St. Charles, MO – Workers at Amazon fulfillment center STL8 marched on the boss Sept. 14 to deliver a petition with hundreds of signatures from coworkers, listing the following demands:
- Raise all associates’ pay by at least $10/hour.
- Remove the 36-month cap on wage increases.
- Increase compensation by a minimum of $1/hour per additional job each associate is cross-trained for.
- Ensure worker safety by creating an on-site, worker-led temporary accommodations committee that includes at least two Tier 1 associates.
- Grant associates offsite electronic access to all Amazon policies.
“We should be able to support our families and have time to spend with them. I shouldn’t have to choose between keeping a roof over my kids’ heads and putting food in their bellies, or whether I can spend time with them. We deserve better,” said Kayla Breitbarth, Amazon worker and STL8 Organizing Committee member.
“Jeff Bezos has more money than he could spend in a lifetime,” she said. “He has the means to change all of this but he hasn’t. That’s why I’m standing here today with my coworkers.”
After a delegation of workers delivered the petition to management inside the facility, requesting a response within two weeks, they held a press conference outside of the warehouse with faith leaders, Labor leaders, and community allies, publicly calling for better pay and safer working conditions for all Amazon workers.
“Many of my coworkers have gone back to work after repetitive motion injuries, bruises and cuts, and I’ve seen a number of workers rolled out on stretchers. What’s more, Amazon makes it hard to get job accommodations through bureaucratic hurdles and by requiring tedious medical documentation. At the end of the day, Amazon treats workers like numbers on a spreadsheet, like we’re disposable,” said Justin Lopez, Amazon worker and STL 8 Organizing Committee member.
The march and petition were organized by workers at STL8 in response to Amazon management denying workers a raise this year –– despite the ongoing safety crisis at Amazon warehouses, nine percent inflation rates that have dramatically increased workers’ cost-of-living, and tens of billions of dollars in profit the corporation’s workers make for executives each year.
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