Sen. Kushner Demands Amazon Hire CT Workers, Provide Safety

Press release from Connecticut General Assembly:

Sept. 22, 2020

State Senator Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) today joined a coalition of Connecticut labor and building trades officials to demand that Amazon hire Windsor residents and Connecticut construction workers and pay their employees living wages and benefits if Amazon is going to benefit from millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies to expand in the state.

In June, the Windsor Town Council approved a nearly $9 million property tax abatement for Amazon to construct its latest distribution center in town – but without local hiring goals or worker protections.

Amazon is one of the 50 most-profitable corporations in the world, with approximately $1 trillion in market capitalization, $5.5 billion in profits in the second quarter of this year alone, and a stock price of nearly $3,000 per share as of this morning.

"When billionaire companies like Amazon are building in Connecticut, we all say, 'That's great. We need those jobs. We need those jobs for Connecticut families We need those jobs for the Connecticut economy'," Sen. Kushner told more than 100 people gathered just outside the site of Amazon's latest distribution center now being built in Windsor. "But what do we get from Amazon in return? Low-wage workers, workers without health and safety protections, workers without workers' comp, workers who come in from out of state – they're not contributing to the rebuilding of Connecticut. And at this company – Amazon – there is no excuse. It's not like they can’t afford it. They are making billions off of workers who are not safe, workers who are not going to have a retirement, workers who are not going to have a good future."

Joining Sen. Kushner today were: Dave Roche, President of the CT State Building Trades Council; Joe Toner, President of the Hartford Building Trades Council; Sal Luciano, President of the CT AFL-CIO; Nick Bonadies, Owner of Action Steel; and state Representative Robyn Porter (D-New Haven). Sen. Kushner and Rep. Porter are the co-chairs of the legislature's Labor and Public Employees Committee.

One of the most contentious issues is Amazon's hiring of the Georgia steel company A&D Welding, which has been on-site performing steel erection with 28 workers from states on Connecticut's list of COVID-19 restricted travel states. On September 15, the Connecticut Department of Labor issued a Stop Work Order over A&D's failure to provide Workmen’s Compensation Insurance for its workers; it was the third time in four years that A&D has been cited for failing to provide its employees with workers' compensation coverage while operating in Connecticut.

Amazon has repeatedly sought to keep its workplace accident records private, going so far as to take a freedom of information request to court this past summer, where it lost. According to published reports, Amazon's 23 fulfillment centers in the U.S. had an incident rate of 9.6 serious injuries per 100 full-time employees in 2018 – more than twice the national average of four.

"This isn’t a union issue or a non-union issue, this is about right or wrong in the State of Connecticut," Roche said. "If we can't take care of ourselves here in Connecticut, nobody is going to take care of it."

"It's really about the quality of life in Connecticut and the safety of our residents," Toner said.

This press release was produced by the Connecticut General Assembly. The views expressed here are the author's own.