Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

XPO Logistics Will Close Warehouse Where Some Pregnant Workers Miscarried

XPO Logistics said its decision to close the warehouse in Memphis was tied to a move by Verizon, for which it ships products, to stop using the facility.Credit...Brandon Dill for The New York Times

XPO Logistics will close a Memphis warehouse where employees had complained about widespread discrimination and a number of pregnant workers had miscarriages.

The company said it would close the site because Verizon, whose cellphones and other products XPO ships from the warehouse, had decided to stop using the facility. The moves followed a New York Times report into working conditions there.

More than 400 XPO employees will lose their jobs. “Our presence in the Memphis community remains strong, and we have new jobs available for the majority of these employees in our 11 other local facilities,” Lissa Perlman, an XPO spokeswoman, said in a statement on Thursday.

Rich Young, a Verizon spokesman, said the company would continue to work with XPO at other sites. “We’re constantly evaluating the needs of our business and make adjustments accordingly,” he said. “There is nothing unique about this transition.”

Image
A letter to XPO Logistics Inc. employee Lakeisha Nelson stating that she will be terminated.Credit...Brandon Dill for The New York Times

The Teamsters union, which has been trying to organize workers at the warehouse, said the closing was retaliation against employees who publicized incidents of sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination. The group’s organizing efforts there have been underway since 2017, when a worker collapsed and died of cardiac arrest on the warehouse floor.

In October, The Times reported that six women had miscarriages after lifting heavy boxes at the warehouse and being denied breaks from physically intense work. Some of the episodes occurred while the warehouse was operated by another company, New Breed Logistics, which XPO bought in 2014.

Workers at the site lift boxes weighing up to 45 pounds. The facility does not have air-conditioning, and indoor temperatures in the summer can rise past 100 degrees.

“They are just cutting and running and closing the place instead of addressing the problem of pregnancy discrimination and sexual harassment,” Jim Hoffa, the Teamsters president, said in an interview. Mr. Hoffa said the Teamsters were considering filing a formal complaint about the warehouse’s closing with the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that handles labor disputes.

Lakeisha Nelson, an employee at the XPO facility, has been vocal about conditions there. “The warehouse is closing because management chose to run this place like it’s their personal plantation, rather than running it like it’s a company,” she said Thursday.

Image
XPO Logistics employee Lakeisha Nelson, right, holds her a letter announcing her termination as she hugs her Teamsters representative Michele Haynes outside of the XPO warehouse.Credit...Brandon Dill for The New York Times

After The Times published its article, nine senators wrote to XPO and Verizon demanding that the companies address the allegations. Two weeks later, nearly 100 members of the House called for an investigation by its Committee on Education and the Workforce into working conditions at the facility.

In a statement on Thursday, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and one of the senators who organized the letter to the companies, said the move “reeks of retaliation.”

Federal law prohibits employers from firing workers or closing a facility to punish employees for organizing a union or for collectively complaining about workplace conditions.

XPO said previously that it had asked an independent law firm to look into the pregnancy accommodation issues, and it announced new policies for accommodating pregnant workers in addition to more generous parental leave.

In a letter sent to employees on Wednesday, XPO told workers that their “employment will terminate during a two-week period commencing on April 15, 2019.”

XPO and Verizon said their decisions were unrelated to the Times article or efforts to organize workers.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 7 of the New York edition with the headline: Memphis Warehouse to Close After Miscarriages and Claims of Bias. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT