(Cuyahoga County) - Today, Amazon hosted a hard hat tour of the construction site of its new fulfillment center in North Randall, providing a sneak peek for local leaders, including North Randall Mayor David Smith, Warrensville Heights Mayor Brad Sellers, other local officials, and the media to see what it takes to construct an 855,000-square-foot innovative customer fulfillment facility.
The event featured a special demonstration of Amazon Robotics technology.The center is on the site of what was Randall Park Mall. When it opened in 1976, it was the largest mall in the world. Randall Park began to decline in 1994, and was demolished in 2014.
This is the third traditional fulfillment center in Ohio and will create more than 2,000 full-time jobs with benefits starting on day one.
It is expected to be operational in time for the Christmas shopping season. Associates at the center will work alongside Amazon Robotics to pick, pack and ship customer items such as home goods, toys and books.
Amazon has not been without criticism, a 2015 front-page article in The New York Times profiled several former Amazon employees who together described a "bruising" workplace culture in which employees with illness or other personal crises were pushed out or unfairly evaluated.
In May 2018, Amazon pressured Seattle City Council over an employee head tax proposal that would've funded homelessness services and low-income housing. T
he tax would've cost Amazon about $800 per employee, or 0.7% of their average salary.
In retaliation, Amazon paused construction on a new building, threatened to limit further investment in the city, and funded a repeal campaign.
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