workers who fulfill online orders are asked to grab items for boxes at unsustainably high speeds and are disciplined or fired when they can’t keep up. Many workers reported lasting less than six months on the job because of the grueling physical demands.3

Why would workers put up with such pain and exploitation? They're afraid of losing their jobs. Explains former Walmart warehouse worker Uylonda Dickerson: "By the end of the day, your body hurts so bad. “You tell them you can't do it the next day... they'll tell you, 'We've got four more people waiting for your job.'"4

Now is the time to break the silence about the shameful exploitation in online shipping – Pledge to opt out of Cyber Monday deals!

Sweatshop shipping is such a secret now because the bulk of online retailers have become so adept at distancing themselves from the problem by hiding behind a "contractor curtain." Amazon and Walmart use a dizzying number of contract and temporary firms to hire employees to fulfill their orders – removing themselves from the responsibility of paying for employee taxes or benefits. As a consultant for logistics companies revealed, "Somebody… figured out that the cheapest way to get that job done is to treat people like that."5 Temp agency workers are especially vulnerable to exploitation because they are excluded from basic job protections and rights, and it's nearly impossible for them to exercise the right to protect themselves through a union.

I admit I've come to rely on the ease and affordability of ordering gifts and goods online. But my convenience shouldn't come at the expense of the workers fulfilling my orders. Alone, I can't make a difference, but the more of us that take a stand with our pocketbooks by protesting Cyber Monday, the greater our impact in waking up the media, our friends, and big retailers that brutal warehouse jobs are unacceptable to American consumers.

Stand Against Sweatshop Shipping – Take the Cyber Monday pledge today!

Thanks for all that you do for workers across the country,

Hilary, Jonathan, Sarita, Liz, Ori, and the rest of the Jobs with Justice and American Rights at Work team

1 http://www.mcall.com/news/local/amazon/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917,0,6503103.story
2 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/business/walmart-workers-in-california-protest.html
3 http://www.mcall.com/news/local/amazon/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917,0,6503103.story
4 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/20/new-blue-collar-temp-warehouses_n_1158490.html
5 http://www.motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2011/07/ohio-warehouse-temps-unemployment

[likesmountains 52]

1. Amen! I never really thought about how awful those

jobs were until I read that Mother Jones article several months ago.