During their unsuccessful push for unionization last fall, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Rensselaer County sought higher pay and safer working conditions. Months later, the Schodack facility is facing fines as part of a federal investigation.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations at three Amazon warehouses for failing to keep workers safe this month. The citations, part of an investigation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District, follow similar actions against three other Amazon facilities in January.
OSHA Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker detailed findings in a call with reporters…
“Our investigations determined warehouse workers are required to perform tasks at a fast pace including manually lifting items from trailers, removing packages from a conveyor and stacking them floor to ceiling, and other tasks that require workers to work in awkward positions that make them prone to injury,” said Parker.
OSHA is proposing nearly $47,000 in penalties for the violations at the Schodack site and two others in Florida and Idaho. Amazon is appealing the decision.
WAMC spoke with two employees who were on the organizing committee seeking to unionize the Rensselaer County site, which employs around 900 people.
Tia Leanza, age 61, has been working at Amazon for the last year-and-a-half. She says labor in the warehouse can be painful.
“By the fourth day, my feet are killing me. My legs hurt, my hands hurt. And yes, you definitely feel the wear and tear as the days go on, as your workweek goes on,” said Leanza.
Workplace safety was a key demand during the union drive that failed by a two-to-one margin.
18-year-old Amazon worker Sarah Chowdhury, on the job for about six months, recalled an incident where it took hours to address a spill.
“While in training, I had just had this bucket, this large bucket of…concrete sealant that was just spilled everywhere. And it took it took about a couple hours just to get a hold of the safety team,” said Chowdhury.
During the union campaign, workers complained of injuries from boxes hanging off shelves.
Amazon says it has made “hundreds of changes” based on employee feedback.
In a statement to WAMC this week, Amazon said it’s cooperating with the federal government in its investigation and takes the health and safety of employees “very seriously. ”
Spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in part the retailer doesn’t “believe the government’s allegations reflect the reality of safety” at its sites and that the company reduced injury rates in the U.S. “nearly 15% between 2019 and 2021.”
OSHA’s DART rate provides an index of recordable workplace injuries. According to OSHA, Amazon’s national injury rate is 9 per 100 worker, compared with the national average at 4.7.
The DART rate for Amazon’s Rensselaer County fulfillment center is 19.7.
Amazon detailed several safety improvements to WAMC, including height-adjustable tables to reduce the need for bending and reaching. Some ladders and conveyor belts have been redesigned, too, as just some examples.
Chowdhury said she’s noticed some repairs – such as fixing the brakes on so-called u-boats used to move items around. But she hasn’t seen a significant improvement in safety since the union push.
“I would say it was no improvement, because the only improvements to safety that I've really seen were routine maintenance,” said Chowdhury.
On pay, Amazon did provide a raise in 2022. But Leanza says workers in Schodack are still making less than those at other warehouses in the area.
“Amazon thought they were giving us this wonderful, great raise of $1 an hour in during the union campaign, mind you, that that, oh, we're Oh, yay, we're giving you a pay raise? It's like, you should have been paying us $23 to begin with, because that's what most warehouse workers are making in this area? Not $16,” said Leanza.
Amazon says it does review wages regularly and plans to do so again this year.
But a lasting impact of the failed union push, which garnered national attention, is an effect on workplace culture. Months later, Leanza and Chowdhury described lingering tension between union supporters and opponents.
Leanza does not expect ALB1 workers to consider unionizing again soon.
“So it is a diverse crew of people, it's just, I feel the influence of, of the union busters. And Amazon itself was very negative and very divisive,” said Leanza.
But Chowdhury hasn’t ruled it out, saying she feels “hopeful but realistic.”
“I know it's going to take a lot ...of time and work and training. And, you know, I guess one-on-one conversations, which, with each and every one of our co-workers to really build that collective action, build that sense of community. And so that eventually, we can be, you know, strong enough both in numbers and an actual strength, you know, to demand these changes and to eventually unionize our warehouse."
This story is published in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education. Subscribe to College Inside, an Open Campus newsletter on the future of postsecondary education in prison.
A slight man wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a suit with a pocket square gestures as he stands before a group of men in blue jumpsuits. They listen attentively. A guard tower and chain link fence loom in the background. “He offered these Arizona State Prison inmates a chance to escape from the past,” the text below the photo reads. “Could there be a future in computer programming for prisoners?”
The photo is from an ad in Scientific American that’s more than 50 years old. Yes, 50 years. Not much has changed in conversations about prisons, education, and technology since then.
The benefits of tech training in prison were already known in 1970. People are less likely to return to prison if they have marketable skills that lead to jobs in high-demand fields with livable wages. But despite the promise of such programs, the pitfalls also remain the same: They can be costly; they can be difficult to scale; and they are subject to the whims of tech-averse prison officials.
While the pandemic helped make technology like tablets more common in prison, perceived security risks often trump opportunities for learning and rehabilitation. And as much as technological advances have allowed more wide-scale access to tablets (some of which come with high fees), they can just as easily be taken away.
The slender man in the ad photo is Glen McDermed, a marketing executive from IBM. In 1967, he proposed training incarcerated men to program computers to meet growing industry demand as tech companies began jumping on the information processing bandwagon. “The men would learn something useful for the future,” McDermed said of the program in a quote accompanying the ad. IBM employees taught the initial classes to 11 men. Long-term prisoners eventually took over training to make the program self-sustaining. The program offered the men “real-world” experience that saved Arizona millions of dollars in lucrative contracts between corrections and other state agencies, according to a 1970 cover story for Computerworld.
Similar programs were launched elsewhere, including Oklahoma and New York. A 1967 story in the New York Times described a $1,200 computer course offered to incarcerated men for free. “The cells may be narrow, but the intellectual horizons are growing wider at Sing Sing,” McCandlish Phillips wrote. The spokesperson for the institute offering the course told the Times that the men could learn programming without ever needing to touch a computer. At the time, code was handwritten until it was transferred onto a “keypunch card,” which was then fed into a mainframe computer.
In Massachusetts, more than 1,000 men were trained as programmers at Walpole correctional facility over the 1970s. The program there, sponsored by Honeywell, started the same year as the IBM program after a prisoner saw a newspaper want-ad for data processors.
But these training programs were sometimes short-lived, despite the benefit to individuals. William Short spent five years working seven days a week—at $3 a day—as a computer programmer at a maximum security prison in Somers, Connecticut. When he was released in 1975, he quickly found employment at an insurance company earning $13,400 a year (approximately $77,000 today). In a newspaper interview at the time, he said that learning a vocation in prison helps a man come out “with a whole frame of mind that is better than what he went in with.” However, not long after Short was released, the program that had given him such marketable skills was no more. It had been shut down due to difficulties retaining an instructor, high costs, and staff resistance, the corrections commissioner told the newspaper.
By 1978, IBM’s program suffered a similar fate. A new warden had phased out most of the educational programs at the Arizona State Prison, the prison newspaper reported, because he “didn’t understand them,” as one man put it. “Under the guise of his security program, he put a stifle to the various programs around here.”
