Coronavirus Is the Leverage Amazon Workers Need
After years of fending off organized labor, the retail giant is sticking to playing hardball.
There are many reasons Tonya Ramsay might have just kept working. The 29-year-old, who works in the shipping department of an Amazon.com Inc. warehouse outside Detroit, pays the mortgage at the house where she lives with her boyfriend and 11-year-old son. But she was scared. Managers at the 855,000-square-foot facility where Ramsay works said two of her co-workers had been diagnosed with Covid-19. Ramsay suspected—correctly, it turns out—there were more cases to be identified.
Worried about their safety, Ramsay and a few dozen colleagues walked off the job on April 1. With some carrying signs, they stood—6 feet apart—on a sidewalk outside the warehouse and appealed to Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos to shut down the facility and authorize paid leave for workers so they wouldn’t risk exposure to the respiratory virus. Drivers in passing cars honked in support.