About two dozen Amazon workers and pro-union activists picketed outside the company’s East Point facility on Wednesday, decrying high warehouse temperatures, a lack of parking-lot security, and other dangerous working conditions.
The ATL6 Amazon warehouse employees highlighted their demand letter to management for improved conditions, ranging from predictable scheduling to floor mats for workers who are on their feet for an entire shift to powered pallet jacks instead of manual ones.
Activists from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Union of Southern Service Workers, the Democratic Socialists of America, and United 4 Respect helped to organize the rally for safer working conditions, which lasted about an hour, ahead of a 1:30 p.m. shift change.
As picketers were leaving the rally, three East Point police cruisers responded to the scene at 4200 N. Commerce Dr. and issued citations to drivers of a van and a car that had stopped to ferry people back to their cars. The issue: disrupting the flow of traffic.
One officer told a reporter that they were responding to a call from Amazon. The company did not respond directly to a query about the police call, but in a general statement it said: “This protest was initiated and attended by mostly outside organizers and individuals who don’t work for Amazon.”
The otherwise empty four-lane road in an industrial zone has no public parking for miles. Several warehouse workers said they are routinely picked up and dropped off exactly where the police cited them on Commerce Drive.
In fact, one common complaint that workers shared at the rally was that car break-ins are frequent at the on-site and remote employee parking lots.
High temperatures, few water coolers
During the rally, the picketing workers said high warehouse temperatures are a big concern. While the ATL6 facility has air conditioning, it often does not work properly, they said.
Darryl Prewitt, 64, a dock worker at the fulfillment center for nearly five years, said the temperatures inside “on a day like today are easily 95 degrees.”
To keep cool, Prewitt said, he brings a frozen bottle of water with him to work and refills it as it thaws throughout the day. Amazon’s ATL6 warehouse, which employs roughly 1,500 people, provides only about five water coolers for workers, Prewitt said, and they are often “out of order or moldy.”
Workers told Atlanta Civic Circle that their only other option is to purchase bottled water in the break room for $2.
“We’ve been underpaid and the working conditions are terrible,” said Karen Tucker, one of the picketing workers. After nine-and-a-half-years working for Amazon, she said, her hourly wage is just $19.40 per hour.
“With all that money he’s got, he can provide us with clean, cool water. Instead, we have to go buy it at the break room,” Tucker said, referring to Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos, whose net worth exceeds $200 billion.
The Amazon ATL6 workers already presented management a demand letter last year about pay and scheduling, but not safety conditions. This summer’s record-breaking heat has spurred similar labor actions locally. Earlier this month, workers at Delbar, an upscale Persian restaurant in Atlanta’s Inman Park neighborhood, walked out over heat-stress concerns.
Amazon provided a statement to address ATL6 warehouse workers’ concerns about heat: “Safety is, and always will be, our top priority. Our heat-related safety protocols often exceed industry standards, and we’re one of only a few companies to have air conditioning at our fulfillment centers and air hubs. This in addition to industrial fans on our ceilings to keep air flowing, employee training about preventing heat-related illness, encouraging everyone to take cool-down rest breaks anytime they need one.”
These a serious conditions that everyone should be aware of and as an Amazon worker I sometimes leave before the shift is over because my body is fatigued from the temperature and walking back and forth on the concrete floors with no floor mats wearing steel toe shoes which is a mandatory requirement by Amazon. The pay is ridiculous for what we do and the repetitive movements can cause injury to the body. WORK SHOULDN’T HURT!!!