Warehouse employees last month staged a walkout in Michigan to demand safer working conditions at their facility. So did workers in New York, Illinois and Minnesota.
Former Amazon employee, Christian Smalls, stands with fellow demonstrators during a protest outside of an Amazon warehouse as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease continues in the Staten Island borough of New York U.S., May 1, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Reuters spoke with 16 unions and labor groups targeting Amazon. They included established organizations such as the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations , the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union , as well as newer worker advocacy groups like Warehouse Workers for Justice and Athena, a coalition of labor and social justice groups that have criticized Amazon’s business practices.
In labor’s latest efforts targeting Amazon, organizations are helping workers create online petitions, connect with elected officials, contact media and file labor complaints with the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The initiative puts public pressure on Amazon to respond, several groups said, while laying the groundwork for unions to recruit card-carrying members in the future.
Central to the organizing effort, union officials said, is fear among some frontline Amazon workers over the spread of coronavirus in the company’s warehouses. At least six Amazon workers have died of COVID-19, which the company confirmed publicly after each incident. Amazon over the past decade has eviscerated brick-and-mortar retail competitors, some of them unionized, while successfully fending off several attempts by its own employees to organize. With shutdowns now battering Main Street, Amazon is poised to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis stronger than ever.
Over 33 million U.S. workers have filed for unemployment benefits in recent weeks, strengthening the hand of employers at a time of mass unemployment. Still, some labor experts said coronavirus presents unions with their best shot in decades to make inroads at Amazon. Lighty said Amazon has “zero tolerance” for retaliation. These workers were not terminated for talking publicly about working conditions or safety, but for violating policies such as physical distancing, she said.
“Amazon’s backyard is Seattle, and that’s a major focus for us in terms of how to take the energy, the courage, the activism that we are already seeing there and build that into a real movement,” she said.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Amazon mayor warns of indigenous genocide as coronavirus spreadsThe mayor of the largest city in the Amazon rainforest said the coronavirus pandemic is killing indigenous people and warned of a 'genocide' if Brazil's right-wing government fails to protect vulnerable tribes.
Read more »
In Brazil Amazon, help a flight away for many virus patientsWith only one ventilator, the remote Brazilian Amazon town of Santo Antonio do Ica has little choice but to send anyone with a severe case of COVID-19 to the city of Manaus some 550 miles away. But that involves a harrowing flight on a small plane.
Read more »
‘God’s Own Country’ Director Says Film Has Been “Censored” On Amazon PrimeFrancis Lee, the UK filmmaker whose 2017 romantic feature God’s Own Country was a breakout indie hit, has claimed that his film has been “censored” on Amazon Prime U.S.. The Brit took to twitter to…
Read more »
Amazon launches its first big-budget game, a shooter called CrucibleAmazon's content strategy has been centered around boosting subscriptions to Amazon Prime, the company's subscription program, which is an increasingly vital part of its business.
Read more »
‘The Crown’ Producer Left Bank Adapting Bestselling Inspector Gamache Books In First Series For AmazonEXCLUSIVE: Left Bank Pictures was trailblazing among British producers in forging strong ties with Netflix through The Crown — and now the company is on the brink of landing its first series with A…
Read more »