Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar Are Leading Probe Into How Amazon Treats Workers During Pandemic

By Edward Ongweso Jr., VICE

28 March 20

The letter to Jeff Bezos, written by Sanders and Ilhan Omar, requests detailed information about Amazon’s coronavirus response plan.

n a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Representative Ilhan Omar and Senator Bernie Sanders asked the world’s richest man what he was doing to protect his workers in warehouses across the country, at least ten of which already have confirmed cases of coronavirus:

“Even prior to the dire global health crisis, these facilities have a proven record of high health and safety standard violations, and Amazon has failed to provide any substantive response or solutions to those violations,” Sanders, Omar, and a host of other lawmakers wrote. “Given that the company has announced plans to hire 100,000 new warehouse workers and institute mandatory overtime, we are growing more concerned that Amazon does not possess an adequate internal pandemic preparedness and response plan. Recent statements made by Amazon do not include sufficient detail, and use vague terms such as ‘often’ and ‘increasing,’ instead of providing specific data.”

In the United States, Amazon's retail and delivery infrastructure have begun to strain as people isolating at home have shifted to buying goods on its platform. Amazon announced last week it would temporarily suspend all shipments of "non-essential" products to help ease the growing burden.

That move alone, however, is unlikely to save Amazon's supply chain from faltering as the company refuses to close warehouses even as its workers are infected by Covid-19. The same is true with Whole Foods, also owned by Jeff Bezos, which has gone so far as to suggest workers share their paid time off—even as they suffer panic attacks from overworking or come into contact with other workers infected by Covid-19.

There’s no denying that Amazon and Whole Foods are critical services right now, even if that is because Jeff Bezos achieved that role by aggressively pursuing a monopoly, but workers deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. The world’s richest man forcing his workers to risk infection, then refusing them to voluntarily provide them with any sort of paid leave policies or collective support systems.

To try and push Bezos to do the right thing—which, again, he is well able to do as the world’s richest man—Sanders and Omar asked Bezos a series of questions about what steps he was taking to protect his workers from Covid-19:

• In light of the report of the confirmed COVID-19 case in your Queens, New York warehouse, have you developed a detailed response plan if other warehouses report confirmed cases? How do you plan to disseminate timely and accurate information to your workers regarding confirmed cases and its effects on their work schedules, employment status, and the employee benefits to which they are eligible?


• What kind of financial or educational support have you provided for your workers in Queens amid the temporary warehouse shutdown?


• How many times per day is Amazon cleaning and disinfecting warehouses, equipment and worker gathering spaces?


• How are workplaces and supply lines within the warehouses being reconfigured to promote social distancing? Are workers able to consistently keep a six-foot distance between themselves and others?


• While enforcing strict social distancing rules for workers, what new safety measures are in place to ensure workers do not injure themselves?


• Have you implemented any of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s suggested Engineering Controls’ in your warehouse, such as high-efficiency air filters, increasing ventilation rates, or negative pressure ventilation? If so, provide a list of the facilities which have been so updated and a list of facilities that have been scheduled for these upgrades along with the dates of expected completion.


• What resources were used to provide the up-to-date education and training on COVID- 19 risk factors and protective behaviors given to workers?


• How much additional time are you allowing for scheduled breaks to ensure workers are given adequate opportunity to follow personal hygiene suggestions like handwashing? Do they have time and capacity to leave their station and get to a restroom to wash their hands, or can they face a penalty for doing so?


• What is the average rate or ratio being used to determine how much hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes are made available to workers at each facility?


• In the absence of face masks, what alternative protective measures are you taking to ensure the safety of your workers? How have you distributed the limited face masks that you have received?