Amazon Workers Are Planning a Strike for One of Its Busiest Shopping Days of the Year
Amazon workers at one of its fulfillment centers in Minnesota are planning to strike for six hours during Amazon Prime Day.
By Mary Hanbury •
This story originally appeared on Business Insider
A group of Amazon workers is planning to strike during one of its busiest shopping days.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, employees at its fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota, will be striking for six hours on July 15, the first day of Amazon's annual Prime Day sales bonanza. This year sales will stretch over a 48-hour period.
"Amazon is going to be telling one story about itself, which is they can ship a Kindle to your house in one day, isn't that wonderful," William Stolz, one of the Shakopee employees organizing the strike, told Bloomberg.
He continued: "We want to take the opportunity to talk about what it takes to make that work happen and put pressure on Amazon to protect us and provide safe, reliable jobs."
A spokesperson for Amazon did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
Amazon has come under increased scrutiny for the working conditions at its warehouses as employees race to meet the e-commerce giant's speedy shipping promises, especially during the holidays and other busy shopping periods.
This has provoked different worker protests in the past. Last year, over Black Friday, thousands of workers across Europe protested against working conditions.
And it's not only warehouse workers that are taking action. According to Bloomberg, white-collar workers are also joining the Minnesota protest to fight for more workers to be taken from temporary to permanent positions.
"We're both fighting for a livable future," Weston Fribley, an Amazon software engineer from Seattle who is making the trip to Minnesota this week, told Bloomberg.
Amazon's Minnesota warehouses have become the focus of worker activism in recent months. In May, three women from a Minnesota warehouse filed a federal complaint against Amazon, alleging that they faced racial and religious discrimination while working there and calling for an investigation.
In the complaint, they said that they feared taking time off to pray, fast, or go to the bathroom. They said white workers were promoted over East African and Muslim Somali workers and given better jobs.
An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on the specifics of the complaint but said diversity and inclusion were "central to our business and company culture" and workers could "pray whenever they choose." He added: "Prayer breaks less than 20 minutes are paid, and associates are welcome to request an unpaid prayer break for over 20 minutes for which productivity expectations would be adjusted."
