Amazon warehouse employees begin to take strike action as the company hosts Amazon Prime Day, which has now become a two-day shopping event. Warehouse employees in the United States and in several countries in Europe are striking in protest of poor work conditions and for fair wages.
As one of the largest e-commerce sites in the world and as the owner of platforms like live streaming service Twitch, Amazon is a hugely profitable company. However, workers say that they are treated unfairly and aren't being paid enough.
William Stolz, who works at an Amazon Fulfilment centre in Shakopee, MI, says that he has to pack 332 items per hour in his 10-hour day and this practice is "physically and mentally exhausting." Stolz and other Amazon workers around the world have gone on strike as they ask Amazon to stop treating them like "robots."
At the Shakopee warehouse, an estimated 100 workers went on strike for six hours yesterday in the overlap between the morning and evening Prime Day shifts. At a warehouse in Germany, where Amazon employs around 10,000 people, more than 2,000 employees went on strike at several different locations. Strikes are also taking place in Poland and Spain, and week-long protests are planned at several warehouses in the UK, with union officials handing out leaflets at Amazon's Peterborough site.
Experts say that it is unlikely that the strikes will heavily affect the delivery of items purchased by customers on Prime Day. Amazon has discounted several big-ticket items, with some of the best Amazon Prime Day gaming deals being discounts on PS4 console bundles, DualShock 4 controllers, and PS4 exclusive games. Amazon logistics consultant Marc Wulfraat told USA Today that Amazon will likely just fulfill orders from other warehouses not affected by the strikes and gamers and other shoppers will probably get their deliveries as expected. Amazon has also said that the strikes in Germany will not affect Prime Day deliveries.
Amazon is estimated to make $5.8 billion for the company, as people rush to the online store to buy discounted consoles, games, and multiplayer subscriptions. It is unclear how the strikes may have affected that figure and what, if anything, Amazon has had to do to make sure that orders are still fulfilled. It's also not known what Amazon plans to do about the employee demands, but it has accused unions of "conjuring misinformation" about its work conditions.