As the coronavirus spreads across America many workers are being directed to work from home but staff at Amazon and Whole Foods are being squeezed to keep up with increasing demand caused by Americans stockpiling food and household products.
Amazon is the US’s largest online retailer and it also owns Whole Foods, the largest natural foods grocer in the US, and fifth largest overall in the world.
Workers say the hectic pace of work amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak is devastating for their physical and mental health as they try to keep up with massive new demand. They also have to deal with their own worries and problems coping with the pandemic.
“My kids are off from school. A lot of businesses are letting workers work from home. But Amazon workers are going in extra time, we’re doing the opposite of what everybody else is doing and due to the nature of our work, it’s hands-on. We have to do that,” said an Amazon warehouse worker in Troutdale, Oregon, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
“I usually work 40 hours a week, four 10-hour shifts. We’ve all been called in for a mandatory extra day, a 10-hour shift, which is usually reserved for holiday peak season,” the worker added.
Another Amazon worker in Troutdale is concerned over having to continue working due to one of their family members being immunocompromised.
“There are people coughing in here. There aren’t paper masks. We are getting unlimited unpaid time off, but I still need to pay bills and rent. I can’t take that unpaid time off,” they said.
Amazon said it has offered all warehouse workers unlimited unpaid time off through the month of March, and announced last week workers diagnosed with coronavirus or placed into quarantine would receive up to two weeks of paid sick leave.
The paid sick leave bill currently being pushed through Congress exempts workers at Amazon and other large corporations from protections. But workers are demanding commitments to pay Amazon warehouse workers if the spread of coronavirus leads to temporary closures of warehouses.
Some Amazon workers have criticized the company for continuing to operate warehouses while local schools are closed.
“What good is it if schools are closed, kids are home and parents still have to work, if parents catch the virus and bring it back to the household? Then everyone has a virus that they cannot pay for, because a lot of people don’t have health insurance,” said an Amazon associate in Sparrow Springs, Maryland, where workers are also being called in to work overtime shifts. All public schools in the state are closed until 27 March. “It’s careless. They don’t care about people’s safety.”
Warehouse workers at Amazon’s DCH1 delivery station in Chicago, Illinois, are capped at 30 hours a week, and receive no benefits, including any paid sick time.
“We’re given the option to not come into work without negative repercussions. However, we aren’t getting any type of financial compensation for said time, which puts us in a position where most of us who can’t afford to miss work still come in no matter how bad we feel,” said an Amazon worker in Chicago.
They said the warehouse ran out of protective gloves for them to wear the past couple of days. “The current work environment is going to cause my co-workers and I to become sick, if they aren’t already, from overwork, stress and lack of protections.”
An Amazon spokesperson said in an email: “The health and safety of our employees and contractors around the world continues to be our top priority. As communities around the world are requiring social distancing, we’re seeing that our teams – much like grocery stores, pharmacies and other essential services – have a unique role getting customers the critical items they need and this is especially vital for the elderly, people with underlying health issues, and those sick or quarantined.”
On 16 March, Amazon announced all its employees, including Whole Foods workers, will temporarily be paid an additional $2 an hour through the end of April. The company also announced plans to add 100,000 workers to meet demand throughout the coronavirus outbreak.
Whole Foods workers who spoke with the Guardian under anonymity for fear of retaliation described workloads and customer demands similar to busy holidays, such as Thanksgiving.
Whole Worker, a group of Whole Foods workers, started petitions calling for a sickout protest on 1 May, for Whole Foods to reinstate health insurance benefits for part-time workers, and to provide Whole Foods workers with expanded paid sick time during the coronavirus outbreak.
“Working at Whole Foods is currently hell,” said a Whole Foods team member in northern California. “We’re not taking the proper procedures to disinfect everything. There are no hand sanitizer bottles to reach for, not enough time to go to the bathroom to wash our hands. It’s a miracle we still have soap in the bathrooms.”
In an internal email sent to Whole Foods employees from Whole Foods’ CEO, John Mackey, on 11 March, employees were encouraged to donate paid time off for team members with a medical emergency or death in their immediate family.
“In the midst of all this, they started handing out these availability forms stating that if we are not able to work 70% of the peak hours we would lose our full-time status, therefore losing all health benefits,” said a Whole Foods worker in Los Angeles, California. “They have us scrambling to place bigger and bigger orders with not enough people to work the loads, so they are asking everyone as a favor to stay and work overtime. All customer service and retail workers should be getting hazard pay in a pandemic and Amazon can afford to do it, but they won’t.”
A Whole Foods team member in the midwest said their store is too understaffed to keep up with customer demand and maintain sanitation protocols.
“It’s virtually impossible to meet customer demand and keep our workplace sanitary,” the worker said.
A Whole Foods spokesperson said in an email: “As a grocer, we believe our role serving customers and the community during this time is a critical one. The health and wellbeing of our team members remains a top priority and we’ve implemented numerous measures to support them during this time of uncertainty, including stringent sanitation measures to ensure a safe work environment, relaxed policies for call-outs, and access to two weeks paid time off that was announced for all Amazon employees.”
