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Amazon/Whole Foods Monopoly Power Boycott Amazon Campaign Labor actions

Vigil at Bezos Mansion on Prime Day, Oct 13

A few hours of support for essential workers = Many days of services so we can shelter at home

 UPDATE: About 50 people attended for a candle-light vigil. Bezos’ s mansion has the highest hedge I have ever seen, about four stories high.

PRIME DAY! OCTOBER 13, 2020   6pm to 8pm

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL AT THE BEZOS MANSION

1801 Angelo Drive, Beverly Hills, 90210

• Support the workers’ demand for safe PPE and a rank and file safety committee.

Amazon workers will be participating with facial covering to avoid retaliation.

“Even if Jeff Bezos gave $170,000 to every employee in Amazon he would still have the same wealth as before the pandemic. This is the extent to which he has profited from this historically tragic moment.

“Amazon workers are essential! Our lifeline to the basic things we need, yet they continue to put their health, and the health of loved ones they go home to every night at risk. We must stand in solidarity with them.”

AMAZON’S COVID NUMBERS

19,816 have tested positive for Covid-19. (does not include any 3rd party deliverers or contractors)

Source: Amazon/Rueters

• Hawthorne Distribution Center, 2815 W. El Segundo = 42 cases. Includes first confirm death due to Covid-19.

• Eastvale Fulfillment Center, 4950 Goodman Road, Eastvale (San Bernardino County), CA= 55 cases.

Source: directly from workers inside.

• Amazon under investigation from CA Attorney General for unsafe practices during pandemic

https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-07-27/amazons-warehouse-safety-spurs-investigation-by-california-attorney-general

  1. “Andy”-Amazon worker from Hawthorne distribution center. – “Please join us at our CEO’s mansion to demand PPE’s, a rank and file safety committee, paid sick days off.”

  1. Chris Smalls- fired Amazon worker. “Amazon smears Smalls with racist anti-union campaign”-The Real News.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTQiTliRxig

  1. Non-union Somali Amazon workers on one day strike in Minnesota.

  1. Adam Diaz, Director, Warehouse Workers Resource Center, PANA member

Amazon workers’ demographics for the US (50 states)

Total workers (July 2020) Approx. 1 million in USA. Amazon Net income – $225 billion, 2019.

65% – Non-White, 34.7% White

26.5% Black

18.5% Hispanic

15.4% Asian –  154,000 API workers with a majority of them in California & Hawai’i.

3.6%  2 or more races

1.3% Native indigenous

53% male, 47% female

The Big Picture: How does Bezos make so much? While Amazon and all workers and community in the US must unite, it is our job in the US to educate and build solidarity with Amazon workers in the global south upon whose exploitation the Amazon empire and US Imperialism depends.  Broad public exposure of inhumane conditions and pay makes it difficult for Amazon to “divide” US workers and consumers with “better” benefits (relative to the global south) and American racism about “immigrant” and or “foreign workers” threatening American jobs.

   

1.Philippines: Amazon-Product Research worker- $1.31 per hour Investigations are ongoing for allegations of “inhumane” treatment of workers forced to lock-down inside work facilities and sleep on floors due to the pandemic.

2. Hengyang, China: Amazon contractor Foxxconn assembler – $2.14 per hour

3. San Bernardino, CA: Fullfillment Center – $15.00 per hour entry level

4. Seattle, WA: Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO – $13 million per hour

 Since the Covid-19 pandemic began PANA has supported the non-union Amazon workers through the Warehouse Workers Resource Center and we have supported nurses who have been fighting for adequate PPE and safe patient care procedures through the CA Nurses Association, AFL-CIO, at Kaiser Sunset and at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica.

• Healthcare workers, in particular nurses, have some of the highest death rates battling the pandemic as “essential” workers, like the Amazon workers. Both have been very visible in LA and the nation in their fights.

• Healthcare workers have one of the highest concentrations of API workers. In CA, about a quarter of all RNs are API, the majority Filipino/a.

• Amazon workers nationwide include about 154,000 Asian/Pacific Islander workers, with a significant number in CA, all non-union.

 PANA: Peace, Justice & Equality for the 99%

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Labor actions

Work Week Report on Amazon Warehouse Shutdown Aug. 1

Amazon Workers Shut It Down For Safety 

https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio/ww-8-6-20-amazon-workers-shut-it-down-for-safety-ag-workers-in-central-valley-dying
WorkWeek on KPOO  covers the August 1, 2020  caravan and shutdown of the San Leandro Amazon warehouse over lack of health and safety protection from Covid and for $30 an hour in wages.
Workers talk about their action, which shut down the warehouse for 4 hours, and also why this is important for all workers.

Categories
Labor actions

Tell Amazon: Stop Silencing Black Workers

Athena.

I have worked at the Amazon MSP1 fulfillment center in Shakopee, MN for nearly four years and have a long history of organizing for better working conditions. Managers have targeted me before, but that harassment has only gotten worse during the pandemic. Now, Amazon is retaliating against me for speaking out about the risks of coronavirus in my warehouse, and I need your help.

Tell MSP1’s General Manager: I #StandwithHibaq

On June 24th, I emceed a press conference with my coworkers about how risky it is to come to work, just as we learned how closely Amazon is tracking the infections in our warehouse – without sharing that information with us.


On July 5, a manager told me I had too much Time Off Task or “TOT.” (Any minute we are not scanning something because we are going to the bathroom, waiting to get an assigned workstation, washing our hands– that gets logged as TOT.) I was presented with a variety of suspicious claims: one document penalized me for TOT before I had even clocked in for the day, and another contained a block of time that management could not account for. Despite these inconsistencies, I was given a final warning, the last step before being fired.

Tell MSP1’s General Manager: I #StandwithHibaq

Amazon is desperately trying to stop us from organizing. They’re pushing feel-good ads and empty statements, while frontline workers don’t have adequate protections to keep us and our families safe from COVID-19. Amazon has used social distancing and references to “internal policies” as pretexts to surveil, target, and fire whistleblowers around the country. We don’t feel safe, and our families and neighbors are at risk. Amazon has taken away our covid pay and access to the unpaid time off we need to protect vulnerable family members and co-workers. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos is making billions, and Amazon’s stock price is at an all-time high.

I am appealing this warning, but after being harassed just for protecting the health of my coworkers, my family members, and my neighbors, I have no faith in Amazon’s appeal system. That is why I am asking Amazon shoppers to stand against the flagrant retaliation that workers, particularly Black workers, are facing across the country.

Will you tell Amazon: Stop silencing workers?
– Hibaq Mohamed

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