Ahead of a key vote at a warehouse in Albany, union drives and walkouts show that workers are unafraid of challenging the e-commerce giant.
By RACHEL PHUA
On September 6, inside the million-square-foot Amazon facility known as ALB1 in Castleton-on-Hudson, about ten miles from Albany, New York, Samuel Molik was standing on a forklift about 20 feet up in the air when two wooden tables suddenly fell off a shelf and hit him on the back of his head. Instead of being sent to the hospital immediately, Molik was brought to urgent care first, before an actual ambulance was called, he said.
“I now have a severe head injury,” Molik, 35, told the Prospect at a pre-election rally urging workers at ALB1 to join the Amazon Labor Union. “I just got out of the neurologist’s office this past Friday. I have to get an MRI and I don’t know how long I’m going to be out of work. And it’s entirely because this place is so unsafe.”
More than a month after the accident, Molik is still waiting for his workers’ compensation. Amazon denied his initial claim, and he has hired a lawyer to fight the decision.