In 2023, the benefits from tech training in prison remain much the same. One big difference? Keypunch coding has been replaced by cloud computing and javascript. In 2022, the D.C. Jail launched an Amazon Web Services cloud certification in collaboration with APDS, an education technology company that provides tablets to people in prison, at no charge to the students.
Being able to provide the training on the APDS tablets was significant because “it’s really hard to provide any kind of STEM programming inside that leads to some sort of industry certification or a living-wage job afterward,” said Amy Lopez, former deputy director for the D.C. Department of Corrections. Out of the 21 men who started the program, 11 completed the training. Most of those who didn’t finish chose to drop out or were transferred out of the jail, said Arti Finn, APSD cofounder and chief business development officer. The remaining men were able to take the high-stakes test to earn the Amazon credential inside the D.C. Jail, which was already set up to provide secure exams such as the GED.
Leonard Bishop, who participated in the program, hadn’t touched technology in the 17 years he served in the federal system prior to transferring to the D.C. Jail in 2018. When he first got a tablet, he said it took him a few days to figure out how to navigate through it, but then “I couldn’t put it down.” Bishop said he was surprised by how easy it was to learn the skills he needed to earn the AWS certification. He said he looks at it as a career opportunity, rather than “just” a job. “It helps you transition back into society, especially for someone who has been gone so long,” he said. The average annual pay for an entry-level AWS cloud practitioner position is almost $90,000, according to ZipRecruiter.
The pilot program at the D.C. Jail supplemented the tablet-based curriculum with face-to-face instruction by Amazon employees and other experts and incorporated opportunities to practice job skills such as interviewing. But the hope is that the AWS curriculum, and other industry certifications, can be scaled to allow people to self-study for the certification on the APDS tablets, Finn said. It also increases access for people who aren’t able to take part in face-to-face classes due to schedule conflicts, such as with their prison job.
When APDS started talking with Amazon, one of the goals was to reach the large number of people who sit behind bars without any access to any kind of programming, Finn added. The tablets are also equipped with video communication and messaging services, and could be used to offer online apprenticeships that create additional opportunities for hands-on learning.
Still, some are skeptical that tablet-based training alone will translate into high-paying jobs. It’s difficult to learn on a tablet, said Jessica Hicklin, who taught herself to code in prison. She’s now the chief technology officer of Unlocked Labs, a Missouri-based nonprofit that trains incarcerated software developers. Unlocked Labs is trying to add the Amazon cloud certification to its own training platform because the underlying knowledge is useful. But, Hicklin said, it would be difficult to break into the tech industry without direct connections to companies that engage in second-chance hiring. “I’m not sure it overcomes the stigma” of having a record, she said.
There are other criticisms of tablets, too. APDS has committed to never charging incarcerated people for its content or services. (Corrections departments or other state agencies pay for their tablets, Finn said). But other technology vendors routinely charge exorbitant prices for communications services and entertainment content. Critics also argue that they provide surveillance creep, creating more opportunities for corrections officials to monitor people in prison.
And with the prospect of higher education becoming more widely available in prison with the restoration of federal financial aid later this year, those companies are also trying to rebrand themselves as educational providers. The two largest tablet providers, Securus and ViaPath Technologies (formerly GTL), together supply more than 1 million tablets to U.S. prisons. That means around half of people in prisons currently have some kind of tablet access. Just like in 1970, access to beneficial programs remains contingent upon supportive prison administrators. In fact, many incarcerated students are reluctant to criticize online learning opportunities out of fear they will be taken away.
Five years ago, for instance, Colorado became one of the first states to roll out tablets, which included educational programming, to around half of its prison population. But months later, prison authorities confiscated them. (The Colorado Department of Corrections did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)
Today, most people in Colorado prisons still don’t have tablets. And across the country, the question posed in the IBM ad back in 1970—“Could there be a future in computer programming for prisoners?”—remains unanswered.
Enterprise IT architect certifications appear most often at the apex of certification programs, where less than 1% of IT professionals ultimately ascend. Even so, many IT architect certifications are available, and you don’t need to invest in one certification sponsor’s vision to reach the top.
Many IT certifications in this area fall outside vendor umbrellas, which means they are vendor-neutral or vendor-agnostic. Nevertheless, the number of vendor-specific IT certifications exceeds vendor-neutral ones by a factor of more than 2 to 1. That’s why we devote the last section of this article to all such credentials, as we encountered them in search of the best enterprise architect certifications.
For IT pros who’ve already invested in vendor-specific certification programs, credentials at the architect level may indeed be worth pursuing. Enterprise architects are among the highest-paid employees and consultants in the tech industry.
Enterprise architects are technical experts who are able to analyze and assess organizational needs, make recommendations regarding technology changes, and design and implement those changes across the organization.
The national average salary per SimplyHired is $130,150, in a range from $91,400 to a whopping $185,330. Glassdoor reports $133,433 as the average. Ultimately, the value of any IT certification depends on how long the individual has worked and in what part of the IT patch.
Becoming an enterprise architect is not easy. While the requirements may vary by employer, most enterprise architects have a bachelor’s degree or higher in a computer-related field along with 5-10 years of professional work experience. Many enterprise architects obtain additional certifications past graduation.
Certifications are a great way to demonstrate to prospective employers that you have the experience and technical skills necessary to do the job and supply you a competitive edge in the hiring process. Certification holders also frequently earn more than their uncertified counterparts, making certifications a valuable career-building tool.
Below, you’ll find our top five certification picks. Before you peruse our best picks, check out the results of our informal job board survey. Data indicates the number of job posts in which our featured certifications were mentioned on a given day. The data should supply you an idea of the relative popularity of each of these certifications.
Certification | SimplyHired | Indeed | LinkedIn Jobs | LinkUp | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
AWS Certified Solution Architect (Amazon Web Services) | 1,035 | 464 | 2,672 | 240 | 4,411 |
CTA (Salesforce) | 303 | 787 | 3,201 | 353 | 4,644 |
ITIL Master (Axelos) | 641 | 848 | 1,218 | 1,119 | 3,826 |
TOGAF 9 (The Open Group) | 443 | 730 | 271 | 358 | 1,802 |
Zachman Certified – Enterprise Architect (Zachman) | 86 | 107 | 631 | 252 | 1,076 |
Making its first appearance on the leaderboard is the Certified Solutions Architect credential from Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS, an Amazon subsidiary, is the global leader in on-demand cloud computing. AWS offers numerous products and services to support its customers, including the popular Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). AWS also offers numerous cloud applications and developer tools, including Amazon Comprehend, Amazon SageMaker Batch Transform and Amazon Lightsail.
AWS offers certifications at the foundation, associate and professional levels across five role-based categories: architect, developer, operations, cloud and specialty certifications. Foundation-level certifications validate a candidate’s understanding of the AWS Cloud and serve as a prerequisite to AWS specialty certifications. Foundation certifications are a recommended starting place for those seeking higher-level credentials.
Associate credentials typically have no prerequisites and focus on technical skills. They are required to obtain professional-level certifications, which are the highest level of technical certification available. Specialty certs, meanwhile, focus on skills in targeted areas.
