DISCUSSION
What should Amy’s Kitchen do about workers’ safety complaints?
Written by RetailWire Staff
Source: Facebook/@AmysKitchen
Amy’s Kitchen, the 35-year-old organic/vegan/vegetarian-oriented consumer foods producer, has worker treatment accusations to deal with.
Founded as a mom-and-pop business, the company projects a philosophy of taking care of its employees and being kind to the planet. The company, however, is accused of having dangerous working conditions at its Santa Rosa, CA, plant, according to a recent Washington Post article.
In the complaint to California OSHA, an employee said workers were expected to roll 10 to 12 burritos per minute, and each line was expected to assemble 72 plates of food per minute.
The complaint, which was co-signed by a local Teamsters official, alleged a lack of bathroom breaks and clean water, blocked fire exits, and a pattern of repetitive stress injuries. A Teamsters official said that “the injuries and working conditions were the worst that our local had ever seen.” (The union is also involved in an attempt to organize Amy’s Kitchen’s workers.)
Amy’s founder Andy Berliner has asserted in social media posts that the accusations are not true, while pledging to do better. He claimed the plant has 16 water stations throughout the building, that employees have regularly scheduled bathroom breaks and can go whenever they need to, and that none of the fire exits were blocked. He said the company has spent millions on safety and plans to spend an additional $50 million over the next five years.
Amy’s has hired a consultant, while activists have started a boycott. Some independent/smaller stores have stopped carrying Amy’s, but no major chains have apparently done so.
Workers say they want to meet with the CEO and the Teamsters local to discuss how to stop needless injuries and to allow the unionization process to play out without interference, according to Thrillist. Lauren Ornelas, the founder of the Food Empowerment Project, wrote a letter to Berliner stating that it is “unconscionable” that a vegan/vegetarian company fails to treat its workers with respect or pay attention to their health when the company was founded on the idea of healthy eating.