Workers Rights Organization Urges Governor Murphy to Shut Down Amazon’s Carteret Facility After COVID19 Outbreak
Workers Rights Organization Urges Governor Murphy to Shut Down Amazon’s Carteret Facility After COVID19 Outbreak
(Elizabeth, N.J.) Today, in response to the reported COVID19 outbreak at Amazon’s Carteret warehouse, Adil Ahmed, Make the Road NJ’s Director of Worker Organizing and Policy issued the following statement:
We support Carteret Mayor Daniel Reiman’s demand this afternoon that Amazon’s Carteret warehouse be temporarily shut down because of the report of an outbreak where at least 30 employees at this warehouse tested positive for coronavirus. We call on Governor Phil Murphy to utilize his executive authority to temporarily shut down Amazon’s Carteret warehouse, because it’s clear this outbreak is beyond Amazon’s ability to control.
Just today, Amazon also announced they are ending their unlimited unpaid time off policy on May 1st. The pandemic isn’t ending on May 1st. Every day this week, Amazon workers in Carteret have been getting notifications of new COVID cases, but they aren’t being given all the information on the number of cases nor proper equipment to protect themselves. Just last week, the water in a break room reportedly wasn’t even working. The workers are not robots. They are humans with families and loved ones, and we cannot afford to social distance on their backs. Our wider public health is depending on their well-being, and they must be treated with respect, and that means shutting down the facility and continuing to pay the workers until the facility re-opens.”