AWS currently offers the following credentials:
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect credential is available at the associate and professional levels. The associate credential targets candidates with at least one year of experience architecting and implementing solutions based on AWS applications and technologies. AWS updated the associate-level test in February 2018 to include architecture best practices and new services.
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certification targets senior AWS architects who can architect, design, implement and manage complex enterprise-level AWS solutions based on defined organizational requirements. Candidates should have a minimum of two years’ direct experience deploying and designing on the AWS cloud and be able to translate organizational requirements into solutions and recommend best practices. The associate credential is a mandatory prerequisite.
Certification name | Certified Solution Architect – Associate
Certified Solution Architect – Professional |
---|---|
Prerequisites and required courses | Associate: One year of hands-on experience recommended, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Professional: Certified Solution Architect – Associate credential plus a minimum of two years of hands-on experience |
Number of exams | Associate: One test (65 questions, 130 minutes to complete)
Professional: One test (170 minutes to complete) |
Certification fees | Associate: $150 (practice test $20)
Professional: $300 (practice test $40) |
URL | https://aws.amazon.com/certification/ |
Self-study materials | AWS makes demo questions, practice exams, test guides, whitepapers and more available on the certification home page. |
CTA: Certified Technical Architect
In 1999, Salesforce revolutionized the world of CRM when it introduced the concept of using the cloud to provide top-notch CRM software. Today, Salesforce has more than 150,000 customers, making it the industry leader for CRM enterprise cloud platforms. Currently, Salesforce offers solutions for various focus areas, including sales, service, marketing, commerce, engagement, community, productivity (Quip), platform and ecosystem, integration, analytics, enablement, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, mobility, and industry (financial and health).
To meet industry needs for qualified and experienced professionals with the skills necessary to support its growing customer base, Salesforce developed and maintains a top-tier certification program. It offers many paths to candidates, including for administration, app building, architecture and marketing.
Salesforce Architect certifications are hierarchical, with most (but not all) lower-level credentials serving as prerequisites for more advanced credentials. At the top of the certification pyramid is the highest credential a Salesforce professional can earn – the Certified Technical Architect (CTA), which is our featured Salesforce certification.
The Salesforce Architect certification pyramid has three levels:
Salesforce requires CTAs to maintain current skills. Credential holders must pass maintenance module exams with each new product release cycle (typically in summer, winter and spring). While challenging to earn, the CTA is important for IT professionals who are serious about a Salesforce technologies career.
Certification name | Certified Technical Architect (CTA) |
---|---|
Prerequisites and required courses | Salesforce Certified Application Architect and Salesforce Certified System Architect credential:
|
Number of exams | One test (four hours to complete; candidates must formulate, justify and present recommendations based on a hypothetical scenario to a review board) |
Certification fees | $6,000
Retake fee: $3,000 |
URL | http://certification.salesforce.com/technicalarchitect |
Self-study materials | Salesforce maintains links on the certification webpage to numerous review materials, including the online documentation, tip sheets, user guides, exam guide and outline, Architect Journey e-books, Trailhead trails, and the Salesforce Certification Guide. |
ITIL Master Certificate – IT Service Management
One of our favorite credential sets (and for employers as well, judging by job board numbers) is the ITIL for IT Service Management credentials from Axelos. Axelos is a global provider of standards designed to drive best practices and quality throughout organizations. ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) joined the Axelos family in 2013.
Axelos manages ITIL credentialing requirements and updates, provides accreditation to Examination Institutes (EIs), and licenses organizations seeking to use ITIL. In addition to ITIL certifications, Axelos offers credentials for Prince2 2017 (which includes Foundation, Practitioner and Agile qualifications), Prince2 Agile, Resilia, MSP, MoP, M_o_R, P30, MoV, P3M3 and AgileSHIFT.
ITIL is a set of well-defined and well-respected best practices that specifically target the area of IT service management. There are more than 2 million ITIL-certified practitioners worldwide. ITIL is perhaps the most widely known and globally adopted set of best practices and management tools for IT service management and support.
Axelos maintains a robust ITIL certification portfolio consisting of five ITIL credentials:
Axelos introduced ITIL 4 in early 2019. ITIL 3 practitioners should check the Axelos website frequently for updates about the transition to ITIL 4 and availability of the ITIL 4 transition modules.
The ITIL Master is the pinnacle ITIL certification, requiring experience, dedication, and a thorough understanding of ITIL principles, practices, and techniques. To gain the ITIL Master designation, candidates must have at least five years of managerial, advisory or other leadership experience in the field of IT service management. They must also possess the ITIL Expert certification. Once the skill and certification requirements are met, the real certification work begins.
Upon completing the prerequisites, candidates must register with PeopleCert, the sole approved Axelos Examination Institute, and submit an application. Next, candidates prepare and submit a proposal for a business improvement to implement within their organization. The proposal submission is followed by a “work package,” which documents a real-world project that encompasses multiple ITIL areas.
The work package (1) validates how the candidate applied ITIL principles, practices, and techniques to the project; and (2) documents the effectiveness of the solution and the ultimate benefit the business received as a result of the ITIL solution. Finally, candidates must pass an interview with an assessment panel where they defend their solution.
Axelos will soon be sponsoring 50 lucky people in their quest to obtain the ITIL 4 Master certification. You can register your interest in the program here.
Certification name | ITIL Master Certificate – IT Service Management |
---|---|
Prerequisites and required courses | ITIL Expert Certificate: Five years of IT service experience in managerial, leadership or advisory roles |
Number of exams | No test required, but candidates must complete the following steps:
|
Certification fees | $4,440 if all ITIL credits obtained through PeopleCert
$5,225 if some ITIL credits were obtained from other institutes |
URL | https://www.axelos.com/certifications/itil-certifications/itil-master |
Self-study materials | Axelos provides documentation to guide candidates in the preparation of proposal and work package submissions. Available documents include ITIL Master FAQs, ITIL Master Proposal Requirements and Scope, and ITIL Master Work Package Requirements and Scope. |
A leader in enterprise architecture, The Open Group’s standards and certifications are globally recognized. The TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework) standard for enterprise architecture is popular among leading enterprise-level organizations. Currently, TOGAF is the development and architecture framework of choice for more than 80% of global enterprises.
TOGAF’s popularity reflects that the framework standard is specifically geared to all aspects of enterprise-level IT architectures, with an emphasis on building efficiency within an organization. The scope of the standard’s approach covers everything from design and planning stages to implementation, maintenance, and governance.
The Open Group offers several enterprise architect credentials, including TOGAF, Open CA, ArchiMate, IT4IT and the foundational Certified Technical Specialist (Open CTS).
The Open Group reports that there are more than 75,000 TOGAF-certified enterprise architects. At present, there are two TOGAF credentials: the TOGAF 9 Foundation (Level 1) and TOGAF 9 Certified (Level 2). (The TOGAF framework is currently based on version 9.2, although the credential name still reflects version 9.)
The TOGAF 9 Foundation, or Level 1, credential targets architects who demonstrate an understanding of TOGAF principles and standards. A single test is required to earn the Level 1 designation. The Level 1 test focuses on TOGAF-related concepts such as TOGAF reference models, terminology, core concepts, standards, ADM, architectural governance and enterprise architecture. The Level 1 credential serves as a steppingstone to the more advanced TOGAF Level 2 certification.
