A May Day Organizer Talks Tactics
Thousands of essential workers – those staffing warehouses, grocery stores, and delivery trucks – have been treated as disposable since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, some of these workers went on a one-day strike to mark May Day. I spoke with Juan Goris, an organizer with Make the Road, who has focused on organizing at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island. Workers there are demanding:
The warehouse be deep cleaned (and workers paid while the facility is closed)
Paid sick leave for workers with underlying conditions
Child care stations be provided for parents
Workers have been counting COVID-19 cases themselves – they estimate at least 50 cases among their colleagues (Amazon has not confirmed this and workers have accused them of undercounting). Goris said that many non-unionized workers were walking off the job out of desperation – many workers will be forced to return to unsafe conditions when Amazon’s stopgap policy of unlimited paid time off ends this month. “We go in and potentially die from the virus,” workers are telling him, “or we actually do something about it.”
Here are some organizing lessons from the period of pandemic:
Reverse the surveillance
Amazon has historically banned cell phones in its warehouses but reversed its policy during the pandemic. Now workers are texting Goris pictures that show the lack of social distancing, among other things. WhatsApp, which is widely used and end-to-end encrypted, is popular among these workers. Secret Facebook groups have also become an important organizing tool. They started as a way to help workers build community in a safe place, but now, they also help workers share critical information. If, for example, a supervisor claims the warehouse was cleaned in the morning and a night worker knows someone on the morning shift, she can check whether this actually took place.
Keep track of numbers
Amazon is famous for its surveillance of workers, monitoring when people use the bathroom or how long it takes for them to move from one shelf to another. When it comes to COVID-19 contact tracing in the warehouse, workers expected that Amazon “will be the best at this,” Goris said. But that hasn’t been the case, and the company has shared little information. Workers have taken to counting COVID-19 cases themselves, texting information to each other and to Goris. Their numbers are now being used to challenge Amazon in the media.
See through the hype
The company’s recent announcement that 100,000 new workers will be hired sounds good, but it has, in fact, increased workers’ desperation, Goris told me. They fear that if they do not return to work this month, when unlimited unpaid time off (UPT) ends, they’ll be easily replaced. Organizers especially worry that workers with organizing experience will be laid off. “I’ve been talking with workers who are parents and their UPT is ending, who are basically saying, ‘I’m going to lose my job because I can’t show up. I’m going to catch the virus and bring it to my kids … [And] Amazon is hiring 100,000+ workers, and they’re going to push us out the door anyway,” he said.
Convince customers
Workers are not, right now, asking for a long-term boycott of Amazon. Rather, says Goris, they’re “asking Amazon customers to hear them out. We’re here, we’re essential workers, we want to go to work, we want to get paid, we want for the warehouse to be clean and to have proper PPE.” The customer, Goris points out, is put at risk by the spread of COVID-19 in Amazon warehouses.
What you can do
If you’re interested in getting involved, says Goris, there’s plenty you can do.
Make a donation to the Amazon whistleblower fund, which directly supports workers who have risked their jobs by speaking out about conditions at the company.
Sign this petition demanding paid leave and greater transparency.
If you work at an Amazon plant, communicate with your fellow workers. WhatsApp and Signal groups are effective, as are private Facebook groups. Goris points to Minnesota’s Prime Day strike as a worker-led struggle that achieved reforms.
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