Why an Amazon worker at a Kentucky facility is trying to unionize his workplace

An employee at the SDF1 Amazon facility in Campbellsville, a fulfillment center for the e-commerce giant, is attempting to unionize the workforce and accusing Amazon of continuing “years of abuse” by corporations for which he has worked.

Matt Littrell, 22, a company worker and the elected chairman of the SDF1 facility’s organizing committee, is leading unionization efforts.

He said workers invest their mental and physical health into Amazon because people who live in a rural area such as Campbellsville have fewer opportunities.

He said he struggles with Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, which leaves him sore, exhausted and trying to recover on his off-days from working 10-hour shifts four days a week.

Littrell said he felt mistreated and began to research solutions for working class issues that Amazon workers were facing.

He said having a union in place at the facility would help company workers and prevent Amazon from making concessions on employees’ working conditions or reducing benefits.

“I’m heavily influenced by the idea that nobody who works 40 hours a week should be struggling,” Littrell said.

Littrell said the SDF1 group is in the process of getting authorization-to-vote cards signed. Thirty percent of workers need to sign cards to send to the National Labor Relations Board in order for an election to be held. The election will decide if the majority of workers at the SDF1 Amazon facility want a union in the workplace.

Littrell isn’t alone in his efforts to organize a union at an Amazon facility.

Amazon unionization efforts span across New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Workers involved with Amazonians United Chicagoland, an organized effort based in Chicago, Ill., say they are fighting for respect and decent working conditions, according to their Twitter page.

The group alleged in a page on Chuffed, a crowdfunding website, that the company “shortens workers’ breaks and promises them bonuses they never receive.”

Amazon workers at the JFK8 Fulfillment Center on Staten Island voted on April 1 to form the first Amazon Union in U.S. history, according to the Amazon Labor Union.

The Amazon Labor Union requested better pay and benefits in addition to improved working conditions.

“Amazon workers know the only way we’re going to pressure the company into treating us with respect is by uniting under one banner and exercising our right to come together as an independent union,” according to a statement on the labor union’s website.

Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement to the Herald-Leader that employees have always had the choice of whether to join a union, but the company doesn’t believe unions are the best answer.

“Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work,” Nantel continued in a statement responding to allegations against the company.

Kentucky organizer accuses Amazon of retaliation

Littrell said he’s faced discipline which he believes is retaliation in response to the SDF1 union. He said he was never disciplined for anything during his first year of working at Amazon before rumors alluding to him being fired began.

“I’ve been fighting for my job ever since, and they (management) keep finding something to write me up for to keep me stressed out and on my toes,” he said. “If I get two more write-ups, I’m fired automatically because you’re allotted six within a 12-month period.”

The Washington Post previously reported that an Amazon manager called the cops on Littrell while he was handing out union fliers outside the Campbellsville warehouse.

Littrell said he was the only person on Amazon’s property during this event while fellow employees stood on Taylor County property. He told the Washington Post that the group was “completely within (their) rights” to be on company property.

Littrell said two Campbellsville Police Department squad cars arrived on the scene as a result while sheriff deputies confronted him and other employees.

He said a security guard and a constable watched him and others working to establish a union from the facility parking lot the next morning as outreach efforts continued.

Persistent issues in working conditions

Littrell said he’s working to form the union because he saw firsthand the injuries caused by “unsafe working conditions,” including working with overstuffed bins and witnessing Amazon workers suffer from heat exhaustion.

Out of concern for workers’ safety, Littrell relayed employee feedback to management in hopes they would tackle their worries. He said some issues have continuously occurred for years and date back to when the facility first opened in 1999.

“I saw a lot of inequities in the food chain,” Littrell said. “Employees hired on as seasonal (workers) don’t have any job security, they have terrible benefits, and they don’t get access to tuition or the discount programs.”

Littrell said Amazon’s previous hiring agency was in a class action lawsuit for wage theft and that he and most other seasonal employees were never notified of the possibility they were entitled to compensation.

“I see people struggling all the time because of price gouging (with) no eligibility for government assistance, especially those who commute more than an hour to work and gas per gallon is a third of their wage,” Littrell said.

Campbellsville organizers want to end ‘alienation and isolation’

Littrell said the SDF1 Amazon facility’s goals in unionizing include building a community that “ends the alienation and isolation of workers” by Amazon.

Additionally, Littrell said he wants the union to hold Amazon legally accountable for workers’ safety and living standards, increase equality among all employees and ensure that those “who add more value to Amazon” through working multiple company roles are paid accordingly.

Littrell said the unionization group within the SDF1 Amazon facility is a Kentucky-based chapter of the Amazon Labor Union.