“It feels like an oven when you step back there. “Sometimes it reaches 135 degrees in the rear of the truck and there’s no cooling system,” said Singh, who has worked the job for two and half years and through the height of the pandemic. Raj Singh, a driver, knows that only too well.
And since June 24, these workers have been on an indefinite strike.Īmazon’s requirement of drivers to make up to 400 stops per day, even when temperatures exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit, can make operating one of those ubiquitous gray and blue vans a particularly hazardous occupation. In Southern California, 84 delivery drivers joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and negotiated the first union contract among any Amazon workers in the country. Extreme heat and unsafe working conditions under the merchant giant have now spurred drivers to unionize. Heat waves can delay flights and melt airplane tarmac, but Amazon won’t let them hinder Prime deliveries.
This story is part of Record High, a Grist series examining extreme heat and its impact on how - and where - we live.
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