The TOGAF 9 Certified, or Level 2, credential incorporates all requirements for Level 1. Level 2 TOGAF architects possess in-depth knowledge of TOGAF standards and principles and can apply them to organizational goals and enterprise-level infrastructure. To earn this designation, candidates must first earn the Level 1 credential and pass the Level 2 exam. The Level 2 test covers TOGAF concepts such as ADM phases, governance, content framework, building blocks, stakeholder management, metamodels, TOGAF techniques, reference models and ADM iterations.
Candidates wanting a fast track to Level 2 certification may take a combination exam, which covers requirements for both Level 1 and 2. Training is not mandatory for either credential but is highly recommended. Training classes run 2-5 days, depending on the provider and whether you’re taking the combined or single-level course. The Open Group maintains a list of approved training providers and a schedule of current training opportunities on the certification webpage.
Certification name | TOGAF 9 Foundation (Level 1)
TOGAF 9 Certified (Level 2) |
---|---|
Prerequisites and required courses | TOGAF 9 Foundation (Level 1): None
TOGAF 9 Certified (Level 2): TOGAF 9 Foundation (Level 1) credential |
Number of exams | Level 1: One test (40 questions, 60 minutes, 55% required to pass)
Level 2: One test (eight questions, 90 minutes) Level 1 and 2 combined test (48 questions, 2.5 hours) |
Certification fees | $320 each for Level 1 and Level 2 exams
$495 for combined Level 1 and Level 2 exam Exams are administered by Pearson VUE. Some training providers include the test with the training course. |
URL | http://www.opengroup.org/togaf9/cert/docs/indiv.html |
Self-study materials | A number of resources are available from The Open Group, including whitepapers, webinars, publications, TOGAF standards, the TOGAF Foundation Study Guide ($29.95 for PDF; includes practice exam), VCE test (99 cents for PDF) and the TOGAF 9 Certified Study Guide (a combined study guide is available for $59.95). The Open Group also maintains a list of accredited training course providers and a calendar of training events. |
Zachman Certified – Enterprise Architect
Founded in 1990, Zachman International promotes education and research for enterprise architecture and the Zachman Framework. Rather than being a traditional process or methodology, the Zachman Framework is more accurately referred to as an “ontology.” Ontologies differ from a traditional methodology or process in that, rather than focusing on the process or implementation, they focus on the properties, types and interrelationships of entities that exist within a particular domain. The Zachman Framework ontology focuses on the structure, or definition, of the object and the enterprise. Developed by John Zachman, this framework sets a standard for enterprise architecture ontology.
Zachman International currently offers four enterprise architect credentials:
Zachman credentials are valid for three years. To maintain these credentials, candidates must earn continuing education credits (referred to as EADUs). The total number of EADUs required varies by certification level.
Certification name | Enterprise Architect Associate Certification (Level 1)
Enterprise Architect Practitioner Certification (Level 2) Enterprise Architect Professional Certification (Level 3) Enterprise Architect Educator Certification (Level 4) |
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Prerequisites and required courses | Level 1 Associate: Four-day Modeling Workshop ($3,499)
Level 2 Practitioner: None Level 3 Professional: None Level 4 Educator: Review all materials related to The Zachman Framework; Level 3 Professional recommended |
Number of exams | Level 1 Associate: One exam
Level 2 Practitioner: No exam; case studies and referee review required Level 3 Professional: No exam; case studies and referee review required Level 4 Educator: None; must develop and submit curriculum and course materials for review and validation |
Certification fees | Level 1 Associate: test fee included as part of required course
Level 2 Practitioner: None, included as part of Level 1 required course Level 3 Professional: Not available Level 4 Educator: Not available |
URL | https://www.zachman.com/certification/what-we-certify/enterprise-architect#enterprise-architect-associate-level-1 |
Self-study materials | Live classroom and distance learning opportunities are available. Zachman also offers webcasts, a glossary, the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture and reference articles. |
Beyond the top 5: More enterprise architect certifications
The Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) is a great credential, especially for professionals working with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from PMI continues to appear in many enterprise architect job descriptions. Although the PMP is not an enterprise architect certification per se, many employers look for this particular combination of skills.
Outside of our top five vendor-neutral enterprise architect certifications (which focus on more general, heterogeneous views of IT systems and solutions), there are plenty of architect-level certifications from a broad range of vendors and sponsors, most of which are vendor-specific.
The table below identifies those vendors and sponsors, names their architect-level credentials, and provides links to more information on those offerings. Choosing one or more of these certifications for research and possible pursuit will depend on where you work or where you’d like to work.
<td”>EMC Cloud Architect Expert (EMCCAe) <td”>GoCertify </td”></td”>
Sponsor | Enterprise architect certification | More information |
---|---|---|
BCS | BCS Practitioner Certificate in Enterprise and Solutions Architecture | BCS homepage |
Cisco | Cisco Certified Architect (CCAr) | CCAr homepage |
Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence (EACOE) | EACOE Enterprise Architect
EACOE Senior Enterprise Architect EACOE Distinguished Enterprise Architect EACOE Enterprise Architect Fellow |
EACOE Architect homepage |
FEAC Institute | Certified Enterprise Architect (CEA) Black Belt
Associate Certified Enterprise Architect (ACEA) Green Belt |
FEAC CEA homepage |
Hitachi Vantara | Hitachi Architect (three tracks: Infrastructure, Data Protection, and Pentaho Solutions)
Hitachi Architect Specialist (two tracks: Infrastructure and Converged) |
Training & Certification homepage |
IASA | Certified IT Architect – Foundation (CITA-F)
Certified IT Architect – Associate (CITA-A) Certified IT Architect – Specialist (CITA-S) Certified IT Architect – Professional (CITA-P) |
CITA homepage |
National Instruments | Certified LabVIEW Architect (CLA) | CLA homepage |
Nokia | Nokia Service Routing Architect (SRA) | SRA homepage |
Oracle | Oracle Certified Master, Java EE Enterprise Architect Certified Master | Java EE homepage |
Red Hat | Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) | RHCA homepage |
SOA (Arcitura) | Certified SOA Architect | SOA Architect homepage |
These architect credentials typically represent pinnacle certifications within the programs to which they belong, functioning as high-value capstones to those programs in many cases. The group of individuals who attain such credentials is often quite small but comes with tight sponsor relationships, high levels of sponsor support and information delivery, and stratospheric salaries and professional kudos.
Often, such certifications provide deliberately difficult and challenging targets for a small, highly select group of IT professionals. Earning one or more of these certifications is generally the culmination of a decade or more of professional growth, high levels of effort, and considerable expense. No wonder, then, that architect certifications are highly regarded by IT pros and highly valued by their employers.
Enterprise architect credentials will often be dictated by choices that your employer (or industry sector, in the case of government or DoD-related work environments) have already made independent of your own efforts. Likewise, most of the vendor-specific architecture credentials make sense based on what’s deployed in your work environment or in a job you’d like to occupy.
