Bloomberg: Amazon workers plan Prime Day strike in Minnesota

UPDATE: July 8, 2019:  "The fact is Amazon offers already what this outside organization is asking for," an Amazon spokesperson told Retail Dive in an emailed statement, citing wages of $16.25 to $20.80 an hour in addition to healthcare and other benefits. "We encourage anyone to compare our pay, benefits, and workplace to other retailers and major employers in the Shakopee community and across the country — and we invite anyone to see for themselves by taking a tour of the facility."

Amazon's fulfillment centers are the bowels of the company's e-commerce business, handling constant and massive streams of merchandise, making the company's value proposition of convenient home delivery possible. Nearly every square inch of the facilities evince a corporate obsession with productivity, consistency and problem-solving.

They are also, by many accounts, punishing places to work. Over the years, journalists and employees have described Amazon's fulfillment work as grueling, dystopian, "Hunger Games"-like and potentially dangerous.

If the Minnesota strike occurs, it wouldn't be the first time at the Shakopee facility. Workers at the facility walked out in December, amid the holiday sales rush, to protest working conditions and treatment of employees who were East African immigrants.

According to union activist news site Labor Notes, some workers walked out again in March to demonstrate against a work rate speed-up. One employee described the productivity push at Amazon's fulfillment center as "inhumane" and said, "Everyone feels continuously threatened by the system."

Workers in Europe have also walked out of Amazon facilities on the continent in protest of working conditions during critical times, including last year's Prime Day and holiday season.

By the end of 2018, Amazon had 647,500 full-time and part-time employees (the company does not break down the precise mix of full-time and part-time workers in its fulfillment centers). The company indicated in its most recent 10-K that its U.S. employees are not organized or unionized. For years in financial filings, the company has said simply, "We consider our employee relations to be good."

But not all employees agree, and they have found some high-profile allies. Among them is U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has called for higher pay at Amazon and introduced a bill last year that would tax Amazon and other companies for all federal need-based assistance provided to employees. The bill followed research that Amazon was among the top companies whose employees were enrolled in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program​). At the time Amazon disputed the notion that its workers are over-represented among SNAP recipients.

The company also entered a rare public clash with Sanders last year. While it took aim at "misleading accusations" from the senator, who describes himself as a "democratic socialist," the company just a few months later announced a $15 minimum wage for all employees, including part-time and seasonal.

Source: Retaildive.com

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