Joshua Bustamante

As a package handler/sorter, my first duty was to open up the trailer doors once confirmed by the lead, and then use a metal pole to pull down the platform on the edge where the trailer and the floor of the warehouse connect. Once that is done, we move on to pulling in a roller inside until the end of the trailer using a handle, which requires the help of two people. After that, if needed, we push down any received packages or bags down the roller, break a jam if needed by moving the packages stuck on top or held up with the guard, and allow all the material to drop down all at once. Then, stack and load all the packages inside in a nice, neat fashion while making sure every package fits tightly to ensure a safe traveling process, also making sure the labels go inside the correct trailer; if not, then they would be considered a 'mis-sort' and must be placed into the right trailer. I would also volunteer in helping my coworkers with double checking their loaded walls inside their trailers, pick up any material on the floor, and when i had to i would cover for the picker of my group, the way it works was the packages/bags would come to my area through a rolling belt connected throughout the warehouse from primary pickoff which is the unloading/receiving department and it was my duty to make sure every package was double checked and placed into the correct trailer out of the 4 which starts with BUR,SJC,VAN/BND, and VIS.

In the position of a Sanitation Worker, I was taught the rules of GMP, taking notice of different types of allergens, non-allergen foods, and good sanitation practices. I was provided with the right PPE gear that would protect my skin from touching any of the cleaning chemicals we used. My daily tasks were to go into the changing room to put on my PPE gear, walk into the sanitation department, wait for the food production assembly to finish with their dishes, and they would pass them along to us at the sanitation department where we would wash dishes, utilities, and roll aways, such as strollers to hold the trays, trays, bins, ice cream scoopers, spatulas, whiteboards, blenders, mixers, and carts. We were given two different assignments: either sanitize the carts, trays, and mixers with a water hose to rinse, or use our pink cleaning solution for washing and rinse for sanitation. Or we would stock up all the received dishes in our working area and start with the biggest dishes to be scrubbed by one person with a sponge, who would pass it to the next person, who would dip the dish into the next sink to rinse off the soap, pass it to another person next, who would dump it inside a rolling bin filled with a clear cleaning solution to sanitize the dish, and stack up the dishes on the other side of the room for a supervisor to test and inspect the dishes for proof of sanitation.

At JC Foods Inc., I was placed under different groups doing different projects and tasks, such as watching a conveyor belt with frozen noodles rolling in to make sure any unnecessary broken pieces would be thrown in the trash, allowing the frozen noodles that were shaped correctly on the conveyor to fall into a box, weighing out the correct amount of 27-30 pounds for each box, wrapping a blue plastic bag inside it, bringing in a hand pallet jack to stack all the boxes, and walking the hand pallet jack into the freezer, which is roughly around 30-40 degrees.ully stacked the boxes from bottom to top on multiple pallets, left two labels on each side and one extra label at the very top of the pallet inside the plastic wrapping, and wrapped the boxes with plastic wrapping in a nice, neat fashion, with four poles sticking upwards on each corner. Then, the next project in chronological order, I would have multiple containers filled with dried noodles stacked on top of each other. I would then place them inside a plastic bag, weigh the correct amount from 7.0 to 9.0 pounds for each bag, and pass them on to the next person, who would align the top of the bag on the surface of a smaller conveyor belt machine that would keep spinning like a treadmill and seal the bags. I was also a great help to my supervisor because I understood how to set up the printer with the correct amount of ink, changing the date every day before we started, and troubleshooting issues related to the actual printing of the plastic bags.

The warehouse worked in wholesale, and it was under the company 4 Seasons, which offered random products like makeup, toys, mirrors, carpets, brooms, mops, etc. I was given the responsibility to operate an electric pallet jack; it was my duty to locate a list of items based on an invoice paper handed to me by my supervisor. I had many challenging tasks to deal with. One of them was being able to locate the items as quickly as possible. My supervisor made it clear that we were being judged based on the time it took for us to complete each invoice, which was challenging considering how wide the warehouse was and how many items were on the paper. Sometimes the orders would be two or three pages long, and if I had to, I would drop off the first completed pallet, grab another one, and continue until the order was completed. Once the order was finished, I would place the pallet down at the shipping department, grab some plastic wrapping, and wrap it around the pallet to keep it sealed and ensure that none of the products would be damaged during the shipping process.

The warehouse was located in the heart of downtown LA, and it consisted of products such as cigarettes, cigars, rolling papers, lighters, rolling trays, torches, deodorant, incense sticks, Juul products, etc. One of my tasks was to restock merchandise, memorize all the products, interact with customers who were mainly owners of smoke shops or liquor stores, and answer the phone to receive pickup or delivery orders. I would take their order on a piece of paper, write down what products they wanted, and it was my duty to grab every single item on their list around the warehouse, which had two floors and three different sections where we held extra products. Once the order was finished, I would go to a computer and type out what items were on the order, and print it out right after. Then, I would hand the paper to our cashier, who deals with the payment process. Another one of my tasks was to stock merchandise on top of shelves, pull merchandise with a pallet, or carry it inside.