
The Truth About Temp Labor
Temp labor has become one of the fastest-growing parts of the American workforce, and VICE News follows the workers who keep same-day delivery running while staying almost invisible to the customers who benefit from it. The film traces goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where container ships unload cargo that accounts for over 70 percent of US consumer goods, to the Inland Empire east of LA, once citrus groves and horse ranches and now the largest concentration of warehouses in the world. Schneider Logistics alone runs more than two million square feet there exclusively for Walmart. Reporters visit temp agencies and warehouse floors to hear from workers hired without benefits or job security, many of whom describe retribution for speaking up. The reporting, done in collaboration with ProPublica, sets Amazon's holiday order volume (over 300 items sold per second during peak Christmas rush) against the conditions of the people sorting, labeling, and loading those same packages by hand.