Amazon Prime Day strike organizer: We want management's best
Amazon workers in Minnesota held a strike Monday for a six-hour walkout, protesting working conditions at the e-commerce giant.
“Normally if there’s a disruption in work they would transfer the work to another fulfillment center, but that’s not possible today because all the fulfillment centers are busy,” Meg Brady, Amazon worker and strike organizer, told FOX Business’ Susan Li on Monday.
Workers walked out on Prime Day -- one of the most important sales events of the year for the company.
Approximately 100 people were estimated to participate in the protest.
“Working at Amazon is really difficult, it’s a very hard place to work, and one of the things that would reduce some of the stresses is if management would reduce the production rates that we’re required to meet every hour,” she said.
Productivity quotas for workers are estimated around 600 packages per hour, no matter the size of the items.
“Even a 10 percent reduction in rate across the board would help workers quite a bit,” said Brady, which would translate to roughly 540 packages per hour.
Employees tell FoxBusiness that the company is hiring too many temporary workers.
“The temporary workers are held to the same standards that full-time Amazon employees are held to, but yet they don’t have Amazon benefits,” said Brady.
Amazon claims that, at the fulfillment center where the strike is taking place, 90 percent of the workers are full-time staff.
Brady said that “the workers are full-time, but they’re still not Amazon employees,” also highlighting that the strike isn’t due to money issues, but instead over bad work conditions and lack of full-time positions.
“We also would like to see some improvements made in ergonomics because the repetitive nature of our work leads to workplace injuries,” she added.
In a statement to FOX Business, Amazon explained, "events like Prime Day have become an opportunity for our critics, including unions, to raise awareness for their cause, in this case, increased membership dues."
"These groups are conjuring misinformation to work in their favor, when in fact we already offer the things they purport to be their cause — industry leading pay of $15 per hour, benefits, and a safe workplace for our employees. We can only conclude that the people who plan to attend the event on Monday are simply not informed."
Meanwhile, Amazon is spending $700 million to train its workforce in response to automation and technological advances.
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“Management demands the best from its workers and now we want management’s best,” Brady said.
Presidential candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are also showing their support for the demonstrators.
"I fully support Amazon workers' Prime Day strike," Warren tweeted on Monday. "Their fight for safe and reliable jobs is another reminder that we must come together to hold big corporations accountable."
"A higher wage is only one component of the fight for workers' rights," Sanders said in a tweet on Monday. "Amazon workers deserve safe working conditions, fair scheduling, and reasonable production demands. I stand with Amazon MSP1 workers in Minnesota and their #PrimeDayAmazon strike!"
The two-day Prime Day event is expected to bring in about $4 billion to $7 billion dollars over the next 48 hours.
