Amazon workers at a Shakopee, Minnesota warehouse plan to strike for six hours during Prime Day to demand safer working conditions and secure jobs. According to Bloomberg, workers across two shifts will leave the warehouse and protest outside the facility; they’ll also be joined by some engineers from the Amazon Employees For Climate Justice group who plan to fly in to support the strike.
There have been a number of strikes at Amazon warehouses on major shopping days, like Black Friday, but those protests have been in Europe, where unions are much stronger. Protests in the US have been far more limited, but there’s been a growing movement at this warehouse in particular. A group of Somali-American workers walked off the Shakopee warehouse in December and then again in March, demanding the company relax quotas during Ramadan and offer a space to pray.
Amazon reportedly made those changes, but the workers are asking Amazon to do more to guarantee their employment and safety. Bloomberg says they’re asking that Amazon convert more temp jobs into full time positions and that the company permanently reduce quotas that they describe as unsafe. Amazon regularly fires employees who fail to meet challenging quotas, which workers often need to move quickly and precisely throughout their entire shift to make.
Amazon told Bloomberg that it will “support people” who aren’t reaching their quotas with “dedicated coaching to help them improve.” It said that on average, 90 percent of employees at the Shakopee warehouse are full time.
By striking next Monday, July 15th, the first day of Amazon’s Prime Day event, the workers will disrupt Amazon on one of the company’s busiest shopping days. Amazon created Prime Day in 2015 as a way to drive sales during what might otherwise be a slower month. It’s become successful enough that other companies have started offering their own sales in response to Amazon’s made-up holiday, knowing that people will be shopping and looking for deals.