Report: Amazon Warehouse Workers Strike on 'Prime Day'

Amazon workers at a warehouse in Shakopee, Minnesota, are going on strike Monday during is the first of the company’s two “Prime Day” summer promotions. Monday’s protest is the latest in a series of Amazon controversies involving its warehouse employees.

Warehouse workers at an Amazon Fulfillment center in Minnesota are going on a six-hour strike on Monday, overlapping their morning and evening shifts, according to a report by the Daily Beast. The employees are striking in protest of their working conditions.

The warehouse workers say that despite previous complaints, Jeff Bezos has created an unsafe environment due to speeding up the pace of their work to an unreasonably high rate, among other allegations.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) expressed her support of the protest in a tweet on Monday.

“I fully support Amazon workers’ Prime Day strike,” tweeted the 2020 Democrat presidential candidate, “Their fight for safe and reliable jobs is another reminder that we must come together to hold big corporations accountable.”

According to a statement from the group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, some Amazon employees are even traveling from Seattle — where the company is headquartered — to participate in the protest.

“The fact is Amazon offers already what this outside organization is asking for,” said a company spokesperson in a statement, adding that Amazon does not expect to have any operational issues due to the strike.

The Monday protest is the latest in a series of disputes that the e-commerce giant has had with its warehouse workers. The company has recently been hit with several wrongful termination lawsuits by female workers claiming they were fired after getting pregnant. Amazon employees have also alleged that the company terminates workers for taking too many restroom breaks.

The report added that while the Minnesota protest represents the first Amazon Prime Day strike in the United States, employees in Europe have staged the same protests on Prime Day in the past.

Amazon “Prime Day” is a worldwide two-day sale for hundreds of products on the company’s website, which — among other perks — offers free shipping for online orders for customers who are part of the “Amazon Prime” membership program.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.