Amazon workers in Minnesota are reportedly planning to strike on Prime Day

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Big quote: "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... 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."

Amazon's annual Prime Day is just around the corner, and as has been the case with previous Prime Days, some of the retail giant's workers will be going on strike during the event to protest their poor working conditions.

This information comes courtesy of a Bloomberg report, which claims that Amazon workers based in Shakopee, Minnesota, are planning to conduct a "six-hour work stoppage" on July 15.

"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," strike organizer William Stolz said in a statement to Bloomberg. "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."

"Amazon is going to be telling one story about itself, which is they can ship a Kindle to your house in one day... We want [to talk] about what it takes to make that work happen and put pressure on Amazon to protect us and provide safe, reliable jobs."

Stolz' implication that Amazon doesn't exactly provide the best working environment is nothing new -- similar allegations have been leveled at the corporation for many years now, from a wide variety of sources (which suggests these issues aren't isolated to one or two locations).

We've heard about employees falling asleep on their feet, getting hospitalized due to unsafe machinery, and being required to meet unrealistic packaging quota goals every day.

This year's strike is addressing not just those issues, but also poor compensation and Amazon's alleged unwillingness to convert a higher number of its temporary contract employees (which typically do not receive company benefits) to full-time workers.

Amazon, for its part, has responded to this year's strike, stating that at the Shakpoee facility in particular, "an average of 90 percent" of workers were already full-time. Regarding compensation, Amazon claims it "already offers" what strike organizers are asking for.

"Amazon provides competitive hourly rates ranging from $16.25 to $20.80, with benefits," the company told Bloomberg in one statement. It went on to add that "anyone" can take a tour of the Shakopee facility for themselves if they don't believe the retail giant's claims.

It's worth noting that this is not the first time Amazon employees have gone on strike during a major sales period. The company's European warehouse workers did the same on both Black Friday and Prime Day in 2018. It remains to be seen whether or not this year's strike will have any material impact on Amazon's operations.

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I still don't get what a one day strike will do to amazon. I have two very close friends that work in amazon warehouses, there are some crunch times during the year but they are paid overtime and already make good money for the areas they live in. If you honestly view amazon's warehouses as dangerous work environments leave the job, go find a nice safe office somewhere instead.
 
In other words, lets show Amazon why they should invest in more robots....

You beat me to it. The technology is already progressing at an overwhelming pace when it comes to package processing and sorting, and Amazon themselves have put tons of money into research. Won't take long for to tip the balance, and have hardware investment up front outweigh dealing with employees and their needs and associated overhead.
 
I still don't get what a one day strike will do to amazon. I have two very close friends that work in amazon warehouses, there are some crunch times during the year but they are paid overtime and already make good money for the areas they live in. If you honestly view amazon's warehouses as dangerous work environments leave the job, go find a nice safe office somewhere instead.
Where is that "Safe" office work when these days you can't even glance at a women in office dress without being accused o "misconduct" or being called racist or toxic male... the best thing to do these days is work with robots.
 
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Negative press. This is a short stoppage, clearly designed to draw attention to their problem (real or perceived). Obviously it is already working.
True but I doubt the guys that work out on the highways or the guys dangling 1,000ft above the NY skyline, or the miners and tunnel diggers really care much about the amazon workers who find there warehouse to be scary and dangerous. It could backfire on them especially if amazon does what they said and allows journalists to tour the warehouse in question and see just how terrifyingly dangerous it is.
 
Negative press. This is a short stoppage, clearly designed to draw attention to their problem (real or perceived). Obviously it is already working.

At least on this site, the negative press sounds like it’s going to be for the strikers. Who doesn’t want a 6 hour break on a really busy day?
 
Speaking from experience warehouses are incredibly safe places to work, it's the a$$ holes who work in them and disregard the safety protocols that make them unsafe.

So yeah, another vote for robots in that regard.
 
I still don't get what a one day strike will do to amazon. I have two very close friends that work in amazon warehouses, there are some crunch times during the year but they are paid overtime and already make good money for the areas they live in. If you honestly view amazon's warehouses as dangerous work environments leave the job, go find a nice safe office somewhere instead.
Where is that "Safe" office work when these days you can't even stare at a women in office dress without being accused o "misconduct" or being called racist or toxic male... the best thing to do these days is work with robots.
"Where is that "Safe" office work when these days you can't even stare at a women in office dress without being accused o "misconduct" or being called racist or toxic male..."

You might want to replace stare with glance. Staring in most situations is not appropriate.
 
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