Amazon employees staged a walkout in two states early Wednesday morning, skipping work and even shutting down a machine to seek a $3 raise. According to Vice, the workers also demanded that Amazon reinstate 20-minute breaks, a « perk » provided under COVID that the business has since replaced with 15-minute breaks. The actions are part of a wave of labor activity at Amazon, as more employees band together to seek improved working conditions, pay, and representation.
The roughly 60 laborers worked the night shifts at three different warehouses in New York and Maryland. According to Vice, the walkout was coordinated by Amazonians United, an organization comprised of workers from at least nine warehouses around the country. AU led a multi-warehouse walkout in Chicago in December to seek better wages. The following month, workers earned a $2.20 rise, according to the Amazonians United Chicagoland Twitter feed.
NEW: Amazon has promised full-time jobs in Chicago, as well as a hiring bonus, extra compensation for working Thanksgiving, and paid bereavement leave.
Every promise has been breached.
As a result, these brave @AUchicagoland employees conducted the first-ever coordinated walkouts across numerous warehouses. pic.twitter.com/NsMMK0NFn3
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) January 11, 2022
According to Vice and a Huffington Post writer, the workers protesting this morning in DC make less than $17 an hour and work in « megacycle » shifts — 10 hours of labor between 1AM and noon (with two 15-minute breaks and one 30-minute lunch break, according to a site that compiles data about warehouse shifts).
Amazonians United’s demand for a raise is not unprecedented at Amazon. In April 2021, the firm stated that 500,000 employees would receive raises ranging from $0.50 to $3 per hour. These rises occurred as a result of a union push at Amazon’s Bessemer site, as well as another union drive on Staten Island.
Amazon has recently prioritized labor organization. The union efforts in Alabama and New York are still ongoing; the Bessemer election initially ended in Amazon’s favor, but it is being repeated after the National Labor Relations Board determined that the business tampered with the process. Two distinct union elections are taking place at the Staten Island facilities; one is slated for March 25th, and election arrangements for the second are still being finalized.
Workers have also expressed dissatisfaction with the workload and speed at which Amazon expects them to work. Amazonians United employees protested in Sacramento in 2019 when one of their coworkers was dismissed for taking too much unpaid time off upon the death of a family member. Workers have also claimed that Amazon is physically and mentally damaging them by increasing the rate at which they are required to work, judging humans by efficiency standards set by machines.
Amazon representative Kelly Nantel told The Verge in an emailed statement in response to the walkout:
We are happy to offer industry-leading salary, attractive benefits, and the chance for all employees to advance within the organization. While there are numerous established methods for ensuring that we hear our employees’ ideas within our organization, we also respect the right of individuals to express their opinions externally.
According to one Amazon employee, the « Nordstrom warehouse across the street » starts at $19 per hour. Bloomberg reported in late 2020 that when Amazon installs a warehouse in a location, the average wage for warehouse workers in the area falls by roughly 6% over the course of two years. Amazon stated that the results reached by Bloomberg were incorrect.
Update March 16th, 4:40PM ET: Added statement from Amazon spokesperson and additional context.
