As millions of Americans heed government orders to hunker down, ordering food, medicines, books, puzzle boards and other goods for home delivery, many of Amazon's 400,000 warehouse workers have stayed on the job, fulfilling the crushing demands of a country suddenly working and learning from home.
Orders for Amazon groceries, for example, have been as much as 50 times higher than normal, according to a person with direct knowledge of the business.
The challenge is keeping enough people on the job to fill those orders, according to more than 30 Amazon warehouse workers and current and former corporate employees who spoke with The New York Times. (Many requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly and feared losing their jobs.) For all of its high-tech sophistication, Amazon's vast e-commerce business is dependent on an army of workers operating in warehouses they now fear are contaminated with the coronavirus.
"None of this works without our employees," said Jay Carney, the company's senior vice president for corporate affairs.
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And the employees have been motivated to remind Amazon of their importance.
While Amazon's workers are not unionized, the crisis has given workplace organizers like Jonathan Bailey unexpected leverage to demand better pay, better sick leave and more of a voice in how the company is run.
Bailey, a 30-year-old Amazon warehouse employee in New York City, has a system for protecting himself from the coronavirus at work. He wears a medical mask with a bandanna tied over it. When he returns to the apartment he shares with his wife, he dumps his mask, work gloves, neon green Amazon safety vest and other clothes into a plastic trash bag.
He's not certain it really works, but he figures it's better than nothing.
"We're very careful," Bailey said. "We're in the epicenter of it all."
By mid-March, attendance at Amazon warehouses had fallen as much as 30%, according to one corporate employee involved in the response. This past week, small groups of employees protested working conditions in Michigan and New York. New York state and New York City officials also said they were investigating whether Amazon improperly retaliated against a worker it fired who had been involved in the protest.
Amazon's response to the pandemic has differed from warehouse to warehouse. Over the years, that sort of autonomy has allowed Amazon to nimbly adjust to local market conditions. Now it is leading to distrust, as workers see some facilities close for cleaning while others remain open.
Since the first worker in the New York City facility learned March 18 that he had tested positive, the company has learned of cases in more than 50 other facilities, out of the more than 500 it operates across the county.
In recent weeks, Amazon has raised wages and added quarantine leave, and it is offering overtime at double pay. It said it had tripled its janitorial staff. And it has added space between many workstations. But in private groups, conversations with their managers and public protests, some workers have expressed alarm about their safety.
Carney said the company had been cautious about telling workers about cases out of privacy concerns and because one of its first likely cases, a corporate employee in Europe, turned out not to have the virus.
For Amazon, like many U.S. companies, the danger of the coronavirus started as a problem in its supply chain. The company was concerned about acquiring products that were made in China, and by mid-February, it was placing larger orders than normal to stockpile supplies.
But Feb. 27, Amazon learned that an employee in Europe who had traveled to Milan had contracted the virus. It immediately halted all nonessential travel, including within the United States, making it the first known major company to suspend domestic travel.
In the first week of March, Amazon told its headquarters employees to work from home. Warehouse employees were later offered unlimited unpaid time off instead.
Many workers did stay home, just as panic buying set in -- first for masks and hand sanitizer, then toilet paper and eventually webcams. Eric Heller, a former Amazon senior manager who advises major brands at Wunderman Thompson Commerce, said his clients saw canned meat sales rise 700%. Pet food went up 300%.
On March 16, Jeysson Manrique, an employee of a delivery company that contracts with Amazon, woke up with a fever. His body ached. He called his supervisor to say he was sick. Manrique, 29, was asked to text a picture of his temperature on a thermometer. He couldn't find one, so he went in for his shift at an Amazon facility in New York.
Amazon said it was investigating the situation with the contracting company because its policy requires employees to stay home if they feel sick.
When the warehouse closed for cleaning, he was the first publicly known case inside Amazon's vast warehouse operations in the United States. Manrique joined his father-in-law and other members of the household in quarantine without venturing out for a test.
Some workers said they were still handling products that were helpful but hardly critical. One warehouse employee posted a picture on social media of moving large boxes, including a Power Wheels Jeep that a child can ride, with the hashtags #SoManyPingPongTables and #TreadmillsAreEssentialProductsApparently.
Ira Pollock, an employee in the New York City facility who has organized other workers, said having people show up to ship nonessential items endangered the community.
"Amazon has to earn its right to call itself an essential service," he said.
Business on 04/07/2020