Send-off party for Allentown workers headed to Seattle to bring call for good jobs straight to Amazon executives THIS TUESDAY, workers from Amazon's notorious Allentown warehouse are flying to Seattle to lead a rally at the company's glitzy new headquarters. In Seattle they will bring their message from Amazon's sweatshop warehouses to the company's air-conditioned executive suites: it's time for the giant retailer to deliver good jobs to the 99%.
Community supporters in Pennsylvania are hosting a send-off party to show support for one of these workers to wish her well as she gets ready to take her good jobs message to Amazon's corporate headquarters in Seattle.
When: Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Where: Lehigh Valley International Airport, 3311 Airport Road, Allentown
What/Visuals: Send-off party for Karen Salasky, a worker from Amazon's notorious Allentown warehouse. Karen is flying out to Seattle to help lead a rally at the company's corporate headquarters in Seattle, where she will speak out about working conditions at the Allentown warehouse and present a giant copy of a "Warehouse Workers Bill of Rights".
Amazon's Allentown warehouse became notorious last year for brutal working conditions after a landmark article in the Morning Call. When workers collapsed from exhaustion as indoor temperatures rose above 100 degrees and the warehouse became a literal sweatshop, the company's initial response was not to increase ventilation or install air conditioning, but simply to station paramedics outside.
Karen Salasky of Allentown was at the warehouse and saw these conditions — and that's why she's headed to Seattle.
“I’m going to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters," Karen explained, "to tell Amazon the way they treat their warehouse employees isn’t right.”
In Seattle, Karen will take her call for good jobs directly to Amazon's executives, employees, and hometown community. Along with a second former warehouse worker from Allentown, she'll join more than a hundred community supporters in Seattle at Amazon's corporate headquarters. Together, they'll call on the giant retailer to share its success with the workers who get the goods moving from customers' virtual shopping carts to their real-world doorsteps.
If Amazon can generate enough wealth to make CEO Jeff Bezos one of the 30 richest people in the world, they can afford to create good jobs in Allentown, not abandon workers to sweatshop conditions.
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Contact: Sage Wilson, 206-227-6014, sage@workingwa.org