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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ message to warehouse workers: "Go back to Work and Vote Democrat"
Posted by:
Barrickman
()
Date: May 19, 2020 10:04PM
Following a wave of workers’ protests against the shipping and e-commerce giant Amazon, the corporation is doubling down on its demand that workers remain on the job without protection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, Amazon workers in New York City walked off the job after the first known case of coronavirus was detected at a facility in Queens, forcing the company to temporarily shut down the site. In Italy and Spain as well, workers have shut down facilities rather than become sick.
As a concession to workers protesting Amazon’s efforts to make additional profits from the coronavirus by pressuring workers to ship unnecessary items, Bezos claims that the company will prioritize the shipping of “essential items like household staples, sanitizers, baby formula, and medical supplies.” Bezos then says, “We’ve placed purchase orders for millions of face masks we want to give to our employees and contractors who cannot work from home, but very few of those orders have been filled.” Workers are chided to think of others and informed they must wait in line: “When our turn for masks comes, our first priority will be getting them in the hands of our employees and partners working to get essential products to people.”
Despite his “we’re all in this together” claim, it is certain that Bezos and the rest of the corporate and financial oligarchy are not “waiting in line” for anything. Not only will they be able to work from their mansions far away from infected factories and warehouses but in case they contract COVID-19, they will get the best “concierge health care” that money can buy. Nothing could contrast more with the miserable health care Amazon workers get from the company doctors who send them back to the fulfillment lines as fast as possible.
The WSWS and the IAWV call on workers to form independent rank-and-file committees to press their demands for access to testing and fully paid health care and the closing down of all non-essential production. This must be combined with the fight to transform Amazon, UPS, FedEx and other giant logistic firms into public enterprises, collectively owned and democratically controlled by the working class. The company’s technological capacity and global network must be utilized to deliver medical supplies, food and other basic necessities. At the same time workers engaged in this essential work must be supplied with state-of-the-art personal protection equipment and be constantly monitored by professional medical staff. The length of shifts and workloads must be reduced and workers must be paid living wages and provided with free, high quality health coverage.
Full Letter here: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/24/bezo-m24.html
Attachments:
As a concession to workers protesting Amazon’s efforts to make additional profits from the coronavirus by pressuring workers to ship unnecessary items, Bezos claims that the company will prioritize the shipping of “essential items like household staples, sanitizers, baby formula, and medical supplies.” Bezos then says, “We’ve placed purchase orders for millions of face masks we want to give to our employees and contractors who cannot work from home, but very few of those orders have been filled.” Workers are chided to think of others and informed they must wait in line: “When our turn for masks comes, our first priority will be getting them in the hands of our employees and partners working to get essential products to people.”
Despite his “we’re all in this together” claim, it is certain that Bezos and the rest of the corporate and financial oligarchy are not “waiting in line” for anything. Not only will they be able to work from their mansions far away from infected factories and warehouses but in case they contract COVID-19, they will get the best “concierge health care” that money can buy. Nothing could contrast more with the miserable health care Amazon workers get from the company doctors who send them back to the fulfillment lines as fast as possible.
The WSWS and the IAWV call on workers to form independent rank-and-file committees to press their demands for access to testing and fully paid health care and the closing down of all non-essential production. This must be combined with the fight to transform Amazon, UPS, FedEx and other giant logistic firms into public enterprises, collectively owned and democratically controlled by the working class. The company’s technological capacity and global network must be utilized to deliver medical supplies, food and other basic necessities. At the same time workers engaged in this essential work must be supplied with state-of-the-art personal protection equipment and be constantly monitored by professional medical staff. The length of shifts and workloads must be reduced and workers must be paid living wages and provided with free, high quality health coverage.
Full Letter here: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/24/bezo-m24.html
Attachments: