Unsafe and Unfair: Labor Conditions in the Warehouse Industry

Abstract

The warehouse industry is a major employer in the Inland Empire, hiring about 114,000 warehouse workers in Riverside and San Bernardino counties in 2010 (California Employment Development Department 2011). This workforce is mostly Latino, of which about half are immigrants. While the industry often claims that it provides good jobs in the region, temporary workers who lack benefits and are paid low wages do most of the work. Many warehouse workers also face unsafe and unhealthy employment conditions. Here, we examine and summarize research on the region’s warehouse industry and efforts of Warehouse Workers United (WWU) to organize warehouse workers and improve their working conditions since 2008 through direct actions and legal channels. Our study combines information from multiple sources and methods, including secondary literature, ethnographic field research, and survey data. We discuss the region’s goods movement industry, drawing from relevant secondary literature, field research, and information from 17 semi-structured interviews with warehouse workers, warehouse managers, and representatives of temporary employment services. We also provide a broad overview of WWU’s organizing campaign based on field research by three authors carried out between 2008 and 2012.

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