Dear Mayor Duggan, Detroit City Council, and Amazon: 

We are writing in solidarity with the State Fairgrounds Development Coalition (SFDC), a community-led coalition advocating for workers' rights and community benefits related to the development of the Michigan State Fairgrounds. We stand with the SFDC in its fight to ensure that the development of the 142-acre site, proposed to entail an Amazon Distribution center, and an as yet-to-be determined auto-parts supplier, will benefit low-income and working families. 

The Amazon facility promises to bring 1,200 jobs – but there's NO guarantee that these jobs will be filled by Detroit residents. More than half of the families living directly south of the fairgrounds live below the federal poverty line. Key to revitalization of the city isn't just bringing jobs, but bringing jobs that prioritize low income and Black and Brown communities that have for too long been ignored in the economic development of Detroit as a city where all can thrive.

The property is being sold for $9 million with a $7 million contribution toward the replacement and relocation of the existing State Fair Transit Center. While the relocation and improvement of the transit center is characterized as a public benefit, it does not go far enough in considering the needs of low-income Detroiters. Furthermore, there has been little attention paid to the kinds of resources neccesary to benefit to residents living near the facility, who will be most directly impacted by the negative effects of a large and potentially environmentally hazardous facility in their community. The sale of Detroit's largest assemblage of public land, deserves a large public benefit for those directly affected.

We applaud the developer's pledge to ensure that the facilities are built using union labor. However, we cannot overlook Amazon's deplorable track record related to workers rights. Over and over again, Amazon has proven to be hostile to letting working people join together in unions  to the severe detriment of their safety and well-being. According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, Amazon employees experience twice the number of serious injuries than the rest of the warehousing industry, due to “the company's obsession with speed [which] has turned its warehouses into injury mills.” Human health has been subservient to Amazon's profitability for far too long.

While we deplore Amazon's workplace practices, we commend Amazon's recent public statements in committing to carbon-zero facilities & policies and seek to ensure that these promises will be kept as they move into the city of Detroit.

Through hard-won victories, Detroiters and their unions of working people raised the standard of living of vast sections of the working and middle class. If Detroit City officials can declare on Labor Day that “labor matters,” they should be able to uphold these values when making decisions that impact the standards, livelihoods and futures of community members who could work for one of the most profitable corporations in the world.

We endorse and support the following policies:

1. We call on Detroit City officials, the developers, and Amazon to prioritize the hiring of low-income Detroiters and commit to a “first review” of screened applications from a local workforce development agency, especially during its initial hiring phase. We call for the same commitment for low-income hiring not only for the Amazon facility, but also for future tenants that will occupy Phases 2 and 3 of the site.

2. We call on Amazon to agree to commit to a worker-peace agreement and remain neutral in any union organizing drives. 

3. We call on Detroit City Officials and the developers to commit to sustainable and energy efficient development of the entire 142 acres. 

4. We call on Detroit City Officials and the developers to agree to preserve historic structures on the site, as these are vital to the history, memory and legacy of the city. 

5. We call on Detroit City Officials to establish a community fund related to profits made from the sale of this property that would ensure resources for the surrounding neighborhoods most directly impacted by the development.

SUPPORTED AND ENDORSED BY:

The State Fairgrounds Development Coalition

Amidst The Amazon Campaign

Detroit People's Platform

Doing Development Differently In Detroit

Equitable Detroit Coalition

Presevation Detroit

The Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice

Advancement Corporation

Metro Detroit A. Phillip Randolph Institute 

Black Lives Matter Michigan

Detroit Action 

Liberation PAC

Metro Lansing Poor People's Campaign

Michigan Coalition for Human Rights 

Oakland Forward

One in a Billion Consulting, LLC

Riverwise Magazine

The James and Grace Lee Boggs Center To Nurture Community Leadership

Southeast Michigan Jobs With Justice

SEIU Local 1

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