About 60 Amazon warehouse workers went on strike on Wednesday to protest low wages and unfair working conditions, demanding a $3 raise and 20-minute work breaks.
The strike, reported by the NBC affiliate, spanned three separate warehouses in Queens, New York, and Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
Ellie Pfeffer, one of the organizers of the demonstration, told the affiliate that five of her team of nine walked out together. Pfeffer is part of a group called Amazonians United, Amazon’s nationwide network of warehouse and delivery workers who are fighting to improve working conditions at the company.
According to the group, “Amazon management attempted to illegally intimidate and remove collective action participants from their warehouses” instead of “responding in good faith within months of the issue being raised.”
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Last December, after a devastating hurricane hit a warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois that killed six Amazon workers, employees across the East Coast signed a petition with seven specific demands to improve the welfare of workers. And the petition seems to have had some success.
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One worker told The American Prospect that Amazon is “playing the game of giving in on some things but not explaining why.”
Another said they were told by management that the company’s concessions “had nothing to do with your petition. We’ve been looking at these things for months.”
Amazon’s starting pay is $15 an hour for warehouse workers. But according to Pfeffer, she and her colleagues are paid only 75 cents more. During the pandemic, Amazon reportedly offered workers two 20-minute breaks, but reduced those breaks in 15-minute increments.
“We work very long days and work at night,” she told the NBC affiliate. “Our breaks are the only time we can sit down and stretch our legs. Those five minutes don’t really matter to Amazon. But they are important for our muscles and our sanity.”
Asked about the strike, an Amazon spokesman told Prospect: “We are proud to offer industry-leading wages, competitive advantages and the opportunity for everyone to grow within the company. of our employees within our business, we also respect the right of some of them to have their say outside of the company.”
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Last April, Amazon managed to quell an unprecedented two-month union campaign led by warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama. The company was widely criticized at the time for using a number of union busting tactics, many of which were considered highly coercive.
However, the labor movement did not lose all its strength. This month, thousands of Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York, will cast their ballot for a formal union vote sometime between March 25 and 30. Warehouse workers in Bessemer are also planning to vote by mail around the same time.