Amazon workers in Minnesota are planning Prime Day strike despite a $ 15-one-time mortgage
Workers at Shakopee, Minnesota, fulfillment center are planning a six-hour stopover July 15, the first day of Prime Day. Amazon started the event five years ago, with deep discounts on television, toys and clothing to attract and retain Prime members, who pay subscription fees in exchange for free shipping and other benefits.
"Amazon is going to tell a story of itself, as they can send a Kindle to your house in a day, is not that amazing," says William Stolz, one of Shakopee employees who organizes the strike. "We want to use the opportunity to talk about what it takes to make this work happen and put pressure on Amazon to protect us and give safe and reliable jobs. "
Amazon, through a spokeswoman, refused to comment on the planned strike. [1[ads1]9659002] In Europe, where trade unions are stronger, Amazon workers routinely strike during major shopping events such as Prime Day and Black Friday, so far, the Amazon American workers have not gone off the job during the most important sales days – about 250 volunteer pilots moving packs to the Amazon and the DHL Worldwide Express, arranged a short strike in the management of Thanksgiving in 2016 before a federal judge ordered them at work, eliminating any disturbances in peak holiday shopping seso
Too late, stores in the Minnesota Twin Cities region have become an epicenter of labor activism, led by East African Muslim immigrants, which the organizers say compose most of the five facilities. Last year, workers with the gateway to a delivery site like chanting "Yes we can" worked in Somali and English, presenting management with requirements such as reduced workload while fasting for Ramadan. They also circulated flyers at a nearby center for call to colleagues to wear blue shirts and hijabs in support of the same case.
The organizers say that the actions led to talks between employees and the management in the previous fall and encouraged some modest changes. These include relaxing pressure on workers to meet allowances during Ramadan and the designation of a conference room as a prayer room.
But they say the company has not faced labor requirements such as converting more temps to Amazon employees and permanently facilitating productivity quotas. They claim that the job is uncertain and uncertain. In a letter to the National Labor Relations Board reported by The Verge last year, an Amazon lawyer said that hundreds of employees at a Baltimore facility were terminated within about a year for failing to meet productivity rates. In March, employees are planning a three-hour strike.
15. July, the Shakopee plant plans to turn in three hours at the end of the day and for about three hours at night. In the afternoon, workers are also planning to rally outside the facility, located about 25 kilometers from Minneapolis.
In an effort to show solidarity, a handful of Amazon white collar engineers intend to fly to Minnesota to participate in the demonstration, where activists will require the company to take action against climate change, as well as light quotas, and make multiple temp employees. "We are both fighting for a viable future," said Seattle software engineer Weston Fribley, one of several employees from the Amazon Employees For Climate Justice group, who will make the trip.
It is the latest example of technical staff with very different jobs trying to forge common cause in the hope that their bosses find their claims more difficult to ignore.
"We see that our battles are stronger together," said Abdirahman Muse, CEO of Awood Center, the workers' association group of Minnesota activism, which includes the Service Employees International Union, Teamsters, and the Minnesota Chapter of the US-Islamic Relations Council. Muse said he expects more than 100 workers to strike.
Workers also push their case to the federal government and claim that their activism earlier this year was punished illegally. Employers filed a couple of complaints last week with the Labor Union. The first, admitted to Amazon's staffing contractor Integrity Staffing Solutions, claims that it was illegally repaid to a worker the organizers said had mobilized the staff for the march attack and was terminated when he left the job to attend. [19659002] The second complaint, which was filed against Amazon itself, claims that the company opposed other workers who were striking in March by deducting hours from their unpaid time of award. The hours they spent striking were counted against the 20 total hours workers could miss each quarter without being fired, according to the organizers. Such actions can relax workplace activism and run off federal law, even if they did not lead to any concrete cessation, says Professor Charlotte Garden of Seattle University.
"It is a breach of labor law when an employer punishes employees for striking, and a way of punishing workers for turning on is to take some of their leave," she said.
The Confederation of Labor has received about 50 complaints about Amazon, most of which have been withdrawn or rejected. The Shakopee Workplace Statement stands out as it claims collective abuse of more than a dozen employees.
Amazon spokeswoman said the company had not yet seen the complaint of alleged unfair labor.
Logistically, the strike is likely to pose a little more than a hiccup to Amazon because other facilities and people can easily pick up some slack. Nevertheless, the action shows that Amazon workers, concerned with a tight labor market and employee activism elsewhere, have been encouraged to demand better treatment. The political pressure will not go away either. Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, another leading presidential candidate, have both named Amazon beyond claims that it interfered with Hele Foods workers' right to organize.
This article was written by Josh Eidelson and Spencer Soper, reporters for Bloomberg. 19659021]