Though there are lots of potential choices IT pros could make, the actual number they can or should make will be influenced by their circumstances.
Since December, residents in Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas who order products on Amazon have had a chance of receiving them by drone.
But as of mid-January, only two households in California had received a total of three deliveries between them, and around five households in Texas had received packages, The Information reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the project.
The paltry numbers are surprising given the fanfare the company has drummed up about drone delivery.
In 2020, Insider reported that Amazon's Prime Air was issued an approval certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, to use "unmanned aircraft systems" in a commercial operation. However, the FAA actually included dozens of conditions and limitations that affect its ability to operate, which the company has downplayed until recently. In the summer of 2022, Amazon announced that it had decided upon Lockeford and, subsequently, College Station, as its test sites for drone delivery.
By December 2022, Amazon had begun making deliveries to customers in the two towns.
But a recent report by The Information's Theo Wayt which examined FAA records, along with comments from FAA representatives, and Amazon employees and representatives, found that the FAA is "blocking Amazon's drones from flying over roads or people without case-by-case permission."
That's curtailed the number of deliveries Amazon's Prime Air can make.
One reason might be because Amazon's drones are pretty heavy, coming in at 80 lbs when empty, even though the packages it can carry have a weight limit of 5 lbs.
"The possibility of Amazon's nearly-90-pound drone falling from the sky onto our home, onto our car, onto our children was nerve-wracking," Insider reported Amina Alikhan, a College Station resident, saying at a public meeting last summer.
A spokesperson for the FAA provided Insider with an exemption the FAA issued to Amazon on November 9, 2022 that maintains many of the restrictions it originally put in place in an exemption it issued the company in 2020, largely preventing the company from flying over roads and people without permission.
However, the FAA's exemption to Alphabet's Wing, and Walmart's drone delivery partners Flytrex and Zipline — whose drones range between 10 lbs to 40 lbs empty — allow them to fly over roadways, according to The Information.
Added to that, Amazon's drones have crashed several times during testing, with one igniting an "acres-wide brush fire" in 2021 Insider reported.
Amazon's rolling layoffs — the largest in the company's history— have also drastically whittled down the company's drone safety teams in Lockeford, College Station, and the test site in Pendleton, Oregon where the fire occurred, Insider reported, citing comments from former and current employees.
A spokesperson for Amazon told Insider via email, "We have built Prime Air as a service and technology with safety as the top priority. We meet or exceed all safety standards and have obtained regulatory authorization to conduct commercial drone delivery operations. We welcome the FAA's rigorous evaluations of our operation, and we'll continue to champion the significant role that regulators play to ensure all drone companies are achieving the right design, build and operating standards."
It’s been nearly a decade since Amazon’s Jeff Bezos promised us delivery drones, but they aren’t off to a particularly impressive start. Roughly a month after Amazon Prime Air made its first deliveries in California and Texas, it’d served fewer than 10 households — and it’s already laid off more than half the employees at those locations.
That’s according to a pair of new reports at The Information and Business Insider, and Amazon isn’t denying it. Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti didn’t contest those numbers in an email to The Verge when we asked. But she also said that Prime Air is actually working to expand drone deliveries in both California and Texas, with the FAA’s approval.
And there may be a very good reason why Amazon doesn’t have a lot of customers for drone deliveries quite yet, as The Information points out: Amazon’s drone isn’t allowed to fly over roads by itself.
To cross the road while still abiding by FAA rules, Amazon employees had to act as spotters to make sure no vehicles were coming when the drone needed to fly across the street, a plan the FAA approved.
Seems ridiculous, right? Amazon’s drone is effectively a five-year-old who needs to hold hands to cross the street. A drone designed to replace humans needs humans to go places.
But before you decide Amazon’s drone isn’t capable, before you conclude that the FAA is halting progress in its tracks — either or both of which might be true! — I suggest you actually read the FAA’s decision that made things this way. I’ve embedded it at the bottom of this story.
If you’ve never dug into an FAA drone filing before, you might not be aware: the FAA doesn’t exactly hand out licenses to operate autonomous drones and drone delivery services. It creates specific exemptions to the United States’ strict airspace regulations, each with a long list of conditions that companies must follow.
Amazon is working through a slow process with the FAA
Until last November, Amazon couldn’t even fly its drones outside of “sparsely populated areas,” couldn’t fly over buildings or within 100 feet of a building, and had to stick to flying over property under Amazon’s total control. The FAA required Amazon’s drone pilots to have the kind of private pilot license that’d let you fly a plane, not just a drone. If I’m memorizing correctly, every flight needed as many as six human beings, including observers and ground station operators.
That seems to have been wise. There were five crashes in four months at Amazon’s testing facilities in Oregon, and one crash ignited a 25-acre brush fire. The drone weighs nearly 90 pounds.
But those rules were during the experimental stage, and Amazon successfully argued last November that its experience and its new, safer and more autonomous MK27-2 drone didn’t need as many humans or safeguards. Among other things, the FAA cited its “enhanced perception system that allows for detection of people or obstacles below the UA during delivery or landing,” its auto-abort feature, remote alerts, and the fact that it can fly even if one of its six motors fails as reasons to nix those specific restrictions and more.
But not all of them, not by a long shot. Here are just some of the ground rules that still exist:
i. Operations over people are prohibited, unless otherwise approved by the Administrator;
ii. Overflight of power plants is prohibited;
iii. Overflight of schools during times of operation (e.g., elementary, middle, high, preschool and daycare facilities) is prohibited;
iv. Operations over or within 250 ft. laterally of moving vehicles are prohibited, unless otherwise approved by the Administrator
v. Overflight of any area deemed high risk by the Operator during the flight route design process are prohibited;
vi. Sustained flight within 250 ft. laterally of roadways is prohibited, and transitions over roadways is prohibited, unless otherwise approved by the Administrator;
vii. The UA must remain at least 100 ft. laterally from any person during all phases of flight, unless otherwise approved by the Administrator.
You’ll notice that Amazon’s drone still can’t cross a road by itself, and can’t come near or fly over people. That means Amazon’s customers can’t stand in their own backyards when the package gets dropped — unless their backyards are bigger than my house — and the FAA states that Amazon has to explicitly warn customers about that when they sign up.
One month, four miles, less than ten households — to start
In addition, both its California and Texas operations were limited to flights within just 3-4 miles of their drone launch sites. That’ll limit the number of potential customers.
Now, however, Amazon no longer needs nearly as many people for each flight, and the FAA is no longer requiring those employees to have the same flight or medical training — so it’s not surprising that Amazon would lay off many workers now it’s made them expendable.
“The recent staffing reductions do not impact our plans to deliver in these locations,” Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti tells The Verge. “We remain committed to our delivery operations in Lockeford and College Station and will continue to offer a safe and exceptional drone delivery service to our customers in both locations. We’ll gradually expand deliveries to more customers in those areas over time.”
She says the FAA approved flights to more customers in Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas just last week, and that Amazon is continuing to work on its next-generation drone, the MK30.
You can read the FAA’s revised requirements for Amazon’s MK27-2 delivery drone (and the reasons for its decisions) in the full document below.
