Amazon Warehouse Worker in New York has died of Coronavirus (COVID-19)

A worker at Amazon’s Staten Island, New York, fulfillment Centre has expired of COVID-19, the company confirmed. Employees at the facility, called JFK8, are calling for even increased security measures because early March. While Amazon has made changes, the amount of employees diagnosed with the virus continues to climb.

Managers informed several employees at JFK8 of the passing yesterday. Amazon says that the employee was last on website on April 5th and has been placed on quarantine after he was confirmed to get COVID-19 on April 11th. “We’re profoundly saddened by the loss of a member at our website from Staten Island, NY,” that an Amazon spokesperson said. “His family and loved ones are in our own thoughts, and we’re encouraging his fellow coworkers.”

JFK8 was the very first of several Amazon centers to have Employees walk out in protest of the business’s managing of COVID-19, in late March. Following this walkout, Amazon made a series of changes to warehouse procedures, including mandating social screening and media workers for fevers. Despite its quarterly earnings release last week, the business said it planned to invest $4 billion — equal to its anticipated operating profit — on its COVID-19 response. But employees say the security precautions are still insufficient and their jobs often require them being in near proximity.

Amazon hasn’t released statistics on the Number of facilities Have experienced COVID-19 cases or the amount of employees have fallen ill, but estimates tallied by employees from alerts they receive placed the number of centers at over 130 — a few, such as JFK8, with dozens of instances.

An Amazon spokesperson says the rate of infection at JFK8 is under that of the surrounding community and the company believes the instances at the warehouses aren’t connected. A worker in an Amazon warehouse at Tracy, California, died on April 1st. Amazon Producers in France have been shut since April 16th, after a French court ruled that deliveries must be limited to essentials such as groceries and health care supplies.

Amazon has been on a hiring spree because it tries to meet Surging demand during the pandemic. It’s hired 175,000 employees in recent weeks, and this season, it finished a policy begun early in the crisis allowing employees to take infinite time off without pay. Considering that the coverage ended, workers at JFK8 say conditions are more crowded than usual.

Amazon has also responded aggressively to worker protests. It fired the organizer of the first JFK8 walkout, Christian Smalls, along with a memo obtained by Vice demonstrated plans to correct him. Even the New York Attorney General’s office said in a letter obtained from NPR that safety precautions at the warehouse were”insufficient” and the firm may have violated the country’s whistleblower protection legislation. Amazon also fired workers who raised safety concerns in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, along with a second worker at JFK8.

In the Most Recent indication that unrest over warehouse conditions is Spreading throughout the corporation’s white-collar workforce, Amazon senior engineer And vice president Tim Bray resigned within the firings of all whistleblowers, stating That”staying an Amazon VP would have supposed, in effect, registering Actions I despised.”