At 1835 Union Airpark Blvd. in the city of Union, on the northwest side of the Dayton International Airport, the center began processing and delivering customer orders last August.
Now, the five-story fulfillment center processes hundreds of thousands of packages each day through more than 20 miles of connected conveyors.
Amazon Union is the seventh robotics fulfillment center in Ohio and staffs more than 2,000 full- and part-time employees across nine shifts.
Amazon spokeswoman Paula Morrison said the company is always hiring and will ramp up onboarding seasonal employees as the holidays approach, a time when online shopping typically reaches its peak.
Along with average hourly pay of $20.50, a job with Amazon can offer flexibility in work schedules, an accepting work environment, and a lot of opportunity for career advancement, Morrison said.
“There’s a wonderful program we offer called Career Choice, which allows employees an opportunity to go to school to earn a degree or certification with financial help from Amazon,” she said.
Amazon Union General Manager Mike Owens said employees have a multitude of training options within the company, as well, allowing for individuals to find the area that suits them best.
“Since Amazon started incorporating all these innovative technologies ... we have created 700 new job categories across the world, with thousands of jobs created, from picking, packing, shipping, IT professionals, and instrumentation technology,” Owens said.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Husted remarked on the new facility, which sits across the street from a huge Proctor & Gamble distribution center, in the city of Union, and its significance within the community.
“When you’re an Amazon community ... that says something about your capacity from a workforce point of view, from a logistics point of view, and from an infrastructure point of view,” he said. “Here in the Dayton region, this area was once cornfields and a dream, and now it’s home to the most high-tech commerce on the globe. That is a great brand for Dayton.”
According to an Amazon spokesperson, the company invested over $200 million into the development of the Union facility.
The company promotes its collaborative robots and technology as a way to help create a safer and more ergonomic workplace across its operations.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Husted also noted the facility’s specific location in the region near an airport and multiple major highways makes the Dayton region a key spot for logistics development now and into the future.
He further highlighted Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s visit Monday to the University of Dayton to name Dayton as the state’s second “Innovation Hub,” with a plan to develop a secure 120,000-square-foot building dedicated to national defense.
To be located on a 38-acre site on the former Montgomery County Fairgrounds, that proposed facility will provide a home for Air Force efforts to harness digital technology equipping the force and preparing for competition with China.
“We have the whole package; we can make things, deliver things, and innovate things,” Husted said. “That’s why the Dayton market is growing. We’ve known this for a while in Dayton, but the rest of the world is waking up to it now.”
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
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