New York State has joined the parade of federal and state government officials who are taking sides against Amazon with the unions who are trying to organize the company’s warehouse workers, but it is questionable about what the real impact a new state law will have in the end on the e-commerce giant.
The new law, which goes into effect on Feb. 19, is aimed at preventing warehouse workers from being subjected by management to work quotas that are so demanding that they are considered to be risks to the safety and health of the employees.
Called the Warehouse Worker Protection Act (WWPA), the new law establishes requirements for distribution centers (DCs) to disclose work speed data to current and former employees and to inform workers about their performance and rights in the workplace.
Labor unions hailed the law’s enactment. “Amazon overloads its workers to pump up its profits,” said Sean M. O’Brien, Teamsters’ general president. “While we are pleased by this bill’s signing, the fight continues in states across the country to make sure this white-collar crime syndicate is held responsible for its behavior.”
Tom Erickson, president of Teamsters Local 120 and director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division, added, “Enacting this legislation will end Amazon’s shady practice of managing its New York warehouse workers by secret algorithm, but more still needs to be done. Going forward, lawmakers everywhere need to understand the damage this company is doing to their constituents and our communities.”
Although unions have been trying hard to organize Amazon DCs for years now, they have managed to make only little progress after expending a large amount of effort and money on the campaign. One reason is that the company largely blunted the threat by raising wages and adopting sweeping safety measures in 2021.
Recognizing that about 40% of its workers’ injuries are related to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), at that time Amazon developed algorithms to automate staffing schedules, rotating employees around jobs using different muscle-tendon groups to decrease repetitive motion and help protect employees from MSD risks.
In the process, the company said it invested more than $300 million in various safety projects, including $66 million devoted to creating technology that will help prevent collisions of forklifts and other types of industrial vehicles. Amazon said it also initiated improved safety training and created wellness and mindfulness programs for employees.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) apparently was unimpressed and recently filed charges against Amazon at three of its Florida, Illinois and New York state, and is pursuing investigations at three fulfillment centers in New York, Colorado and Idaho. The charges specifically involve what the agency terms a high rate of MSD injuries.
OSHA Assistant Secretary of Labor Doug Parker said, “Each of these inspections found work processes that were designed for speed but not safety, and they resulted in serious worker injuries. Our hope is that the findings of our investigations inspire Amazon and other warehouses to make the safety and health of their workers a core value.”
Amazon currently faces a total of $60,269 in proposed penalties for these violations. It also was cited in December for 14 recordkeeping violations as part of the same investigation.
New York’s WWPA is similar to a California law enacted last year that is intended to protect warehouse workers from unreasonably demanding work quotas by requiring DCs to disclose work speed data to all current and former employees to inform workers about how their performance is measured and evaluated, and help them learn about their rights in the workplace.
The California law, which went into effect at the beginning of 2022, does not permit a work quota that prevents compliance with meal or rest periods required by state law, the use of bathroom facilities (including reasonable travel time to and from bathrooms), as well as preventing compliance with health and safety standards.
The New York law covers employers who have 100 or more employees working at a single warehouse or DC and those with 500 or more employees at one or more warehouse DCs. Workers who are covered by the law include non-exempt and non-administrative employees who work at a covered employer and are subject to a quota.
The WWPA defines a quota very specifically, according to attorneys of the law firm of Goldberg Segalla. It says a quota is a work standard where an employee is assigned or required to perform at a specified productivity speed, or a quantified number of tasks, or to handle or produce a quantified amount of material, within a defined time period.
The law says a quota also occurs when an employee’s actions “are categorized between time performing tasks and not performing tasks, and the employee’s failure to complete a task performance standard or recommendation may have an adverse impact on the employee’s continued employment or the conditions of such employment.”
Employers are required to provide each employee with a written description of the quota being imposed and any potential adverse employment action relating to it. In addition, each time the quota changes, the employer must provide an updated description within two business days. Any time an employee is disciplined they also must be provided with information about the applicable quota.
In addition, the WWPA protects workers from adverse employment actions because of a failure to meet undisclosed speed quotas or quotas that do not allow for proper breaks. It also prohibits employers from retaliating against employees exercising their rights under the law, point out Mark Goldstein, Alexandra Manfredi and Alexandra Irizarry of the Reed Smith law firm.
If employees exercise their rights in “good faith,” any subsequent actions taken against them by the employer are presumed to be an “adverse action against an employee,” if it is taken within 90 days of the employee’s engaging or attempting to engage in activities that are deemed to be protected by the law, like engaging in organizing efforts.
The law also requires that employers applying these kinds of quotas maintain records of each employee’s own personal work speed data; the aggregated work speed data for similar employees at the same establishment; and the written descriptions of the quota such employee was provided.
Amazon and other tech companies are chomping at the bit to use drones for delivery and other services. Trouble is, they’re trying to fly over a jagged legal and regulatory landscape that is far from fully formed.
That reality has bogged down Amazon’s ambitious plans for nationwide drone deliveries. According to a Feb. 1 story in The Information, the Federal Aviation Administration has prohibited Amazon from flying its 80-pound drones over people or roads without separate permission for each flight.
The FAA is said to have placed strict conditions on the Prime Air program.
Amazon's drone delivery program doesn't seem to be off to a great start. The Prime Air division was said to be hit hard by recent, widespread layoffs. Now, a new report indicates that Amazon's drones have made just a handful of deliveries in their first few weeks of operation.
After nearly a decade of working on the program, Amazon said in December that it would start making deliveries by drone in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas. However, by the middle of January, as few as seven houses had received Amazon packages by drone, according to The Information: two in California and five in Texas.
The report suggests that Amazon has been hamstrung by the Federal Aviation Administration, which is said to be blocking drones from flying over roads or people unless the company gets permission on a case-by-case basis. Although Amazon had touted its FAA certification, the agency imposed a string of restrictions, which hadn't been revealed until now. It has largely rejected Amazon's requests to loosen the limitations.
One of the plans the FAA agreed to, according to the report, was for Amazon employees to check no cars were passing on surrounding roads before drones left its Lockeford delivery facility. That depot is on an industrial block, and the drones need to fly over at least one road before getting to any homes.
Amazon's drones are far heavier than ones operated by Wing, as well as Walmart’s partners Flytrex and Zipline. Those weigh between 10 and 40 pounds. Amazon's drone, on the other hand, weighs around 80 pounds and can only carry a five-pound payload. The report suggests the drone's mass could be causing concern among FAA officials. The agency has given Wing, Flytrex and Zipline permission to fly over roadways — to date, Wing has carried out more than 300,000 deliveries.
One other aspect that doesn't help Amazon's prospects is that folks who want to receive deliveries by drone need a backyard where packages can be dropped off — so apartment dwellers need not apply. The drone can only carry a certain size of box and it dumps packages from 12 feet in the air, further limiting the types of products it can transport.
“We meet or exceed all safety standards and have obtained regulatory authorization to conduct commercial drone delivery operations," Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti told The Information. "We welcome the FAA’s rigorous evaluations of our operation, and we’ll continue to champion the significant role that regulators play to ensure all drone companies are achieving the right design, build and operating standards." Boschetti added that the Prime Air layoffs, which have reportedly slashed the size of the delivery teams at both locations by more than half, have not affected Amazon's plans for the test sites.
