CLEVELAND — A decision by Amazon to cancel its contract with Atlanta-based Inpax Shipping Solutions will impact more than 100 workers in Ohio with layoffs commencing this month.
In letters sent to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services on October 2, Inpax wrote that there will be "mass layoffs" at the Amazon facilities located in Euclid and West Chester. In a report from ProPublica, Inpax told employment regulators in six states total that it would lay off at least 925 employees beginning Oct. 2 and would cease all delivery services for Amazon by early December, according to government records.
The layoffs will affect one manager, three dispatchers, and 60 drivers at both Ohio facilities and will be permanent, according to Inpax. You can read both letters below:
ProPublica reports that Amazon canceled its contracts with two other major delivery firms in addition to Inpax, a move that will put more than 2,000 people out of work nationwide.
The contract terminations come on the heels of recent investigations of Amazon’s delivery network by BuzzFeed News and ProPublica, which focused on how the intense financial and deadline pressure Amazon puts on its growing fleet of independent delivery contractors can lead to worker mistreatment and threaten public safety.
The news organizations documented deaths linked to each of the three contractors.
Last month, Ohio U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown joined two of his colleagues, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in asking Amazon for the names of the more than 800 delivery services that it uses, how it determines its contracts with those third-party vendors, what steps it uses to ensure driver safety, and more.
Accoriding to ProPublica, Amazon refused to disclose the names of its delivery services, calling the information “proprietary.”