An Amazon warehouse worker in Queens has tested positive for COVID-19, heightening fears among employees that the company is not doing enough to protect its workforce during the pandemic.
In a statement, the company confirmed that an "associate" at the delivery center near La Guardia, known as DBK1, received a positive diagnosis on Wednesday night. The worker has been quarantined, the spokesperson confirmed, and the facility was temporarily closed for additional sanitation measures. It has since reopened. (An Amazon spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry about the number of workers employed at the facility.)
During a tense showdown on Wednesday night, Amazon employees in Queens questioned management's decision to keep the facility operating in the face of possible infections.
"It does not take four hours to disinfect for this," one worker can be heard saying, according to video posted by the workers group, Amazonians United. "You cannot possibly have disinfected every package."
An employee in a yellow vest replies, "We do apologize for this, we are looking out for your safety. This is not a decision we can make."
This appears to be the first case of the virus among Amazon's hourly warehouse workers in the United States. It comes as a growing number of employees have raised concerns about their lack of protections, as demand for online deliveries has surged during the public health crisis.
Earlier this month, Amazon admitted to a "discrepancy" that was preventing workers in Illinois from accessing paid time off, in violation of state law.
"Whether you’re gaslighting us about our legal right sick leave, or whether you’re gaslighting us about coronavirus for Amazon profits, we know what you’re doing,” one employee said during last night's confrontation. “There’s an absolute disregard for the value of our lives. We don’t buy it anymore.”
The company has been scrambling in recent days to address reports of inadequate protections and crowding conditions at their facilities. In a blog post this week, Amazon announced that workers would receive a $2/hour raise. Those who test positive for COVID-19 will be given two weeks of paid leave, and all hourly workers would be eligible to take unlimited unpaid time off. The company is also hiring roughly 100,000 workers nationwide to deal with the strain on employees.
Phillip Ruiz, an employee at Staten Island's sprawling fulfillment center, told Gothamist on Thursday that he had stopped coming to work, for fear of exposing his immunocompromised father who he lives with to the virus. He noted that until this week, the e-commerce giant was still requiring employees to huddle for closely packed "stand up" meetings at the start of every shift.
"If this happened in Queens, it’ll happen next at my location in Staten Island," he said. "We got over 1,000 working in close proximity."
Ruiz, who has worked for Amazon for two years, added that he was out of paid leave. He said the company's offer of unpaid time off were not adequate to address the scale of the crisis.
"Doing the right thing would be closing down the warehouse and paying us something," he said. "Profits should not rule over public safety."
