In This Section

A protest at a Manhattan apartment owned by Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos Wednesday afternoon sought to highlight safety concerns at the internet behemoth that employs hundreds of thousands of people nation-wide and seek legislation that would improve worker health and safety.

The demonstrators, only a few individuals who actually work at Amazon, were seeking legislation pending in the state legislature called the NY Hero Act, which would put more onus on companies such as Amazon to place a higher premium on worker safety and health. The bill comes as groups claim that nearly 20,0000 Amazon workers became ill with COVID-19 and some of those actually died of the virus, organizers say.

Maritza Silva-Farrell, executive director for the Alliance for a Greater New York, said it is “time for Amazon to take a stand to protect workers’ health.”

“Workers and lives of communities are at risk here during this global pandemic and we need to feel its time for Amazon to stand up and do the right things to protect their workers,” she said. “The level of protection they are giving affects the workers in their warehouses, but also Black and brown communities. It is not enough to say we are giving some protection. Amazon has to act and they need to do it now.”

To read the full article, visit AM NY