Amazon Minnesota workers demand better protections from on-the-job injuries – CNET

On Monday, just ahead of Amazon’s important Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, the company faced even more negative attention directed at its treatment of its warehouse employees.

Workers at Amazon Shakopee, Minnesota, warehouse on Monday night announced the next step in their ongoing campaign to improve working conditions. After already gaining national attention for several strikes, the group is now calling on Amazon to create a new workplace safety committee at their fulfillment center. The announcement occurred at a forum at the Awood Center, an activist group helping Amazon workers based in Minnesota organize.

The warehouse already has a safety committee, but the employees on it aren’t selected by fellow workers and the committee has failed to address significant longstanding concerns, such as worker injuries, William Stolz, an organizer at the Amazon warehouse, told CNET Monday night.

He added that workers at Shakopee plan to take additional action to push for the new committee, though he wouldn’t specify what those plans were. The group has already organized several worker demonstrations at the warehouse, including one on Prime Day this year.

“The injuries continue,” Stolz said. “I’ve known many people who have left with pretty serious injuries they’ll have for the rest of their lives.”

He said he’s known several workers who have suffered back, knee or leg injuries on the job due to the fast pace of the work, repetitive movements and requirements to lift heavy objects.

Amazon didn’t have an immediate comment about the Shakopee announcement.

The call for a new workplace safety committee is another sign of growing worker discontent at Amazon, with several groups of warehouse employees around the country now agitating for better working conditions. Other organizations include Amazonians United Sacramento and DCH1 Amazonians United in Chicago.

Amazon has worked to bolster its image as a good employer by raising its minimum wage last year to $15 an hour and unveiling a new $700 million worker retraining program this year. Also, Amazon has said it has several layers of safety protocols in its warehouses to protect employees.

Added to that, Amazon expanded its work to offer warehouse tours to the public and recently launched an ad campaign specifically highlighting fulfillment center employees and the benefits they receive.

Amazon workers aren’t unionized in the US, which has brought out several critics of its working conditions specifically from unions looking to organize employees. However, Shakopee workers have said they aren’t trying to unionize and are only pushing for improved working conditions.

In addition to the Shakopee announcement, Amazon employees at its Staten Island, New York, warehouse held a demonstration outside the fulfillment center Monday night. They handed management there a petition calling for longer breaks and better bus service, according to Twitter posts from the activist organization Make the Road New York and City Councilman Jimmy Van Bremer, two critics of Amazon.

An Amazon spokesperson said fewer than five of its employees participated in the Staten Island demonstration, adding that “an outside organization” was using the upcoming holiday shopping season and its building to raise its own profile.

“The fact is that Amazon provides a safe, quality work environment in which associates are the heart and soul of the customer experience,” the spokesperson said in a statement Monday, “and today’s event, and the notable lack of Amazon employee participation, shows that associates know this to be true.”

Plus, The Atlantic on Monday published a lengthy investigative piece highlighting workplace injuries at Amazon warehouses. Amazon called the story inaccurate and misleading.

Stolz pointed to that story Monday, saying it backs up many of the claims his group has been working to highlight. Now, he’s hoping employees will work together to push for the new committee.

“The pressure is going to have to come from workers together in the warehouse,” Stolz said, “saying this is what we need for safety.”