Hundreds of Amazon employees are calling out ill today over the company’s action to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as allegations that it retaliated against employees who have actually spoken up. The demonstrations are being organized by United for Respect, a nonprofit promoting for retail workers, and Amazon Staff Members for Climate Justice, a business worker group, to name a few companies. Storage facility employees have actually shown versus conditions at Amazon centers in the past, but Friday’s sick-out represents among the first instances where logistics staff members and those from Amazon’s business workplaces are collaborating in solidarity with collaborated actions.
Amazon’s Seattle head office was not traditionally known for worker advocacy– thousands took part in a walkout organized by AECJ last fall that marked the first business strike in the business’s 25- year history. “We see the connections in between what’s happening with Covid-19 with our coworkers in storage facilities and the environment crisis,” stated Emily Cunningham, an activist with Amazon Worker for Environment Justice who was fired from the company previously this month. “How Amazon and the world responds to Covid-19 will be a design and a referral point for how Amazon and the world reacts to the environment crisis as it continues to escalate.”
Amazon storage facility employees affiliated with United for Regard and other grassroots companies started calling out ill throughout the country on Tuesday. United for Respect states there have actually been Covid-19 cases at over 130 Amazon warehouses as an outcome “of Amazon’s inactiveness.” Because March, the business has implemented a variety of brand-new policies for employees throughout the pandemic, including temperature screenings, paid sick leave for those confirmed and presumed of having Covid-19, and social distancing procedures. The employee groups claim that these efforts still fall short, and they are calling for benefits like broadened sick leave for all workers.
An Amazon representative stated the accusations made by the labor company were false. “What’s true is that masks, temperature checks, hand sanitizer, increased time off, increased pay, and more are standard across our network because we care deeply about the health and safety of our workers,” they said in a statement. “We motivate anybody to compare the health and safety steps Amazon has taken, and the speed of their execution, during this crisis with other merchants.” The representative decreased to state the number of its storage facilities have been impacted by the pandemic.
Amazon’s corporate employees are likewise objecting against the company for allegedly censoring and striking back versus workers who have actually spoken up