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© insideEvs.com Copyright Zoox robotaxi driving on public roads in California
Earlier this week, Amazon's autonomous tech company Zoox announced it deployed the world's first purpose-built robotaxi on open public roads with passengers.
Zoox said it conducted the first run of its employee shuttle service in Foster City, California on February 11, marking the first time in history a purpose-built autonomous robotaxi without traditional driving controls carried passengers on open public roads.
Unlike a conventional car and the vehicles most other robotaxi developers are using, the Zoox fully autonomous vehicle lacks a steering wheel, brake pedal and other controls human drivers need.
The company said it completed rigorous testing on private roads to reach this milestone and received approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to operate its robotaxi on the state's public roads.
More specifically, to obtain the permit, Zoox self-certified that the electric vehicle met existing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). To date, Zoox is the only purpose-built robotaxi to take the self-certification route.
While manufacturers can self-certify compliance, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) may scrutinize self-certifications in some cases to ensure they conform with the standards.
But many autonomous vehicle experts are wondering, Automotive News points out. The publication cites Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst at consulting firm Guidehouse Insights, as saying there is "some potential risk in this." He also said "it is still an open question on whether what Zoox is doing is legit," even though their legal team "seems to think it is."
For now, Zoox uses a single robotaxi traveling a 1-mile (1.6-km) public route between the company's two main office buildings carrying up to four people at a time at up to 35 mph (56 km/h). Zoox says it is capable of handling left-hand and right-hand turns, bi-directional turns, traffic lights, cyclists, pedestrians, vehicles, and other road agents on this route.
The employee shuttle service will be offered exclusively to all Zoox full-time employees, but the Amazon-owned company plans to offer robotaxi rides to the general public after it secures additional government clearances.
Source: Zoox via Automotive News
Here are the recalls you should know about from the week of Feb. 6, 2023.
This edition of Recall Roundup features recalls announced between Feb. 8 and Feb. 10, 2023. Recalls are ordered from the oldest announcement date to the most recent announcement date.
Prescription Purina Pro Plan dog food recalled after 2 dogs get sick
Purina is recalling certain bags of Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets EL Elemental (PPVD EL) after two dogs got sick.
The food could have elevated levels of vitamin D. Consuming elevated levels can lead to health issues depending on how much the dog ate and for how long.
Symptoms of vitamin D toxicity include vomiting, loss of appetite, increased thirst, increased urination, and excessive drooling to renal (kidney) dysfunction.
There have been two separate cases of dogs showing symptoms of vitamin D toxicity after consuming the food. The dogs recovered after they stopped eating the food.
“We apologize to pet owners and veterinarians for any concerns or inconvenience this situation has caused. As pet experts and pet owners ourselves, the health and well-being of pets is our top priority,” the company said.
Which bags of Purina Pro Plan were recalled?
The food was sold across the United States by prescription only through veterinary clinics, Purina Vet Direct, Purina for Professionals, and other select retailers with the ability to validate a prescription.
The recall involves 8 pound and 20 pound bags of Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets EL Elemental (PPVD EL). If you purchased this food, you should stop feeding it to your dog and throw it away where no other animals or wildlife can eat it.
You should contact your vet if your dog has any of the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity. No other Purina pet care products are affected.
Bags with the UPC code and Production codes below should be discarded:
UPC Code:
38100 19190 – 8 lb
38100 19192 – 20 lb
Production Code (*First 8 characters equal to)
2249 1082
2250 1082
2276 1082
2277 1082
2290 1082
2360 1082
2361 1082
How to get a refund
You can call Purina Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. (CST) at 1-800-345-5678. Or you can contact them through their website, click here.
Product photos:
Universal Meditech Skippack Medical Lab SARS-CoV-2 rapid test kit
Universal Meditech Inc. has recalled 56,300 units of its Skippack rapid COVID tests due to distribution without proper approval.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Skippack rapid COVID tests have been recalled nationwide because they were distributed without appropriate premarket clearance or approval which may result in inaccurate test results.
Product information:
Product name | Skippack Medical Lab SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Test Kit |
UDI | None |
Model | Cassette |
Description | - Purple and white box under “Skippack Medical Lab” brand - Green and white box under “DiagnosUS” brand - White box without brand name |
The recalled test kits were manufactured from October 2021 to December 2021 and were distributed nationwide in January 2022.
Universal Meditech has not received any reports of any adverse health events related to this recall.
If you have purchased any of these products it is advised you do not use them and contact the distributor to find out how to return them.
Questions should be directed to Universal Meditech at 1-702-871-9888 or m@linlawgroup.com.
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4.9M Fabuloso cleaning products recalled over bacteria contamination
Millions of units of multipurpose cleaner sold under the brand Fabuloso are being recalled due to potential bacteria contamination.
Colgate-Palmolive, the company behind the brand, announced Wednesday, Feb. 8, that several types of Fabuloso cleaners are being recalled after a “preservative was not added at the intended levels during manufacturing.” Without that preservative, it is possible for Pseudomonas bacteria to grow inside the cleaner.
Fabuloso cleaning products are sold nationwide in stores and online at places like Walmart, Lowe’s, Dollar General and on Amazon. The company is recalling 4.9 million products that were specifically produced between Dec. 14, 2022 and Jan. 23. The manufacturing issue was corrected on Jan. 23, officials said.
Impacted products include their lavender, lemon, passion fruit, spring fresh and ocean scented multipurpose cleaners. Click here to see the full list of recalled products.
Though 4.9 million products are affected by the recall, officials say that 80% of the products were never released for sale.
Anyone who purchased the recalled cleaning products are urged not to use them and to dispose of them right away. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says to dispose of this product by keeping the cleaner in its container and throwing the whole thing in the garbage.
If the bacteria is present inside the container, it can “enter the body if inhaled, through the eyes or through a break in the skin.” Those with weakened immune systems and underlying lung conditions are particularly at risk of more serious infections if they come into contact with the bacteria.
Consumers can request a reimbursement from the company by filling out a form on their website right here. Anyone with questions can call 1-855-703-0166.
Officials say no injuries have been reported so far in connection with the recall.
See the entire Fabuloso recall announcement here.
Product photos:
BRB side-by-side vehicles
BRB is recalling its Can-Am side-by-side vehicles due to a fire hazard.
The company is recalling approximately 3,310 side-by-side vehicles because they may have a defective fuel hose assembly which could lead to a fuel leak which poses a fire hazard.
BRB has not received any reports of incidents or injuries related to this recall.
Product information:
Model year | 2023 |
Models | Commander, Defender, Maverick Trail and Sport series side-by-side vehicles. |
Color | Vehicles were sold in a variety of colors. |
Identifying information | Can-Am and the model name are printed on the side panels of the vehicles. The Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is printed on a label under the glove box. |
These vehicles were sold nationwide at Can-Am dealers from October 2022 to November 2022.
If you have purchased any of these recalled products it is advised you stop using them immediately and contact a Can-Am dealer for a free repair and parts replacement.
