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Amazon Work Stoppage, In Minnesota-Nice Fashion

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This year’s Amazon Prime Day sell-a-thon, a phenomenon mimicking Alibabas’ Singles’ Day event, has been nominally overshadowed by a well-publicized work stoppage at Amazon’s Shakopee, Minnesota fulfillment center. While walkouts had been planned for both July 15th and the 16th, the first-day’s turnout paled by comparison to the attention that it was given.

The demonstration was organized by the Atwood Center, a Minneapolis-based group that advocates for workers. The focus of the action was to call attention to the working conditions at the facility, which workers claim are leading to injuries, do to the speed with which workers are expected to function, in order to meet performance demands. The workers are also asking for the right to organize.

Monday’s actual walkout turned out to be considerably less than the 100-plus that the organizers expected. KARE 11, the Minneapolis NBC affiliate reported on Monday evening, that about 20 workers punched out early, and of those only seven in participated in the protest. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that one of the workers, Mohamed Hassan, a packer in the fulfillment center who did walk out was quoted saying “There were managers, supervisors and police that are standing at the gates and front doors ……..which is the reason they couldn’t come out, and I’m sad for that.”

Most workers at the Shakopee facility, known as MSP1 are East African, as the Twin Cities has one of the highest concentrations of Somali and East African workers of any major metropolitan area in the U.S. It’s been reported that another reason the workers have been frustrated relates to Amazon's attitude toward their religious practices. Other reports have suggested that many East African workers are quite pleased with the facilities accommodation of their observances. Multiple locations have been designated on each floor for prayer and prayer-mats; additionally their are dedicated rooms available for prayer.

This is the second time in seven months that workers at the 850,000 square foot Minneapolis facility (think 14 football fields), have walked off the job. The obvious difference being that Monday July 15th is the first day of Amazon Prime day, which last year yielded a tally of $4.19 billion.

The Minnesota demonstration corresponds with walkouts taking place in Germany, where some 2,000 workers at seven Amazon facilities walked-out in protest of poor working conditions and low wages. It was also reported in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that three tech workers from Amazon’s Seattle headquarters representing Amazon Employees for Climate Justice were present to show their solidarity with workers. That group has been pushing the company to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

Social media platforms also got in the act, as some of Amazon’s Twitch streamers were planning to go dark for two days as well. Twitch is also running its own Prime Day Event, ironically entitled “Twitch Sells Out” in which dozens of twitch streamers will be showcasing deals on everything from kitchenware to gaming electronics.

While there are very bona fide issues that are being brought into public view by all of these efforts and initiatives, it is unlikely that it will have a dent in Amazon’s ability to sell zillions of dollars’ worth of stuff over the two-day sales extravaganza. Compound the already intense performance goals with Amazon's promised same-day delivery, and this will lead to more workers toiling as fast and hard as "humanly impossible."

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