Amazon faces backlash over US worker’s ‘inhumane’ sacking
The complimentary hand sanitizer that was once on offer at every Whole Foods entrance is no longer available.
Walk into the 14th Street branch of the US multinational supermarket, bought by Amazon three years ago, and all the “wildcat” strikes and workers’ walk-offs that have rattled the company since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic will begin to make sense.
On the second floor, a group of 20 delivery workers are crammed in a small space near the public restrooms. As their supervisor tells me about the safety protocols in place, the workers, wearing no masks and with bare hands, pass all sorts of goods to each other, packing them into paper bags emblazoned with the Amazon logo and loading them on to carts for shipping.
These unsafe practices are taking place at a time when Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has warned that up to 93,000 of the capital’s residents could test positive for coronavirus by July and as many as 1,000 could die.
“Sick or not, I have to come to work no matter what. I can’t afford to stay home. The bills are stacking up,” said one Whole Foods worker who waited for his shift to end to speak and asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
“You talk to the press, you lose your job,” he said.
“The bosses only care about money, we are just robots to them. “They’re bringing in a lot of people and giving them jobs. We have new people coming in all the time. We don’t know whether or not they have been tested. And we are in close contact with them all day,” he said. Warehouse workers in Chicago,
New York City and Detroit have walked out in protest at Amazon’s handling of the pandemic.
The company does not provide employees with paid sick leave. Workers who fall ill and are able to get tested for the virus are required to report for work while waiting for test results. This can take days, leaving thousands of others in the warehouse and anyone they interact with outside at risk of contracting the virus. Whole Foods workers across the country staged a “sick out” this week, the first collective national action in the company’s 40-year history.
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