Happy May Day! Across the country, working class folks are taking to the streets in protest and in celebration of our collective power.
This May Day also marks the launch of Amazon Labor Union’s Safety Bill of Rights: the core safety issues facing Amazon workers and the concrete changes workers are demanding in order to create a safe and humane workplace at Amazon.
When we talk with unionized Amazon workers, the topic that comes up the most isn’t pay. It’s safety. Amazon’s relentless drive for profit comes at the expense of workers’ health, safety, and basic human rights. No worker, at Amazon or elsewhere, should have to choose between income and injury, pass out from overheating, or be forced to use broken and dangerous equipment.
Amazon workers are human beings, not robots, and they deserve to work in a place where their health and safety come first. Amazon workers aren’t simply waiting for Amazon to change its ways. They are fighting for the safe working conditions they deserve now.
What Amazon workers are demanding from Amazon
Safe Staffing Levels: Understaffed warehouses lead to exhaustion and injury. Amazon workers are demanding fully staffed shifts and fair job rotation.
Right to Humane Accommodations: When pregnant, injured, elderly, and differently-abled workers aren’t provided the accommodations they need, they end up working through pain in order to avoid retaliation or loss of income, something many can’t afford. Workers are demanding fair accommodations to protect the health and safety of all.
Right to Safe Equipment and Workspaces: When Amazon fails to repair machinery or provide a workplace free from hazards, workers get hurt. Amazon workers are demanding properly maintained equipment and a safe working environment.
Right to Safe Temperatures and Air Quality: High warehouse temperatures and poor air quality lead to heat exhaustion, dehydration, and respiratory problems. All of these can be easily prevented. Workers are demanding clean air, proper climate control, and protected heat and hydration breaks.
Right to Safe Pace of Work and Rest Breaks: Amazon’s productivity expectations and tracking systems push workers beyond their physical limits. This has to stop. Workers are fighting for guaranteed rest breaks and an end to inhumane productivity standards.
Support Amazon Labor Union’s Fight for Safety
In Solidarity,
The Labor Force
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