DELTA TWP, Mich. — Delta Township will be home to Amazon's first mid-Michigan fulfillment center.
The 1-million square foot facility is expected to open in 2022 and bring with it more than 500 full-time jobs that pay an average of $17 an hour to start.
Employees will pick, pack and ship larger items to customers, ranging from bulk paper goods, sports equipment, patio furniture and larger home goods and electronics.
According to a news release, "innovative technologies" and energy-efficient, zero-emission power industrialized truck equipment will also be housed at the facility.
Delta Township supervisor Ken Fletcher said they welcome Amazon’s expansion in the township.
Fletcher said the township is giving the online retailer no tax breaks and that they're not contributing any money to build the necessary infrastructure.
“This is all a project that’s funded by Amazon. It’s nothing that’s coming from the township to support it,” Fletcher said.
The facility will be located at the northwest corner of Creyts Road and Mount Hope Highway in the township's industrial area and close to a Meijer distribution center. But Fletcher said he has no concerns about traffic.
“So, you already have other employers. So, it’s designed the roads are designed through there to handle the traffic that comes and goes when shifts change and things of that nature,” he said.
Amazon is known for tracking their workers' every movement inside the warehouse. Critics say workers are held to unreasonable productivity expectations and fired if they fail to meet them. A recent analysis of federal safety data by the Washington Post found that, in 2020, Amazon warehouses had serious injury incidents at nearly twice the rate of other warehouses.
Amazon said in an email to FOX47 News that, “Like most companies, Amazon has performance expectations for every employee, and we measure actual performance against those expectations.”
Amazon said performance targets are, "determined based on actual employee performance over a period of time," a company spokesperson said. "When setting those targets, we take into account time in role, experience and the safety and well-being of our employees. We support people who are not performing to the levels expected with dedicated coaching to help them improve.”
There will also be an Amazon sort center and delivery station coming to the Grand Rapids area and a delivery station in Metro Detroit which will be its sixth station in the area.
“We’re excited to expand our investment throughout the state of Michigan with the addition of these new facilities,” said Alicia Boler Davis, senior vice president of Global Customer Fulfillment for Amazon in a statement released Wednesday. “This expansion not only allows us to better serve our customers across the state, but also enables us to boost the local economy and drive more opportunities for job creation. We’re proud to have created more than 21,000 jobs so far, and look forward to our continued growth in Michigan.”
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