A group of MEPs urges Amazon to close warehouses to protect the health of its workers
- Left-wing MEPs have sent a letter to the European director of multinational Amazon to take account of the health of workers and close warehouses before the business. Among the signatories are Greek Konstantinos Arvanitis, French Leila Cahibi and German Özem Demirel, among others.
Faced with the presence of Amazon’s warehouses in all the Member States represented in the European Parliament, several MEPs have transferred to Amazon Europe’s director Xavier Garambois their “great concern” about the risk it poses to the workers working in the warehouses.
There are a number of examples in the letter. In Bergamon (Italy), the epicenter of the spread of the virus, workers are obliged to go to the warehouse to guarantee their orders, despite the trade unions asking to negotiate. In France, a worker is in the intensive care unit, where at least five cases of COVID-19 have been identified. The French labour inspectorate warned Amazon that it would take all necessary measures to protect plant workers. In Poland, the lack of seriousness of the measures taken to ensure the health of workers is causing workers to leave their jobs.
Everywhere, they say that workers are organizing to press Amazon's leadership and take care of their health and that of those around it. However, in this time of lockdown, orders continue to come from the Amazon, endangering health. No sanitary measures are applied: no gloves or face masks are provided. How can we also understand that workers in Poland have been told to wash their hands too much and to damage the pace of work?
The letter emphasizes that most of the goods leaving the warehouse are related to leisure. Demand for video games has increased by 100% since the beginning of confinement and has multiplied leisure objects of all kinds: dolls, comics, DVD, toys... According to trade union figures, only 10% of the products leaving are essential goods (food, hygiene products...), so they are available in most food stores or supermarkets.
As they say, doctors across Europe recommend curbing the activity of Amazon websites. In some states of the European Union, however, pressure has been brought to bear on workers and they have been threatened to get rid of their wages if they refuse to go to work. The following questions are raised: Are they prepared to sacrifice the lives of thousands of workers on the pretext of securing their benefits? Does keeping the business at all costs better than the health of people working in warehouses?
The signatories are MEPs Leïla Chaibi, Eugenia Rodríguez Palop, Özem Demirel, Salima Yenbou, Konstantinos Arvanitis, Nikolaj Villumsen and Kateřina Konečná.
