GARNER – A coalition of Amazon employees walked off the job on Monday in California, and the latest walkout is yet another sign of growing strife within Amazon’s workforce and demands for unionization increasing.  That includes in the Triangle, as there’s now a worker-led push for establishing an Amazon union at the company’s Garner facility.

On Tuesday, the unionization move picked up more momentum as a group filed to seek representation at a warehouse in New York.

The Triangle organization, Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, abbreviated C.A.U.S.E., is seeking to unionize workers at the Amazon distribution center in Garner, more than 2 million square feet in size, with more than 4,000 workers who staff the facility, as reported earlier in August by the News & Observer.

According to the News & Observer report, the drive began in January, and though time has passed, C.A.U.S.E. is looking toward 2023 as a time when a vote to unionize could occur.

A video on the C.A.U.S.E. website notes that workers were inspired to launch their own effort to unionize following the union victory in Staten Island, New York.

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The latest walkout from an Amazon union

A coalition of Amazon employees walked off the job on Monday at an air freight facility in San Bernardino, California, demanding better pay and working conditions, in the latest sign that worker organizing efforts continue to spread across the tech giant’s vast retail and logistics network.

The group of workers organizing the walkout call themselves the Inland Empire Amazon Workers United, and claimed in online posts that more than 150 employees participated in their coordinated work stoppage on Monday. Amazon, however, disputes this figure and said 74 workers took part in the walkout. By either measure, the demonstrators represented a small fraction of the 1,500 employees at the Amazon air facility, known as KSBD.

In a statement posted online by the worker group, organizers said they had amassed more than 800 signatures for a petition calling for the base pay rate at the facility to be raised to $22 an hour, up from $17. The worker organization cited the rising rent and cost of living in the area in their statement demanding better pay.

In the statement, the organizers also claimed “unsafe heat conditions” remain in many work areas, and noted that temperatures reached 95 degrees Fahrenheit or above at the San Bernardino cargo airport on two dozen days last month.

“Working in the heat feels like you are suffocating,” a worker identified as Melissa Ojeda said in the statement released by the group. “You need to take breaks and you can overheat really easily. They don’t make it easy to take breaks to allow your body to cool down.”

New York movement

Backed by the grassroots labor group that secured the first-ever union victory of an Amazon warehouse in the U.S., workers of another warehouse filed a petition on Tuesday for an election in upstate New York in the hopes of a similar outcome, the Associated Press reported.

A spokesperson for the National Labor Relations Board said the petition was filed for the warehouse known as ALB1, located in the town of Schodack, roughly 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Albany.

To qualify for a union election, the NLRB requires signatures from 30% of eligible voters at a specific facility. Whether or not workers have reached that threshold will likely be hashed out in the coming weeks.

Paul Flaningan, an Amazon spokesperson, said the company has roughly 1,000 warehouse workers at the Schodack location. But in the filing, the Amazon Labor Union, the nascent union backing the workers, said there would be roughly 400 employees in the bargaining unit.

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Amazon’s response

Paul Flaningan, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement provided to CNN Business that the company is “proud to provide full-time employees at our San Bernardino Air Hub and throughout the region a minimum starting wage of $17 an hour.” Flaningan added that full-time employees can earn up to $19.25 an hour and also receive “industry-leading benefits including health care from day one, 401(k) with 50% company match, and up to 20 weeks paid parental leave.”

“While there are many established ways of ensuring we hear the opinions of our employees inside our business, we also respect their right to make their opinions known externally,” the statement added. “While we’re always listening and looking at ways to improve, we remain proud of the competitive pay, comprehensive benefits, and engaging, safe work experience we provide our teams in the region.”

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Other Amazon unions

The walkout comes in the wake of unionizing efforts at other Amazon facilities. Earlier this year, workers in a Staten Island, New York, warehouse voted to form the first US union in Amazon’s history. (Amazon is currently attempting to have the election results thrown out.) Amazon workers have also pushed to unionize at a facility in Bessemer, Alabama, and at an Amazon Fresh location in Seattle.

The ongoing organizing efforts inside Amazon continue to draw support from labor advocates and progressive politicians around the country, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has long been a loud critic of the company.

“I stand in solidarity with the Amazon workers in San Bernardino, CA who walked off the job today to protest low wages & unsafe working conditions,” Sanders tweeted Monday evening. He also referenced Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s total compensation package granted in 2021, adding: “If Amazon can afford to pay its CEO $214 million last year it can afford to give their workers a $5 an hour raise & a safe workplace.”

Editor’s Note: The report following the first section, including both sections under the subheaders “The latest walkout” and “Amazon’s response” were written by Catherine Thorbecke and Rishi Iyengar of CNN Business and published on CNN Business.  The content is published here under partnership, and those sections are from The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.