The head of a renegade association of FedEx Ground contractors said those businesses have a strong case to be reclassified as franchisees, which would challenge the very contractor model the unit is built upon. Spencer Patton said many contractors could meet the reclassification test, giving them more legal rights and benefits.
Building operational resilience and developing problem/solution scenarios for your ecommerce fulfillment center prior to a recession will allow you to be nimbler. Have a plan vs. just hoping it doesn’t occur; hope is not a strategy. Include department heads early, identify areas to review and develop a course of action.
FedEx is suspending Sunday delivery for its Ground network in some lower-density markets starting Aug. 21, citing a focus on “improving efficiency and reducing costs,” the move coming amid calls from contractors for relief from high costs, including elimination of Sunday service.
Federal prosecutors in New York and OSHA officials are investigating working conditions at Amazon warehouses around the country, according to various media reports, beginning in New York, Orlando and Chicago. The OSHA inspections arose from referrals issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Truck drivers blocked the Port of Oakland Monday, protesting California’s AB5 law that requires contractors to be reclassified as employees. The law affects an estimated 70,000 independent truckers, many of whom fear losing their livelihood, according to various media reports. There were similar protests last week in LA/Long Beach.
A leaked Amazon memo from mid-2021 indicates the company feared running out of fulfillment workers by 2024, impacting its business growth prospects and vaunted level of service especially for Prime customers, according to a report in Recode that Amazon has downplayed.
Amazon’s vaunted flywheel has hit a bit of a snag. But given the company’s superpower ability to continually evolve and innovate, and the general trajectory of double-digit ecommerce growth, it may end up looking like a speed bump in hindsight.
Amazon is challenging a union vote at a distribution center in Staten Island, NY, saying it should be thrown out due to illegal coercion on the part of the union, while the labor group is accusing the retail giant of sour grapes over an election it won. Union and employer are also locked in a dispute over an election in Bessemer, AL.
A tiny startup union dealt a major blow to mighty Amazon with a successful vote at a fulfillment center on Staten Island, NY led by a worker who had been fired two years ago, a move that backfired on the multi-million-dollar effort to thwart the organizing effort. But the matter is far from over as Amazon is sure to challenge the vote.
How are you addressing speed to customer in a challenging environment? Multichannel Merchant brought together executives in transportation and logistics from top companies — GNC, Best Buy, Vermont Teddy Bear, Crutchfield, DSW and Saddle Creek Logistics Services — for a virtual Think Tank forum on the subject.