Ever since the coronavirus hit the U.S., many Amazon workers have been putting in double and triple hours to keep up with all the demand due to Americans staying home and ordering their essentials online. However, those workers have also been very vocal about the in-house working conditions that are not protecting them enough from possibly contracting coronavirus—and now they are taking action.
@NBCNews reports, Amazon warehouse workers nationwide are officially planning a “mass call out” this week to bring attention to what they believe are a universal lack of protections for employees who continue to work amid the coronavirus outbreak. According to estimates, over 300 Amazon workers across at least 50 U.S. facilities have signed up to take part in the scheduled protest, according to United for Respect, a worker rights group.
To participate in the protest, Amazon workers will call out of work “en masse across the country” starting April 22nd and continuing throughout the week. The protest is said to take place across several days to accommodate workers who are scheduled to report to their shifts on different days and at various times. Amazon workers are demanding that the company “immediately close down” any facilities that report positive cases of coronavirus and provide testing and two weeks pay for workers during the time those facilities are closed.
Amazon workers also want the company to provide paid sick leave, guarantee healthcare for all associates, eliminate rate-based quotas “that make hand-washing and sanitizing impossible” and commit not to retaliate against associates who speak out, along with other demands. The protest is the first nationwide effort by Amazon workers to demand coronavirus safety protections, after workers staged previous walkouts at Amazon facilities in Staten Island, Detroit and Illinois within the last few weeks.
The efforts have caught on to Amazon corporate employees as well, who are hosting a “virtual sick out” on April 24th to demand that the company reinstate fired workers and to protest its treatment of warehouse workers.
Amazon has previously downplayed the walkouts, saying only a small percentage of workers at the facilities participated in the protests and there was no disruption to operations.
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