Amazon organizing highlights labour risks

Class Autonomy published an interview on May 14 with Sam Padilla, an Amazon worker at the DJT6 facility in Riverside and an organizer with Amazon Teamsters, that cast the Inland Empire as a center of both U.S. logistics and warehouse labor organizing. Padilla said the region east of Los Angeles has become a chokepoint for goods moving from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach into Amazon’s network and the wider distribution system. (classautonomy.info) The interview, published by the labor-focused outlet’s “On the Line” series, arrives as union activity, state enforcement actions and softer industrial leasing conditions are all shaping how companies and property owners talk about warehouse operations in Southern California. (cbre.com) (teamster.org) ### Why does the Inland Empire keep coming up in Amazon labor fights? The Inland Empire sits within reach of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and nearly 30 million consumers within 250 miles, according to CBRE’s 2024 market outlook. CBRE said the local warehouse labor force totals 148,480 workers and projected it would grow 15.2% by 2034, helping explain why the region has drawn Amazon and other logistics operators. Sam Padilla said in the May 14 interview that “everything comes through the ports in LA and Long Beach and then gets moved out here before it’s shipped across the country.” He described the Inland Empire as a place where warehouse work, trucking and logistics have become the dominant local employers after earlier industrial jobs declined. (classautonomy.info) ### What organizing activity has been documented there? The Teamsters said on Dec. 12, 2024, that more than 1,000 workers at Amazon’s KSBD air hub in San Bernardino had formed a union and demanded recognition. The union described KSBD as Amazon’s largest air facility on the West Coast. (cbre.com) University of California, Riverside researchers later said the majority of workers at the San Bernardino air cargo facility authorized the Teamsters to represent them in December 2024. The same researchers said workers in the region had already won higher wages and safer working conditions through years of organizing tied to the Inland Empire Amazon Warehouse Union and allied groups. (classautonomy.info) The National Labor Relations Board lists an open case filed on Dec. 16, 2024, involving the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, its Amazon units and KSBD Amazon Teamsters in San Bernardino. The docket confirms the dispute remains active, though the public case page provides limited detail on the underlying allegations. (teamster.org) ### What have regulators said about warehouse conditions? California’s Labor Commissioner said on June 18, 2024, that Amazon.com Services was cited $5,901,700 for violating the state’s warehouse quotas law at facilities in Moreno Valley and Redlands. The agency said its investigation found 59,017 violations between Oct. 20, 2023, and March 9, 2024. Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said Amazon’s “peer-to-peer system” was the kind of quota system the 2021 law was designed to prevent because undisclosed quotas can pressure workers to skip breaks. (business.ucr.edu) The Warehouse Worker Resource Center, a Southern California nonprofit, assisted the state investigation, according to the agency. (nlrb.gov) ### Why would landlords and tenants care about labor access now? CBRE said in April 2024 that the Inland Empire’s non-supervisory warehouse wage averaged $20.33 an hour, the lowest among major California industrial markets, while the labor pool remained one of the region’s main selling points. That makes access to workers a basic site-selection issue for occupiers choosing among buildings and submarkets. (dir.ca.gov) CBRE said in its first-quarter 2025 market report that vacancy in Inland Empire West fell to 4.7% while Inland Empire East vacancy rose and taking rents declined, with owners and investors showing what the firm called “continued pragmatism.” In that environment, brokers and landlords have stronger reason to emphasize location, commute patterns and worker-facing features that can help tenants recruit and retain staff — an inference drawn from CBRE’s labor and leasing data rather than a direct quote from the firm. (dir.ca.gov) ### What comes next in this story? The Teamsters’ KSBD campaign is still pointing toward contract demands and legal recognition. IE Amazon Workers United says on its platform page that KSBD workers have been seeking negotiations with Amazon since reaching majority support in December 2024. (cbre.com) The next public markers are likely to come from the NLRB case docket, additional California labor enforcement and any new union announcements at Inland Empire sites. Class Autonomy’s May 14 interview with Padilla is available now, while CBRE’s and University of California, Riverside’s reports provide the market and labor data that frame the dispute. (classautonomy.info) (ieamazonworkers.org) (cbre.com)