Whereas chairman Jeff Bezos enjoys his honeymoon, Amazon staff are in line for file accidents and hospitalizations over the four-day summer time sale.
Amazon’s July Prime Days are right here—that annual super-hyped, sale-on-steroids that delivers scads of thrilling offers to clients and hovering revenues to the company executives.
Prime Days supply a bit much less euphoria to the 1.5 million staff inside Amazon’s US warehouses, air cargo stations, and supply automobiles, who endure grueling, extra-long workdays, warmth exhaustion, and an alarming spike in accidents and hospitalizations.
Prime Day is a decade-old artifice of the company, designed to draw new Prime subscribers and plump income at a time of 12 months when gross sales usually sag.
From a enterprise perspective, it’s been a shocking success. Right this moment, 180 million Americans are Amazon Prime subscribers. Final 12 months, the corporate recorded $14.2 billion in revenue throughout its two-day Prime Day sale in July, absolutely four times its revenue for a median two-day interval.
Amazon can’t, in fact, quadruple output with out burdening the employees who choose, type, bundle, and ship the products. “It’s not unusual for there to be a parade of ambulances leaving JFK8, particularly throughout Prime week and peak season, when security simply goes out the window,” Tristian Martinez, a six-year veteran on the firm’s Staten Island warehouse and a member of Amazon Labor Union Native 1 of the Teamsters, advised me. “They simply push and push you.”
Within the days earlier than, throughout, and after Prime Day—in addition to throughout the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas peak season—Amazon institutes its infamous Obligatory Additional Time (MET) schedule. For warehouse staff meaning an hour or extra tacked on to their shifts day-after-day—already 10 hours lengthy for many—plus an additional day of labor each week. For supply drivers, there’s time beyond regulation and bundle load will increase. The hellacious schedule wrecks household and leisure time for staff throughout the sale, nevertheless it additionally leaves a extra lasting mark on many.
Present Problem
Serious injuries at Amazon warehouses skyrocketed during last year’s Prime Day event, capturing up 35 p.c week over week, based on the Strategic Organizing Middle, a union group that drew its knowledge from the federal Occupational Security and Well being Administration. That comes on high of an harm fee that’s already 66 p.c larger than non-Amazon warehouses, based on the SOC. Dangerous as these figures are for Amazon staff, it’s seemingly an enormous undercount: In 2022, federal office security investigators fined Amazon for systematically misclassifying and even outright failing to record injuries and illnesses.
This 12 months, Prime Day guarantees to be much more grueling. The corporate has doubled the size to 4 days, July 8 by 11. Employees will not be trying ahead to this.
Two weeks in the past throughout a New York Metropolis warmth wave, Michael Lebron measured a temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit at his night shift workstation in JFK8. He recorded a TikTok video: “That is ridiculous. I haven’t acquired no water but. They simply advised me to go to work.”
Lebron didn’t make it by his shift. Reporting chest pains mid-shift, he was despatched to Amcare, the corporate’s on-site well being clinic. “They gave me Tylenol and mentioned to return to work,” he advised me. “That’s how Amazon does it. They actually don’t care about our well being.” Lebron demanded an ambulance and was transported to a close-by hospital the place—fortunately—his chest pains had been recognized as pulled muscle groups, not a coronary heart assault.
Amazon supplies followers at workstations, however “when it’s scorching, it’s actually simply blowing scorching air at you,” Antonie Sparrow, one other union member at JFK8, advised me. Warmth exhaustion and heatstroke are frequent. “I see lots of inflow of individuals out and in of Amcare.”
Adrian Easterling handed out lately in JFK8’s stow division. “I ended up getting heatstroke despite the fact that I used to be correctly hydrating,” he advised me. “I advised one other employee, ‘I don’t really feel good,’ and the subsequent factor I keep in mind I used to be in Amcare.” An ambulance transported him to the hospital, the place he bought fluids and cooling therapy.
Widespread
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Most of the Staten Island staff have lengthy commutes—as a lot as two or three hours every approach. “Throughout MET, actually you go residence, shut your eyes, then go and do all of it once more,” Sparrow mentioned.
The issue is systemic all through Amazon’s 1,000-plus warehouses, air cargo facilities, and supply stations.
“Throughout Prime, they load the planes extra” due to the upper bundle volumes, mentioned Allen (not his actual identify), an Amazon ramp employee in Fort Price, Texas. “They at all times say we don’t need you to hurry, however the managers will probably be on the market telling everybody to rush up and squeeze the entire packages into the [plane’s] stomach,” he advised me, including that managers get a bonus when all of the planes exit on time.
“Amazon likes to say it’s all about security, however everyone knows it comes second to productiveness,” Rebecca (not her actual identify both), a Sacramento warehouse employee, advised me.
Amazon supply drivers are additionally subjected to brutal working situations. The drivers technically are employed by a number of contractors—“supply service companions” (DSPs)—however Amazon dictates and screens the drivers’ work charges and bundle hundreds. Drivers are hard-pressed to get any break throughout their 10-hour supply shifts, and lots of resort to peeing in bottles of their vans.
Drivers on chat channels like Reddit be aware that it will get worse throughout Prime week, when bundle hundreds go up and there’s a spike in muscle accidents, excessive fatigue, and site visitors accidents. Administration at most DSPs are unsupportive. A Colorado supply driver advised me a few coworker who fainted whereas delivering in 95-degree warmth. “The DSP responded by slicing his hours. When he expressed frustration at this therapy within the firm group chat, administration instantly deleted all of the messages and eliminated him from the chat,” the driving force advised me.
In a couple of locations, Amazon staff are organizing, preventing again, and successful some enhancements. On the KSBD air cargo hub in San Bernardino, California, workers staged direct actions and won warmth breaks, chilly water, and cooling stations. On the KCVG air cargo heart in Kentucky, staff refused to work on the ramp till the company provided vans with functioning air conditioning. (Shamefully, Amazon then fired the union activist who led the motion.) In Garner, North Carolina, the place RDU1 warehouse staff have been agitating for warmth security after a collection of employee hospitalizations earlier this 12 months, Amazon has begun putting in extra followers and overhauling the constructing’s air flow system. “This can be a massive win—this was a results of our advocacy,” mentioned Ras Amon, an RDU1 employee and member of the unbiased union Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment.
However general, the tempo of organizing at Amazon doesn’t come near matching the urgency on the store ground. Final December the Teamsters union led minority strikes at eight Amazon warehouses, however has since maintained a low nationwide organizing profile. Over the previous months, fairly a couple of staff across the nation have expressed bewilderment to me about why there hasn’t been extra aggressive campaigning from the Teamsters.
There actually is a giant union distinction to focus on. Teamsters at UPS also are battling for heat safety, however because of their union contract, administration should present water and ice to drivers and two followers in each van. UPS Teamsters have the precise to take further breaks if they’re experiencing warmth stress.
An off-the-cuff nationwide community of Amazon staff, which I’ve been supporting by my work on the Center for Work and Democracy, is encouraging staff to go to Amazonworkers.org to contribute their stories of unsafe heat. ALU Native 1 members have developed a Safety Bill of Rights and are circulating it nationally for Amazon staff and supporters to signal, as they proceed to battle for union recognition at JFK8—three years after successful their federal illustration election.
As for coping with this week’s Prime sweatshop, JFK8’s Easterling urges fellow Amazon staff enduring excessive warmth and overwork to arrange their coworkers and “to not be scared. To struggle again. This can be regular, nevertheless it’s not OK.”
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