![]() ![]() Amazon needs workers in order to be a success and that’s why we’re here.” State representatives Brad Tabke from Shakopee and Aisha Gomez from Minneapolis addressed the rally, “You are inspiring people from around the world. “We need safe jobs for pilots, warehouse workers and drivers. Through AWS Amazon is courting multi-million dollar deals with fossil fuel companies around the world, promoting “solutions for the modern oil and gas company” that will find oil faster, recover more oil, and reduce production costs, with no regard for the disastrous long-term impacts burning that oil will cause.ĪECJ wrote in a statement of support for the strike, “We cannot create a sustainable, long-term approach to addressing the climate crisis without addressing structural racial and economic inequities that are part of our system of extraction – of energy, material, and human labor – that have caused the crisis.”Īmazon pilot Michael Russo also joined the walkout, representing pilots with Amazon Air and the Teamsters. They also called on Amazon to end its contracts via Amazon Web Services with fossil fuel companies. AECJ recently presented a list of demands for Amazon, including releasing a public report on company emissions, and reducing company-wide dependence on fossil fuels, citing Amazon’s coal-powered data centers and the amount of gas used for one-day package deliveries. That is why representatives from Amazon Employees for Climate Justice from Seattle came to support the strikers in Shakopee. Each minute that you walk to the bathroom is counted against you.”Īs Amazon extracts maximum effort out of each worker, it’s also fueling emissions at a calamitous rate. We are so afraid about our production rate, we are afraid to use the bathroom. One warehouse worker told the crowd, “During your 30-minute lunch break, they expect you to box 50 boxes. Somehow, that isn’t enough – the drive for greater profits, faster delivery, and market dominance means that Amazon aggressively pushes workers to exhausting lengths to meet demands. Rally speakers noted Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, while his company pulls in $11 billion in profits a year. ‘We are tired of Amazon workers being hurt on the job…Keeping up with increased workloads is just too much.’” The workers’ demands included: reducing the required rate for packing, improved work injury compensation, securing better working conditions, and opening up more opportunities for promotion. “’We are striking because we are human – we are not robots,’ said Sahro Sharif, who has worked for a year at Amazon Shakopee’s fulfillment center as an order picker. The Awood Center, a dynamic workers’ center rooted in Minnesota’s East African community, provided support. Organized by three Somali women – Hibaq Mohamed, Nimo Hirad, and Safiyo Mohamed – the Shakopee workers, many of whom are East African immigrants, chose to walk out on Prime Day, one of Amazon’s busiest shopping days of the year. We support Amazon workers across the country, along with labor from many sectors, who are organizing to assert their rights and make clear the harm that the extractive economy and companies like Amazon cause workers and the planet. MN350 supported this strike by Amazon workers because working people have the right to earn a living wage, have affordable healthcare, join a union, and have access to clean air and water, no matter where they live, where they’re from or where they work. Joining the workers were members of the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group from Seattle, supporters from several local unions, elected officials, and many activist organizations, including MN350. On July 15, dozens of workers at the Amazon fulfillment center warehouse in Shakopee staged a one-day strike to protest working conditions. ![]()
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