For Immediate Release: February 28, 2025
Media Contact: Lisa Thomas, lisa@alignny.org, (347) 415-6431
ALIGN Blasts Amazon’s Dangerous, Polluting
Last Mile Warehouses & Calls for Regulation — Testimony Excerpts
New legislation from Council Member Alexa Avilés would regulate the harms of last-mile warehouses and corporations like Amazon
New York, NY – The following are excerpts in support of Intro 1130 from today’s hearing on air quality and last mile facilities with the Committee on Environmental Protection, Resiliency and Waterfronts, as well as the press conference with community leaders that preceded it.
Theodore A. Moore, ALIGN Executive Director
Excerpt from remarks at the press conference preceding the hearing:
“Amazon just reported profits of $20 billion for their last quarter, up 88% from last year. How are they making all of that money while 1 in 4 New Yorkers are living below the poverty line? We know the answer. They’re exploiting workers, they’re polluting our communities, they’re doing whatever it takes to build their bottom line.”
“Where are those last mile facilities? Right now, wherever Amazon wants them. Wherever is most efficient to make the most profit. Often that means near ports, near highways — areas that are historically Black and brown communities. So those communities are paying the price with worsening health and asthma rates from pollution, and more dangerous streets because of increased traffic.”
“The growth of Amazon and last mile facilities in NYC is polluting our neighborhoods and harming workers. We can’t let corporations profit with abandon while our communities suffer.
ALIGN strongly supports Intro 1130 to reduce emissions, prioritize health and safety, and make the last mile industry safe and sustainable for workers and our environment.”
Julia Corrado, ALIGN Research & Policy Analyst
Excerpt from testimony:
“ALIGN strongly supports Intro 1130. This bill would mitigate the pollution of environmental justice communities and enforce the emissions regulations necessary to maintain our climate goals and hold large corporations accountable.”
“One cannot properly consider the environmental problems surrounding last mile warehouses without confronting the labor concerns within these facilities. Low wages, poor hours, impossible work quotas, unregulated subcontracting, and more, make working in last mile facilities dangerous. In fact, they have some of the highest rates of serious injury in the country. We strongly urge the Council to address both the labor and environmental concerns hand-in-hand.”
Background:
- Amazon and the broader e-commerce industry have grown exponentially in the last decade, and more warehouses and delivery centers are popping up all over New York.
- When a consumer orders an item, it is transferred from a retailer’s warehouse to a fulfillment center or “last mile” warehouse, the final stop in the delivery process to the customer’s mailbox.
- Last mile warehouses are typically built near ports and highways, in neighborhoods that tend to be low income communities of color already overburdened by the environmental and health impacts of the climate crisis. NYC has one of the country’s highest rates of hospitalizations and deaths due to asthma among children and young adults, with Black and Latino patients accounting for more than 80% of the cases.
- Last mile delivery workers experience high rates of serious injury while working conditions include low wages, poor hours, dangerous quotas, inefficient and excessive truck routes, and unregulated subcontracting practices.
- Regulating last mile warehouses will also help NYC achieve our urgent emissions reduction goals, to curb the devastating impacts of our climate crisis on our mandated timeline.
- Legislation (Int 1130) has been introduced in New York City requiring the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to reduce emissions from indirect sources, such as last mile warehouses. Indirect sources produce harms from not just one source but many — traffic, noise pollution, and emissions from the facilities themselves.
About ALIGN
ALIGN (The Alliance for a Greater New York) brings together labor, climate, and community organizations for a more just, sustainable New York. Working at the intersection of economic and climate justice, ALIGN builds coalitions with those most impacted and uplifts worker and community voices to fight for dignity in the workplace and a just path to a renewable energy economy for all.
Read more about ALIGN’s 2025 Agenda for a Green, Affordable NY.
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