Amazon said that more than 19,816 of its front line workers in the US have contracted Covid-19 since March 2020. This umber does not include all the front line drivers who might be infected. One 22 year old driver abandoned his truck full of packages at a Detroit gas station and quit.
Amazon has kept its facilities open throughout the pandemic to meet a surge in demand from shoppers stuck at home. Amazon doubled its net profit year over year to $5.2 billion, compared to $2.6 billion at this time in 2019. The minimum wage at Amazon is $15 an hour but a newly formed Union is working to double that starting wage. Amazon had faced criticism from employees, unions and elected officials, who have accused the company of putting employees’ health at risk.
Staying open has proven very lucrative for the e-commerce firm, and has added tens of billions of to the wealth of founder Jeff Bezos, who is the world’s richest man. Starting in March, 2020 Amazon hired 100,000 new workers in a matter of weeks to meet surging demand from customers, and announced plans to hire another 75,000 in April, 2020. The company said that it distributed more than 100 million face masks, and implemented temperature checks at its facilities around the world. Athena, a coalition that has opposed Amazon on a wide range of labor, planning and environmental issues, called on officials to investigate further. “Amazon allowed Covid-19 to spread like wildfire,” Athena’s director Dania Rajendra said in a statement. There have been at least 10 deaths among Amazon warehouse employees who tested positive for COVID-19.