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“On March 17, Amazon employees complained that not enough safety precautions were in place to protect them from COVID-19. Cut to a week later, and Amazon employees from ten different warehouses in the United States have now tested positive with the coronavirus.
At least 1,500 Amazon workers globally signed a petition within the last week asking for more regulations to prevent the spread of the disease after company employees in Spain and Italy had been infected. They complained that “Amazon pushes them to meet the per-hour rate at which it wants orders fulfilled, a practice that they worry discourages safe sanitary practices such as washing hands after a cough or sneeze. Others have complained about “stand-up” meetings, where workers stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the start of each shift,” according to The Washington Post.
Amazon has increased pay by $2/hour until May and is currently looking to hire 100,000 new workers to help with the staggering demands that have erupted since the outbreak. Let’s hope they have an endless supply of face masks and gloves to last through the season.”
– BoingBoing, Amazon workers have been infected with coronavirus in 10 warehouses across the U.S..
“Amazon has fired an employee at its Staten Island facility who organized a strike against his employer over conditions in the company’s warehouses amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday, Amazon employees at the facility organized a strike against the company for conditions that have come under fire by employees, the workers group Amazonians United, and several U.S. senators. The collective action followed a positive case of covid-19 at the facility, which remained open despite concerns among employees that the individual could have spread the disease. The management assistant at JFK8 who led the strike and was fired, Chris Smalls, told CNBC that working inside the facility has been “scary,” adding that striking—despite it costing him his job—was “the right thing to do.”
“All we asked for was a simple building closure and then to be professionally sanitized,” Smalls told CNBC. “We had a confirmed case and people were afraid, and that’s all we were asking for.””
– Gizmodo, Amazon Fires Worker Who Organized Strike Over Conditions Amid Coronavirus Outbreak.
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World News is a project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories from around the world.
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