Flying robots built for war (Anduril) aren’t the only robots coming to Rickenbacker International Airport – one of the world’s busiest logistic hubs.

These robots, however, won’t obliterate you on the spot. But they and their corporate masters could vaporize thousands of decent-paying warehouse jobs from Central Ohio – and do so without a second thought for the human beings who’ve toiled in these warehouses for years.

“Robots are taking over, and that’s a good thing for warehouse professionals!” claims this robotics manufacturer. 

Rickenbacker is home to Foreign Trade Zone #138, where scores of warehouses have overtaken the prairie. “The Columbus Way” loves to brag how half the nation’s population can be reached from this “FTZ” in a day’s drive. It also is exempt from US Customs duty fees making it even more lucrative for their ultra-rich pals. This Far South Side relic of an Air Force base has been transformed into the perfect landing spot for overseas goods made in sweat shops – just ask Les Wexner and his pal Epstein (if you could).

Twenty-five billion dollars has come through Rickenbacker annually since 2023, much of it clothes and shoes, such as The Gap and L Brands. These goods need to be shipped around the clock, and this has provided the region with thousands of jobs for hardworking yet marginally skilled worker, and a sizeable percentage are immigrants. We’ve said it before – no one works harder in Columbus than the pick-packers and forklift drivers within these warehouses.

What’s more, an argument can be made that warehouses have had a huge influence on 21st century Columbus becoming one of the last Midwest boomtowns.

“Warehousing has become a major and rapidly growing sector of employment for Ohioans across many backgrounds, including immigrant and low-wage workers,” stated Isbel Alvarado of the Central Ohio Worker Center to the Free Press in an email. “Warehouse jobs offer immediate access to employment without requiring formal education, English fluency, or previous U.S. work experience, which makes them essential for many immigrant and low-wage workers. Even so, warehouse work is demanding-fast pace, high injury risks, and constant productivity pressure are common.”

Amazon has a one-million-square-foot “fulfillment center” at Rickenbacker, and just in time for the holidays is a New York Times report detailing how the e-commerce giant has a secret plan to automate 600,000 jobs by 2030, or up to 75 percent of all operational processes. No doubt, the other corporate tenants entrenched at Rickenbacker also are scheming to replace human labor with machines. Instead of giving the hardest workers in town a raise, billions will be spent on replacing them.

And not just at Rickenbacker, Amazon and others occupy warehouses in West Jefferson, providing hundreds of jobs for that neck of the woods. Advocating for all local warehouse workers is the Mid-Ohio Workers Association (MWA), a free voluntary membership association of service workers, part-time and temporary workers, domestic workers and other low-paid workers.

“Warehouse workers are some of the hardest working people in the local economy,” stated MWA operations manager Benjamin Lee in an email. “Warehouses also make heavy use of temporary workers: currently, 4,500 temporary workers work at 46 corporations (including Amazon and Goodyear) with warehousing operations based near Rickenbacker Airport, the site of the largest warehouse boom in the region over the past decade.”

It’s safe to say Rickenbacker offers the ultra-rich (Les Wexner) a triple dose of exploitation. Connecting super cheap manufacturing labor overseas to cheap logistics labor in America, where our government provides generous tax breaks to the corporations which are simply purchasing and transporting these goods from other countries. 

“Rickenbacker Airport received over $100 million in county, state and federal taxpayer subsidies, on top of a 15-year 100 percent property tax abatement, as well as a waiver of importing and inventorying taxes,” stated Lee.

Central Ohio warehouse workers want safe work environments and a living wage with which to support their families in the face of Columbus’ rapidly rising cost of living, adds Lee.  

“Automation could, theoretically, be used to achieve increased safety at the workplace,” he said. “However, historically, when automation is deployed by multinational corporations whose legal obligation is to maximize profits, the consequence has been unemployment, displacement and hardship.”

Despite the conditions in warehouses and below-average pay, Alvarado says “warehouse jobs remain a critical source of income that supports families and entire communities.”

“Large-scale automation plans raise serious concerns about job elimination, economic instability, and the reduction of pathways to stable work,” she said.