At the corner of Division Street and Kostner Avenue in Chicago’s West Humboldt Park neighborhood, a massive 140,000-square-foot Amazon delivery station stands covered in fresh white and blue paint, empty of workers.
Amazon initially said the facility would open by the end of 2022 and that it planned to hire about 500 full- and part-time workers. On Friday, Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly said the facility would now open later in 2023. Construction at the facility is ongoing, he said, and its opening was delayed due to supply chain concerns and “business reasons.”
The delay comes as Amazon has pulled back on warehouse expansions after a big push during and before the pandemic, including in the Chicago area. Earlier this month, the company said it planned to cut about 18,000 corporate and technology jobs. Locally, Amazon still plans to open a delivery station in North Pekin in February, the company said.
On Thursday, about two dozen community members and allies held a protest outside the facility in West Humboldt Park, where they called upon Amazon to open the delivery station and hire workers from surrounding neighborhoods. They criticized Amazon and local elected officials for what they described as a lack of transparency around jobs for community members.
“We are tired of companies and our elected officials telling us that we’ve got to go along to get along,” said Edie Jacobs, director of the jobs placement organization Get to Work. “That we don’t have a right to be in meetings where plans are made.”
When Amazon first announced plans to open a facility in the neighborhood, local activists called for a variety of promises from Amazon, such as a starting wage of $28.50 an hour and the hiring of 60% of workers from the surrounding neighborhood. Some wanted Amazon to sign a community benefit agreement, which would have laid out specific benefits Amazon would provide to the community in exchange for support for the project.
“Amazon is not God,” said Anthony Stewart, of the Austin-based Black Workers Matter, on Thursday. “They use our sweat to make their money. They use our street to run their vans. They take our money for their services. This is a two-way street.”
Kelly said Amazon generally starts hiring workers about a month before a facility opens.
Amazon did not answer questions about the percentage of workers it would hire from surrounding neighborhoods or what wages the company would pay. In September, Amazon announced it would raise average starting pay for front-line workers from $18 to more than $19 per hour. Its minimum starting wage was $16 an hour, the company said at the time.
“We look forward to working with local community organizations regarding employment opportunities and community initiatives,” Kelly said in a statement.
Amazon did not receive local tax incentives for the project, said Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development Deputy Commissioner Peter Strazzabosco. The building is located in a federal opportunity zone, which makes it eligible for tax benefits. Kelly said Amazon did not receive any tax incentives or abatements for the project, and that it did not plan on pursuing any.
A day before Thursday’s protest, Amazon was cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for exposing workers to serious musculoskeletal injuries at a facility in Waukegan. It was the second time in two months the company was cited by OSHA for alleged violations at that facility. In December, OSHA accused Amazon of misclassifying injuries as less serious than they were in some cases. The company is appealing both citations.
OSHA officials said Wednesday that Amazon’s rate of certain types of serious workplace injuries was nearly double the warehousing industry average.
In West Humboldt Park, where members of the groups Get to Work and Black Workers Matter were joined by Teamsters and mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson, community members said any job was better than no job.
“A job beats no job,” said Yvette McCallum, a ward resident who said she is unemployed and was looking forward to applying at the facility. “People just want to work,” said McCallum, who volunteers with both Black Workers Matter and Get to Work.
Ald. Emma Mitts, whose 37th Ward includes the planned Amazon site, has supported the project.
When it was announced, she said the project would “inspire renewed hope to already disadvantaged neighborhoods further recently ravaged by the economic shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Mitts said she talked to Amazon officials about concerns regarding the company’s working conditions and was convinced they were making changes.
“They should not be treating people like workhorses,” Mitts said. She said she would like to see Amazon hire at least 50% of workers for the facility from surrounding West Side neighborhoods.
“We appreciate Ald. Mitts’ support for this facility and look forward to working closely with her office in the coming weeks and months regarding employment opportunities and more,” Kelly said in a statement.
Amazon tends to offer slightly higher starting wages and access to some benefits that are less common for workers in the warehousing industry, said Beth Gutelius, research director for the Center of Urban and Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. But the company’s injury rates raise “real questions” about the long-term impact its jobs might have on a community, Gutelius said.
“If you work at Amazon, and you become injured, or you develop chronic pain, that then has impacts on your future ability to work,” she said.
“It’s kind of an indicator of just how disinvested some communities have been that these are the best jobs available,” Gutelius said.
