ONT6 Feb 7 update

A Day in the Life of Ontario 6

An Amazon.com Fulfillment Center

By Mark Oglesby

To begin, let me introduce myself and why I am writing this piece. I am an American worker who toils away in an Amazon.com Fulfillment Center in Moreno Valley, ca simply entitled Ontario 6. I am called a tier 1 Associate but I as many of my fellow-Associates prefer: worker! And why? Because: “Associate” is a transitive verb which means to join as a partner, friend, or companion; or to join or connect together; to bring together or into relationship in any of various intangible ways. It is also an Intransitive verb as in: to come or be together as partners, friends, or companions; to combine or join with other parts- TheMerriam/Webster Dictionary. Simply stated: Amazon.com and its Fulfillment Centers do not recognize this worker distinctness as being relative as to our service of employment in this multinational conglomerate.

In the course of working in the Amazon.com Fulfillments Centers (Ontario 2 in San Bernardino, ca and Ontario 6 in Moreno Valley, ca) for the last four and a half years (beginning in October of 2012), I have witnessed much and I feel the need to share my experiences with you at this time. I will begin with a statement that comes to mind nearly every day that I’ve worked at an Amazon.com Fulfillment Center: “I’ve never been employed by anyone whose behavior is so completely if not utterly reprehensible in its callousness towards other human beings!”

Now you mighty say, “Take a breath or two as you’re kind of out there!” But really now, as I move about the FC and witness the fear and anxiety in people’s faces as they dart about their business; I don’t see my position as being anywhere near extreme! Amazon.com, and especially Ontario 6, creates and maintains an atmosphere of fear, apprehension, worry, concern for ones safety, if not out-right dread and its terror as to ones state of employment and the needed finances that it brings. Shame on those who orchestrate such misery!

Listen! There is no legitimate reason or cause for this behavior. We as a group are taught survival of the fittest as soon as we walk into the Fulfillment Center. We are instructed to be at war with one another as we compete for the minuscule, insignificant crumbs which fall off of Amazon’s table! Think about it! How do things work out there on the Fulfillment Center floor? Dog eat dog as we crash into one another attempting to keep pace with those ungodly metrics which call for so many units per hour as the sliding scale continues upwards and you are forced to work faster and faster!

Point of fact! In the beginning when you first start working for TheAmazon, you’re told point-blank: “Safety-Quality- Productivity!” In that order! It’s a lie! They know it! You know it! I know it! If your numbers aren’t there, you won’t be there as well. And does it matter that you’re working your heart out and giving everything you’ve got? Never! Fail even once and the journey to your removal from gainful employment begins! Please, get near two years and your company shares vesting and watch what’s likely to happen. Get near maxing out at $14.25 an hour (after three years of employment) and my God! It’s, that is your employment, likely to come crashing down on top of your head!

Clearly! We must not allow this to continue! I am sick and tired of watching the humiliation of hard working people who’ve been trapped in this bureaucratic nightmare! Hard working people whose lives, and that of their families, depend upon their income! A very tiny income I might add! And for someone, say, an Area Manager, to take that income away, in my mind, this action is a crime against humanity. Innocent people, our families, our children, our loved ones suffer! And for what? To make our “leadership” (in quotes because they know nothing about leadership as they are the very antecedent of such noble qualities) look good for their corporate over-lords!

For you see! The numbers game is solely for those soulless bureaucrats (Area Managers and above; also, Human Relations: What a callous joke!) whose personal files we are destroying ourselves to fill! Our first duty is not to the customer or the company or even its shareholders; it’s to the desolate, austere bureaucrat whose place in the company is also on the line if their numbers aren’t there!

Wake-up! Amazon.com as well as so many companies like it will crumble if we continue to place these inept, mindless bureaucrats in a position where their needs out-weight the needs of everyone else. From the moment merchandise arrives at the FC to the moment it leaves the ship dock, the bread and butter of this company is in danger of being beaten and broken as everyone speeds to meet their numbers! And for what? The clueless bureaucrat!

Change it or lose it! The Union is the only entity that can and will stop these bureaucrats from destroying this company; destroying so many companies who employ so many workers throughout this great nation! With the Union, stability will be ensured as all begin to establish an ethic which states: This belongs to all of us! Which says: Will must work together for the common good as we must not fight one another just to make a number!

Also! We are entitled, because of our hard work and dedication (we get the job done!), to a seat at the table and an enriching of our pockets as well as are physical and mental well being. Besides, we are human beings deserving of dignity and respect! No more crumbs off the Amazon table! Out of the

corporate feeding trough which is endlessly filled though our under-paid labor!

So than, let us get back to the meaning of those words related to “Associate” and see if they truly belong to the operational pursuit of the before mentioned Amazon.com Fulfillment Center:

To join as a partner, friend, or companion.

