May 26, 2025

Dear Friends and Family,

This past Friday was the last day for several of my Haitian co-workers. They are no longer eligible to work in the USA, their TPS expiring.  Patrice expressed that he was grateful for the experience of working and living in another country.  Djudly was going to do her best to finish getting a degree while here.  If goodbyes are not hard enough, walking into what felt like a 21st century’s perversion of an Auschwitz Labor Camp on Wednesday morning was gut wrenching.  One young lady referenced it to feeling like being raped.  Another was in tears.

Discarded shoes are displayed at the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim January 19, 2015. REUTERS/Pawel Ulatowski

It would appear that Tuesday night the lockers were cleared out for the first time in nearly three years. Everything was dumped into carts like those found in a prison movie laundry room scene.  They did not individually bag the property. Instead belongings were  dumped without care.  Not a shred of decency was exhibited, not so much as courtesy 24 hour advance notice. The shock of seeing shoes, jackets, backpacks, and handbags,brought back memories of an operations manager’s response to my concerns  regarding parking lot hazards that could result in death, “We don’t care if people get killed. We have insurance for that.”  Keep in mind it is well over two years since I first raised the matter of pay-raise discrepancy, then was subsequently harassed, removed from the Safety Team and taken off of AfM rotation, resulting in an ULP filed with the National Labor Rights Board, and working with Teamster. I’m still waiting on a copy of the solicitation policy, the status of my request that they institute a night differential pay, and reinstatement to the Safety Team and put back on AfM rotation.

Considering that Amazon has crossed the $5 billion threshold in taxpayer subsidies, broke records profits, and the Chinese tariff scandal.  And in the background lurking – – robots will replace the workforce.  Makes for  a hostile workplace environment where policies are changed on a whim in a real-life application of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

To be fair, only in the last month or so, did our site get onsite HR Managers, and the onsite SNY5 HR Team and has acknowledged that this was an inappropriate action and that they are working with leadership to address the matter.  Previously working here felt like a warehouse version of Lord of the Flies. I am hoping their presence is a sign of good things to come.

Thus, I look forward to health and safety focused solutions.  I for one do not live in a dystopian world. Being intentional is key:

”God will judge between the nations, and settle disputes of mighty nations. Then they will beat their swords into iron plows and their spears into pruning tools. Nation will not take up sword against nation; they will no longer learn how to make war.” – Isaiah 2:4

And in these moments I find time to be grateful to be sharing these concerns with you.

Love and Light in Christ,

Helene de Boissiere

PS  And please do keep calling Congress, urge them to support the S.J. Res. 38  which establishes the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.