This Prime Day, We’re Organizing Workers

Tomorrow is Amazon Prime Day, a biannual internet event Amazon invented to pad its already astronomical profits. Prime Day might give consumers a chance to nab some deals, but it creates hellish conditions for warehouse workers, who are forced to work overtime and denied time off during Prime Week. 

A Senate investigation found that an estimated 45% of Amazon workers get injured during Prime Week because workers are forced to push their bodies to the brink working 12 hour shifts for days in a row. Mistakes are inevitable under these conditions—and workers are punished for them once the Prime rush is over.

On July 16 and 17, Amazon made $14.2 billion off the backs of its workers during its first Prime Day sale of the year. Most warehouse workers made $20/hr. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos’s hourly earnings are about $2 million.

Workers deserve better. That’s why For the Many is partnering with the Teamsters’ International and Teamsters Local 445 to organize Amazon workers in the Hudson Valley and win better wages, paid time off, and safer working conditions.

What we’re doing has national implications. Amazon is the titan of the logistics industry, and will continue swallowing up more and more companies and industries unless workers stand up and fight back. The more warehouses that have a critical mass of organized workers, the more impact actions and strikes have in pushing Amazon to raise work standards for the industry. By organizing and supporting the Hudson Valley Amazon workers, we’re amplifying their power to take on Amazon and creating a stronger labor movement. 

Click here to learn more about For the Many’s role in organizing workers at Amazon.