Several dozen Amazon employees protested outside the company’s Shakopee location on Wednesday, June 24, in their first labor action at the facility since last September.
The workers, organized by the Minneapolis-based Awood Center, were seeking higher pay and better working conditions.
The Shakopee Amazon Fulfillment Center employs about 3,000, including many East African workers.
“I demand respect,” said Mohamed Hassan, an Amazon employee taking part in the demonstration. “This time is very difficult with gas and food [prices] going up. They have to raise the wages.”
The workers were seeking a $1.50 wage increase, an end to overzealous managers writing up employees and the “white-badge’ temporary status system. The protest happened during Prime Days, some of Amazon’s busiest of the year.
Awood Center Executive Director Deqa Essa said workers also planned a strike in December, but canceled it due to the risks of workers being targeted during Operation Metro Surge.
In a statement, Amazon said it will continue to work with Shakopee employees on concerns.
“We respect our employees’ right to voice their opinions, and we take their feedback seriously,” spokesperson Sam Stephenson stated. “The fact is, we already offer competitive pay and opportunities for career growth and we’re proud of how we take care of our employees.”
Employee Shukri Muse said she loves the flexibility Amazon offers as she juggles her second job as an interpreter. She is paid $21.50 an hour, a tight squeeze for a single mother supporting three children, she notes.
Prices have risen 4.7% in the Twin Cities the past 12 months, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. With rising gas and food prices, Hassan says wages need to keep up.
According to Stephenson, Amazon has increased wages by 16% for nearly all employees in the Shakopee location over the past three years.
The working conditions at Amazon have gotten a lot worse in the past year, according to the labor historian Peter Rachleff. He describes the company’s policies as anti-worker and exploitative, and notes they are not peculiar to Shakopee’s workplace.
Employees at Wednesday’s protest raised issues with how managers treat staff.
Wayrah Ali, who has worked at Amazon in Shakopee for over seven years, said a single manager wrote up 120 employees in the past month. When this issue has been brought up in the past, nothing has changed.
“If you get disorganized, the chain of production gets a little bit out of line … you can get written up for that,” Ali said.
Many companies require a 90-day probationary period for new employees.The Shakopee center relies on a colored badge system, where white badges are a temporary status for newcomers who get blue badges when they are officially hired and get certain benefits. But the system is not the same for everyone — Hassan got his blue badge on his second day, Muse has been waiting for one the past six months.
The protesters and organizers expressed concerns that security at Shakopee were dissuading employees from attending the Wednesday gathering.
Fartun Gabayre, an Amazon employee of five years, was approached by two security guards when she arrived. They asked to see her badge with name and employee number. If she refused, they would tow her car.
“I told them that ‘I’ve been working here for a long time. If you want to tow my car, you go right ahead,’” Gabayre recalled. She ended up moving her car across the street.
“This is just a form of intimidation, it’s what they do. [When you see] how they intimidate me outside, you can imagine how they intimidate me inside.”
The organizers of Wednesday’s protest are planning to meet with Amazon workers on Thursday afternoon to discuss potential changes to the workers’ situation. Early next week, they are planning to decide whether they will organize another protest.
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that Awood Center organizers are meeting with Amazon workers on Thursday, not Amazon officials.
