On October 21, 2018 The New York Times put a spotlight on discrimination against pregnant women in a Verizon-contracted distribution center in Memphis Tennessee. Pregnant workers requested lighter duty from their employer, XPO Logistics, a longtime Verizon contractor, and were denied. Several women lost their pregnancies after enduring long hours lifting Verizon products in the XPO warehouse.

This is not the first time that XPO workers have spoken out. Earlier this year, ten workers at the same Verizon-contracted facility filed sexual harassment charges with the EEOC. This summer, workers filed a complaint with OSHA about extreme heat conditions in the same warehouse that were causing people to pass out at work.

In each case, Verizon has pledged to conduct an internal investigation and XPO has denied everything. The time for investigations has passed. We call on Verizon to create an external task force including workers, civil rights and women’s rights organizations to conduct a top-to-bottom review of its supply chain and recommend immediate solutions to protect workers from discrimination, harassment and unsafe working conditions.