Amazon announces it’s now hiring 2,000 people for its Nampa warehouse
Amazon announced Friday that is has begun hiring more than 2,000 people for the Seattle company’s new fulfillment center in Nampa, which is expected to open next month.
“We are excited to offer great jobs with great wages starting at $15 per hour and comprehensive benefits that start on day one, including full medical, vision and dental insurance, matching 401(k) and up to 20 weeks of parental leave,” Tim McIntosh, the general manager for the warehouse, said in a news release.
Employees will help pick, pack and ship items from the 2.7-million-square-foot warehouse, the state’s first fulfillment center. It will be filled with household goods, books, toy and electronics that will be shipped to customers primarily in the Treasure Valley.
People interested in working for Amazon are asked to apply online. They can also text BOISENOW to 77088 to learn about new jobs as they’re listed.
The jobs site on Friday afternoon listed positions under the broad category of Warehouse Team Members. It showed shifts for early morning, daytime, evening, overnight and weekends.
Job candidates must be at least 18 and have a high school diploma or equivalent. Those applying will be asked to pick a shift preference and to select an appointment time for an interview. They will undergo a temperature check and be required to wear a face mask, which will be supplied by the company.
Amazon said it spent more than $800 million during the first half of 2020 on COVID-19 safety measures, including temperature checks, masks, enhanced cleaning, sanitation stations and on-site testing.
However, on Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that the California agency that oversees workplace safety fined the company $1,870 for coronavirus-related safety measures.
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health found that Amazon failed to provide effective safety training about the coronavirus to employees. The violations occurred at Amazon warehouses in Eastvale in Riverside County and in Hawthorne in Los Angeles County.
An investigation took place after warehouse employees complained about working conditions, the paper said.
Complaints compiled by a labor advocacy group, Warehouse Worker Resource Center, on behalf of employees, alleged Amazon did not adequately promote social distancing and didn’t stop operations to clean and disinfect parts of the facilities where infected workers had spent their shifts, the Times said.
In one case, Amazon did not inform workers at the Hawthorne warehouse that a worker had died. Employees learned of the death through media reports.
In a statement, Amazon said it plans to appeal the fine.
“We believe our training programs are more than adequate,” the company said in an emailed statement. “We’ve invested heavily in training people about staying safe and healthy. We take health and safety seriously and follow all applicable rules and regulations.”
The four-story Nampa warehouse, located at Franklin and Star roads, is the size of 47 football fields (12.3 fields on its first-floor footprint). Workers will work alongside robots to gather products for shipment.
The fulfillment centers that utilize robots, 26 worldwide, have higher numbers of human workers, because products move at a faster pace. Those warehouses are also able to store 40% more inventory, the company said.
Amazon initially said it planned to hire 1,000 workers, but doubled that number as the warehouse was closer to completion.
One hundred robots shaped like race cars and looking like a Roomba vacuum on steroids will move yellow bins the size of a standing freezer across the floor. Each robot can handle 1,500 pounds of products.
During a demonstration, bins placed on top of the robots glided silently across the room.
This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 11:10 AM.
CORRECTION: Amazon’s big Nampa fulfillment center near Interstate 84 has four floors that occupy 2.7 million square feet, according to the Canyon County assessor’s office. Its ground-floor footprint is 709,138 square feet. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the building’s square footage, and its equivalent in football fields, based on an error in the Amazon news release that announced the building’s opening.