Questions should be directed to BRB at 888-272-9222.
Product photos:
English Riding Supply equestrian helmets
English Riding supply is recalling approximately 49,300 equestrian helmets due to an impact injury hazard.
The company is recalling these helmets because they fail to meet the impact requirement standards for the type of helmet which poses an impact injury hazard to riders who fall.
English Riding Supply has not received any reports of incidents or injuries related to this recall.
Product information:
Model | Ovation Protégé |
Colors | Helmet was sold in multiple colors and finishes. |
Identification information | An SEI certification label, which includes the model name and date of manufacture, is located inside the helmets. “OV” is printed on the front of the helmets. |
Products affected by this recall were manufactured between December 2020 and December 2022.
They were sold from January 2021 to December 2022 nationwide at specialty stores and online at Amazon.com and Statelinetack.com.
If you have purchased any of the recalled helmets it is advised you stop using them immediately and return them to the original place of purchase for a refund.
For questions or more information on refunds, contact English Riding Supply at 866-569-1600 or helmets@englishridingsupply.com.
Product photos:
IKEA ODGER swivel chairs
IKEA is recalling their ODGER swivel chairs due to a fall and injury hazard.
The company is recalling 12,000 units of their ODGER swivel chairs because the chair’s leg base can break which poses a fall and injury hazard.
IKEA has received four reports of the leg base breaking, including two reports of consumer injury.representing
Product information:
Product name | IKEA ODGER Swivel Chairs |
Color | Anthracite (gray) |
Date stamp (located underneath the seat) | The recalled chairs bear a date stamp before and including 2221 with the first two digits representing the year and the last two digits representing the week, (YYWW). |
These chairs were sold at IKEA online and in stores from October 2019 to December 2022.
If you have purchased this product it is advised you stop using it immediately and return it to the original place of purchase or contact IKEA for instructions on how to dispose of the chair and receive a full refund.
Questions should be directed to IKEA at 888-966-4532.
Product photos:
Nearly half a million baby activity gyms recalled due to choking hazard
Skip Hop has recalled approximately 472,850 units of its Silver Lining Cloud Activity Gyms due to a choking hazard.
The company is recalling 472,850 units of its infant activity gyms -- plus an additional 23,280 in Canada and 2,240 in Mexico -- because the raindrops on the cloud toy included with the activity gym can detach from the ribbon which poses a choking hazard if a child places it in their mouth.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the recall only involves the cloud toy sold with the Silver Lining Cloud Activity Gym. The cloud toy attaches to the activity gym with a plastic ring.
Skip Hop has received 12 reports of children putting the raindrops from the cloud toy in their mouths.
These activity gyms were sold nationwide from June 2016 to December 2022 at the following retailers: Amazon, Target, Buy Buy Baby, Babylist, Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, Kohl’s and specialty stores, and online at www.Amazon.com and www.SkipHop.com.
Product information:
The UPC number is located on the activity gym playmat.
Product description | The cloud toy is a plush, two-sided character face cloud with three raindrops attached to it by ribbons. |
Style number | 307150 |
UPC number | 879674025721 |
If you have purchased this product it is advised you remove the raindrops on the cloud toy by cutting them off with a pair of scissors and throw them away.
For a $10 Skip Hop gift card and a free shipping code, take a picture of the cloud toy with the raindrops removed and submit the photo to Skip Hop on their recall page. Visit that page by clicking here.
Questions should be directed to Skip Hop at 800-692-4674 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (ET) Monday through Friday.
Product photos:
LiftMaster myQ Garage Door control panels
Chamberlain Group is recalling its LiftMaster myQ Garage Door control panels due to an entrapment hazard.
The company is recalling 96,400 units of garage door control panels because the secondary entrapment protection system can fail, causing the door to close even with an obstruction present. This can pose an entrapment hazard,
According to the CPSC, no incidents or injuries have been reported in the U.S. that relate to this recall.
Control panels were sold individually or with wall-mount residential jackshaft garage door openers.
Product information:
LiftMaster and myQ are printed on the front of the control panels.
The manufacture date, model number and UPC code can be found on a label located on the back of the unit.
Model numbers | UPC codes |
---|---|
8500MC | 012381203536 |
8500CMC | 012381203529 |
8500RGDMC | 012381203543 |
RJO20MC | 012381188246 |
RJO20CMC | 012381191277 |
RJO20CHMC | 012381191277 |
889LMMC | 012381203611 |
889RGDMC | 012381203628 |
041A7928-3MC | 012381204304 |
Recalled panels were manufactured and sold nationwide between March 2022 and October 2022 online and in-store at The Home Depot, Lowes, Menards and other stores.
If you have purchased this recalled product it is advised you contact Chamberlain Group for a free repair kit.
For questions or to request a repair kit, contact Chamberlain Group at 833-775-1951.
Product photos:
WeeSprout baby sleep sacks
WeeSprout is recalling their baby sleep sacks due to a choking hazard.
The company is recalling 31,630 units of its baby sleep sacks because the zipper can detach from the sleep sack which poses a choking hazard.
According to the CPSC, WeeSprout has received 17 reports of the zipper detaching from the sleep sacks, but no reports of any injuries.
Product information:
Product name | WeeSprout baby sleep sack |
Material | 100% cotton |
Sizes | Newborn - 36 months |
Colors | Blue dusk, dotted rose, gray stitch, rosemary stitch |
These recalled sleep sacks were sold on Amazon.com and WeeSprout.com nationwide from August 2022 to December 2022.
If you have purchased any of the recalled products it is advised you stop using them immediately, cut them in half with a pair of scissors, take a photo of the cut item and discard it in the household trash.
WeeSprout is offering a refund or store credit for customers that send pictures of the destroyed items to weecare@weesprout.com.
Questions should be directed to the company at 888-770-7092 or the email address above.
Product photos:
Textron E-Z-GO personal transportation vehicles
Textron is recalling their E-Z-GO personal transportation vehicles (PTVs) due to a fire hazard.
The company has recalled 143,000 units of their E-Z-GO PTVs because the electronic board that powers the USB port can overheat and ignite components of the vehicle, which poses a fire hazard.
According to the CPSC, Textron has received 30 reports of the electronic board overheating which includes two resulting in a fire with property damage. No injuries have been reported.
Product information:
Serial numbers are printed near the base of the steering column for RXV models and is printed below the operator seat position for TXT models.
Model | 2021, 2022 and 2023 Freedom and Valor E-Z-GO RXV personal transportation vehicles |
Serial numbers | 5585710 through 5716926 |
Model | 2021, 2022 and 2023 Valor, Express and Liberty E-Z-GO TXT personal transportation vehicles |
Serial numbers | 3478457 through 3591890 |
These recalled PTVs, or golf carts, were sold nationwide at E-Z-GO dealerships and online from May 2020 to November 2022.
If you have purchased any of the recalled products it is advised you stop using them immediately. Do not connect electric-powered vehicles to a charger or power outlet. Contact Textron to schedule a free repair.
For inquiries about repairs or for questions contact Textron at 888-525-6040 or jcook03@textron.com.
Product photos:
The previous edition of the Recall Roundup can be found right here.
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