At the Fulfillment Center there are no friends as every worker is pitted against his co-worker in a neo-Darwinian battle of survival of the fittest where the gladiatorial culture of the joust is maintained by the finitude of the algorithmic metric as the participants battle one another daily to remain employed in this ethos of person-to-person combat! To say the least, the dangers involved in simply coming to work can be catastrophic for those merely seeking financial survival.

To join or connect together.

At the Fulfillment Center there is no trust whatsoever between employer and employee as even the most trivial mistake can lead one into a zone of mishap where continued employment is next to impossible as leadership immediately smells blood in the water as the next victim’s lined-up for failure and a quickened walk to the door: Unemployed!

To bring together or into relationship in any of various intangible ways.

Furthermore, at the Fulfillment Center relationships are nearly impossible to establish if not maintained as people so often tend to disappear into the void of the forgotten; people who are not numbers but human beings deserving dignity! People who are not disposable commodities who’s life span is that of a cigarette lighter whose fuel has run out and must be thrown into some filthy city landfill. No! People matter as we are worthy of treatment befitting our status once again as dignified human beings!

To come or be together as partners, friends, or companions.

But listen, at the Fulfillment Center something’s happening! Something nearly long forgotten but suddenly resurrected here in the very bowels of perdition; the abyss of hard labor and low wages! Its call the Union. It’s entitled Collective Bargaining! To a certainty, it’s the salvation of not just the worker but yea, the very company we work for; for the customer as well as the shareholders who we serve.

To combine or join with other parts.

What’s to be done? Join us in this fight for freedom: Working Class Freedom which allows people their economic dignity! Truly, we have a right to work for a living wage! A decent, dignified, safe workplace that all might be proud of and desire to remain in! Combine your voice with ours! Merge your energy with us! Workers unite! Today! Not tomorrow! But today! Together we can make America great through cooperative living!

To close: I would like a share a personal story from my family. It starts on the final Christmas day of my father’s life; a holiday season which my wife and I had decided not to attention with other family members as we lived hours away and besides, we took care of my mother who suffered from dementia and was bed ridden 24/7.

To say the least, getting to my father’s house would be difficult so we once again decided not to attend. But something inside of me said that we needed to go and spend Christmas with my father. And while my wife considered the trip to be difficult she immediately readied my mother for the journey.

After the two plus hour drive to Simi Valley, ca we carried my mother into my father’s house and was everyone ever surprised as we placed mom down in an easy chair hoping she’s be comfortable; which she was. Again, the surprised looks on everyone’s faces told the story: “So glad you could make it!” My father smiled that “Bob” smile everyone loved.

But one of the first things I noticed was the fact that my father was not in the kitchen preparing Christmas breakfast for everyone; something he enjoyed so very much: “What’s the matter?” I asked myself. The answer was very apparent a few days later as dad was checked into the hospital of which he would never leave alive! Two and a half months in intensive care while on life-support left my father in constant pain being pumped with pharmaceuticals to manage the agony.

To say the least, my father didn’t wish to remain in this state! In complete peace-of-mind, my father decided he would leave this world on his own terms and called for all of us to wish him farewell on his journey as his beloved family gathered at his side to say “Goodbye Papa Bob!” And with perhaps fifteen minutes before the medical staff was to remove him off of life support, I called out to my Father:

“Dad!” and he looked up to me. And with one hand holding up three fingers and the other holding up two; I said: “Dodgers three, Braves two!” My father was so brave and full of bravado as he stretched out both his arms with thumbs up for his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball team. I smiled while I cried! I went up to my father and told he was the best man I’ve never known in my life. He smiled and cried! And this is how I remember my dad!

Is there a point to this story? Certainly! My father was in intensive care for over two months and one can only imagine the cost in dollars and cent as to such a visit in any hospital of America’s healthcare system! Enormous!

But listen: My father was a Union man! And his Union made certain that its membership was covered for life! My father’s stay in hospital did not steal from him his life’s material achievements as that which he worked so hard for was not taken from his family which he loved and cared for all those years.

The healthcare system did not diminish the inheritance which my father planned to leave to his children! Why? Because of the Union! Because of Collective Bargaining! Because men and women and children of this great nation stood and demanded that they must be treated with dignity and respect! That they be fairly compensated for their labor! That the treatment which they receive while on the job is straight forward and evenhanded! That management is never allowed to throw anyone out to the cold for any arbitrary reason whatsoever!

I grew-up in a union family! I grew-up with a work-ethic which cleared defined who we were and how we should behave! My parents were children of The Great Depression and they were taught to value a job, hard work and its compensation. I do not need a whip at my back, a number in my face nor an unfair write-up in order to work hard, have fun and make history! No, I merely have to remember what I witnessed growing up: A Union household and a father who valued such traditions! In loving memory of Robert Leroy Oglesby: my dad who would be extremely proud of his activist son!