Amazon Coming To Rosedale; Candidates Pledge More Restrictions

ROSEDALE, QUEENS — Another Amazon warehouse is coming to Queens, reported Patch on Wednesday, amid a pledge from mayoral candidates to further regulate the e-commerce giant’s presence in the city.

The newest $76 million, three-story delivery station, which would generate "at least" 50 jobs according to a news release, is located at 253-51 Rockaway Blvd. on the Long Island Border — so much so that most of the 11 acre property is in the Town of Hempstead, but part of the warehouse’s parking lot will be in Queens, reported Patch.

Wednesday’s announcement comes just days after four Democratic mayoral candidates — Maya Wiley, Scott Stringer, Dianne Morales and Paperboy Prince — and a slew of candidates vying for comptroller and city council positions, signed a pledge committing to regulate Amazon’s presence in New York City, reported Politico.

New York Communities for Change, Make the Road Action, and Workers United LDFS Joint Board co-authored the pledge, which calls on candidates to adopt policy changes that investigate “how Amazon’s distribution centers may be harming workers, local communities, the environment, infrastructure, and small businesses.”

A major aim of the pledge is to reclassify Amazon’s distribution centers — like the one being built in Rosedale, and the center in Long Island City — from warehouses, which can currently be built without any zoning changes.

Instead, the pledge would require Amazon to go through a land use approval process, which requires a vote by the City Council. It also states that Amazon would adhere to a new code of conduct addressing “ job quality, workplace safety, the right to join a union, community safety, environmental impacts, surveillance, and data collection,” and would not be given land use approvals unless they agree to the guidelines.

“New York City [is] one of the largest e-commerce markets in the country. There needs to be some oversight and scrutiny over what is happening, and the impact of these warehouses locally in communities,” said Zack Lerner of New York Communities for Change told Politico.

A significant portion of the pledge is aimed at better protecting Amazon workers, who are among a group of essential workers who secured a workplace rights victory in New York on Thursday, when Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the NY Hero Act into law.

In order to protect frontline essential workers against COVID-19 and other infection airborne diseases, the law will financially penalize businesses that don't adhere to the bill's safety standards, and require companies with more than 10 people on staff to set up workplace safety committees, where workers have a say on the enforcement of those standards.

At a rally in front of Amazon’s Long Island City distribution center last week, Amazon workers and labor rights advocates gathered in support of the now-law.

Maritza Silva-Farrell, Executive Director of ALIGN — one of the many groups who formed the NY Essential Workers Coalition in support of the NY Hero Act — was at the rally last week, and celebrated the passage of the bill into law today.

“This law is a major new national precedent for how to create enforceable health and safety protections for workers on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic and give workers a voice on the job,” she said in a news statement.

In a news statement about the new Amazon distribution center in Rosedale, Amazon spokeswoman Jenna Hilzenrath said the center will “create job opportunities with highly competitive pay, benefits starting on the first day of employment,” and that the e-commerce giant is “excited to continue to invest in New York” with this newest venture.