On Prime Day, the Amazon Labor Union IBT-Local 1 is organizing a rally on Staten Island to denounce the grueling working conditions and the high rate of injuries that spike during peak periods — while Amazon continues to rake in billions in profits.
While taking place in the midst of economic fears over tariffs, Amazon has expanded its formerly one-day event to nearly a week. Online spending is expected to surge to $23.8 billion across U.S. retailers during the 96-hour online shopping event.
During last year’s Prime Day sale, Amazon made $14.2 billion off the backs of its workers, who had to work mandatory overtime at a backbreaking pace and in sweltering temperatures.
The situation is even worse for immigrant workers, who are currently under attack by the Trump administration. Thousands of Haitian workers have lost their CHNV parole status after it was terminated on May 30, and those under TPS live under constant threat of that status being cancelled as well.
Jeff Bezos donated to Trump’s campaign, attended his inauguration, and is part of the attacks against immigrant workers — not only by suspending and firing those who are unable to renew their work permits, but by providing Immigration and Customs Enforcement the cloud infrastructure that powers Palantir’s surveillance system, which enables ICE to track, target, and deport immigrants using vast amounts of personal and biometric data.
Amazon treats these workers as disposable. Their livelihoods and the difficulties they face don’t matter to Amazon in the company’s pursuit of profit. As Pola Posen, an Amazon warehouse worker, wrote reflecting on last year’s Prime Day,
All the billions of dollars of profit that Amazon made this year on Prime Day is wealth that we created, and that we should fight to reclaim. The more sweat that we spend on Amazon, the more injuries and sleepless hours we give, the more wealth that the bosses amass and the further we are buried in precarity. Only our united power as workers can turn this system upside down. Only together can we take back the humanity and abundance that is ours.
We support the ALU’s demands that Amazon come to the bargaining table to negotiate a union contract that meaningfully improves wages and working conditions, and that they adopt ALU-IBT Local 1’s Worker Safety Bill of Rights.
And, we fight for and demand full rights for immigrant workers whose jobs and futures are on the line.
Join us stand with Amazon workers and immigrant workers and to fight back against billionaires on Wednesday, July 9th at 5pm at JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island at the S40/S90 bus stop.
