Peet's moving Oakland warehouse to Tracy after deadly roof collapse
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Tragedy hit the Oakland Peet's Coffee warehouse off 85th Avenue in March, when the roof collapsed in a storm, killing a longtime warehouse worker. On Friday, those warehouse workers got another piece of bad news.
Peet's announced they wouldn't be able to return the warehouse to its previous capacity and decided, instead, to relocate its distribution center and warehouse operations more than 50 miles away to Tracy.
"I just feel like they don't care about us, that's all," said forklift operator Samuel Howard.
A spokesperson for Peet's released a statement saying, in part, "Although 110 employees at the facility will be impacted, all the employees will be given the option to continue working for Peet's out of the new distribution center in Tracy."
Howard added, "Just like everyone else, I'm confused. It's a confusing process. I don't think they should do it, but it's not in my hands."
He's one of more than 100 workers now given the option to either take a severance package or commit to doing a super commute.
VIDEO: Longtime Peet's employee killed in Oakland roof collapse ID'd
"I, personally, don't want them to do the move to Tracy," he said. "I wanted to stay local but I'm still indecisive. Because I have a family to provide for just like everyone else."
Another employee who wanted to remain anonymous says 95 percent of the workers at their warehouse live in Oakland.
"A lot of people, they do not have cars," he said. "So a lot of them literally walk to work, catch the bus, BART, bike, I mean a lot. I would say almost half. And so this whole move to Tracy is something they cannot do."
Up until last Friday, he said workers were under the impression that the new warehouse would be in Hayward.
But Peet's says they saw its location in Tracy as a major transportation hub and would provide them with access to multiple facilities that would allow them to grow and meet future needs of the company.
"They need to think more about the workers," Howard said. "They don't need to worry about the operations right now because the workers are the ones going through the most right now."
In the meantime, Peet's will be holding their first of four hiring events in Tracy this Thursday, May 25.
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