Amazon warehouse workers sound alarm ahead of Prime Day

Amazon’s annual Prime Day event will be held on July 16-17, but behind the deals lie health and security concerns for warehouse and delivery workers.

Mostafa Henaway knows all too well the health risks faced by Amazon workers. Three years ago, Henaway penned an article in The Breach where he detailed how he infiltrated Amazon’s Laval warehouse and what he learned from the experience.

Henaway is now a community organizer with the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal, an organization that defends the rights of immigrants in their workplaces. He is also a PhD candidate at Concordia University focusing on working conditions in e-commerce warehouses.

According to his experience and testimonies from workers during Amazon Prime Day, warehouse and delivery staff work 50 hours a week, have less access to personal time off, and must take on mandatory overtime.

“Workers are walking 20 kilometres a shift, also [during] a moment of extreme heat. Across [Amazon]’s workforce, there is no room to say, ‘It’s 40 degrees, I’m going to take an extra five minutes to drink that water.'”

Henaway noted how essential the services of warehouse and delivery workers are.

“We all appreciate getting that package the next day, but behind that, it’s not actually Amazon’s technology,” he said. “In Quebec, it’s over 2,000 workers, who are 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making sure that people get what they need, on time and delivered to their doorstep, and those workers should be respected.”

High levels of surveillance

Pressure also comes in the form of quotas, said Henaway.

“Workers are having to fulfill over 200 packages per hour,” he said. “Even though Amazon declares to the public that they don’t have quotas, workers go to their meetings when they start their shift, they are told there are no quotas, but then people are punished for not making quotas. They’re given automated warnings, they’re disciplined.”

When asked for comments about quotas, Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said: “At Amazon, employees’ safety is our top priority and at the core of everything we do. Amazon does not have fixed quotas at our facilities. Instead, we assess performance based on safe and achievable expectations and take into account time and tenure, peer performance, and adherence to safe work practices. Less than 0.5 per cent of frontline employees are separated from the company due to performance. We’re constantly listening to and engaging with our employees and providing them with the resources they need to be successful.”

Henaway said workers are heavily monitored. According to him, the number and length of bathroom breaks are monitored, and supervisors check the bathrooms “constantly.”

Artificial intelligence cameras are also used to operate Amazon’s fulfillment centres and monitor employees’ productivity, said Henaway.

“At the same time, workers wear devices that tell them what their next task is, or they have a monitoring station, which tells them [how long they have] to fulfill that package,” said Henaway. “On top of this, you have all the supervisors monitoring that data. So, that level of, of stress is immense.”

He noted that the level of surveillance, coupled with high productivity standards, faced by Amazon workers often leads to mental health risks and burnouts.

“A study showed that [Amazon has a] 150 per cent turnover rate annually,” said Henaway. “That is not a sign of a good employer, if the fact is that your entire workforce is changing in less than a year.”

Immigrant workers disproportionately affected

The rhythm and repetition linked to the pace of work heighten health and safety risks, said Henaway. He added that workers, especially immigrant workers, aren’t well equipped and informed about their resources in the event of an injury.

“We hear from workers and what we see at the Immigrant Workers Centre, is that a lot of times when workers are injured, they’re not given the right information,” said Henaway.

Agrait said Amazon has allocated more than $750 million this year towards safety enhancements, programs, and technologies.

“Our safety performance has continued to improve, and we’re proud of our progress which includes a 30% reduction in recordable incidents across our worldwide network since 2019,” Agrait wrote in the statement.

She said that all employees go through safety training on Day 1 and receive additional training based on their role in the warehouse.

“While we do experience higher order volumes during busy shopping periods, our commitment to safety doesn’t change: Safety is our top priority every single day, and we’re constantly working to ensure employees have safe, comfortable, and inclusive workplaces,” wrote Agrait.

Henaway said that, for many immigrant Amazon workers, it is often their first job in the country.

“For them, this job is very important, despite the kind of conditions and the issues that [they] face,” said Henaway. “And so a lot of workers bear it for as long as they can.”

According to him, there is a two-tiered workforce at Amazon, divided into blue and white badges, or temporary and permanent workers. He explained workers start off as white badges, and stay in the hopes of obtaining a blue badge, or permanent employment.

He added that immigrant workers are often scared to speak up.

“There’s a lot of pressure when workers are organizing to stand up for their basic rights,” said Henaway. “They feel that this could affect their immigration, when actually it has nothing to do with one or the other, or their fundamental rights regardless of their immigration status.”

The workers at Amazon’s Laval’s warehouse were granted the right to unionize last May. A month later, Amazon challenged the certification of a union, as it said the process was unlawful because it involved signing union cards instead of voting in a secret ballot. The company filed for the union’s certificate to be revoked entirely.