About 60 Amazon workers stage walkouts over pay, break times

A labor organizer says more than 60 Amazon workers across three delivery stations staged a walkout on Wednesday to demand a $3 raise and a return to 20-minute breaks.

The walkout is being organized by a group called Amazonians United, which said in a statement that its demands were first brought up in December through a coordinated petition among six Amazon warehouses on the East Coast.

Wednesday’s staged walkout is happening at two Amazon delivery stations called ZYO1 and DBK1 in the New York borough of Queens and at the DMD9 facility in Upper Marlboro, Md. Amazon said it offers industry-leading pay and benefits.

Ellie Pfeffer, an organizer and warehouse associate at ZYO1, said five people walked out of her station Wednesday in a shift that has only nine workers. She said 28 employees walked out of DBK1 and 30 more at DMD9.

Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokeswoman, said the Seattle-based company is “proud to offer industry leading pay, competitive benefits, and the opportunity for all to grow within the company.”

“While there are many established ways of ensuring we hear the opinions of our employees inside our business, we also respect the right for some to make their opinions known externally,” Nantel said in an emailed statement.

Amazon is the nation’s second-largest private employer behind Walmart. Its starting pay is still $15 per hour, but the company said last year its paying new hires an average of $18 an hour. Pfeffer says the base hourly pay at her facility is $15.75 an hour. It’s slightly higher at the facility in Maryland — $15.90, said Linda Gomma, an associate at DMD9.

Workers also want to add five minutes to their breaks per shift. Pfeffer said Amazon offered two paid 20-minute breaks during the pandemic but returned to 15-minute long breaks in October.

“We work really long days, and we work at night,” she said. “Our breaks are really the one time we get to sit down and stretch our legs. Those five minutes don’t really matter to Amazon at all. But they matter a lot for our muscles and our sanity.”

Workers with Amazonians United are also calling for more staff at their facilities.

Amazon has seen other protests in recent months. In December, workers associated with Amazonians United at two Chicago-area locations staged a walkout to demand higher wages and better working conditions. Other facilities in the New York borough of Staten Island also walked off their shift that month to protest what they said were unfair labor practices.

One of those facilities, JFK8, is scheduled to vote later this month on whether to form a union. A separate union vote is also currently underway at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala.