Michigan Amazon Workers Stage Largest Delivery Station Strike Yet

Across all industries, while worker productivity surged 62 percent from 1979 to 2020, average hourly pay crawled up just 17 percent when adjusted for inflation.

By Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes

In the middle of Amazon’s Prime Day promotional sales rush, 60 warehouse workers walked out for more than three hours at its delivery station in Pontiac, Michigan—bringing the facility to the brink of a total shutdown.

A delivery station is the last warehouse an Amazon package passes through before it is loaded into a truck or van en route to the customer.

This year’s “Prime Day” shopping bonanza July 11 and 12 set a record for the largest sales day in Amazon’s history. The crush of Prime Day puts even more pressure on workers to keep up with conveyor belts overflowing with boxes that can weigh as much as 50 pounds.

“We are demanding a safe work environment where we are not straining, pulling muscles from lifting heavy packages, or tripping over boxes falling off the conveyor belt,” said Alicia Ozier, one of the strikers at the delivery station.

She and her co-workers walked out after Amazon retaliated by refusing to accommodate her when she sustained an injury on the job.

They were joined by Amazon delivery drivers from Palmdale, California, who recently organized with the Teamsters. Those drivers have been on strike for three weeks, during which time they have picketed nine Amazon facilities around the country.