FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 17, 2021

Contact: Chelsea Connor | cconnor@rwdsu.org | 347-866-6259

AMAZON PRIME DAY STATEMENT 2021

(NEW YORK, NY) – Ahead of Amazon’s Prime Day event, Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) issued the following statement: 

“Even as many shoppers may look forward to Amazon’s Prime Day each summer, Amazon’s workers have good reason to dread it.

“Amazon has been called out all over the world for its unacceptable health and safety record and its working conditions for its employees. And Prime Day only makes everything much worse for these workers.

“During Prime Day, workers across the world are forced to work mandatory overtime, oftentimes in extreme temperature conditions, and at an often unattainable pace that results in injuries.

“Amazon needs to start paying attention to the health and safety needs of its employees. It needs to reduce the unbearable pace of work which has resulted in countless documented physical and mental injuries – a pace of work that is only exacerbated by Prime Day. 

“Amazon continues to fail to understand that its human employees are people and not robots. 

“Critically, Amazon needs to start listening to the concerns of its workers, instead of trying to crush their efforts to have a collective voice about their own health and safety through a union. Amazon must stop its virulent union busting and allow its workers to organize, without employer interference, so that they can address worker protections not just for Prime Day, but every day.  

“Amazon needs to start addressing its workers’ needs and ensuring its workers are safe every day, and especially during Prime Day events.”

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 The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) represents 100,000 members throughout the United States. The RWDSU is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). For more information, please visit our website at www.rwdsu.org, Facebook:/RWDSU.UFCW Twitter:@RWDSU.