On March 20th, 2020, part-time Amazon workers in delivery stations across the United States won paid time off (PTO) after six months of organizing. This victory is a testament to the power that Amazon workers have when we organize, and below is the story of how this organizing unfolded in Sacramento.

Organizing for PTO began in Sacramento last September when a DSM1 coworker was unjustly fired for missing time after her mother-in-law passed away. This is a very common story in Amazon warehouses across the country because we are only allowed to miss a small amount of unpaid time for any reason before we are automatically fired. But this time we had enough.

In response to this firing, a group of DSM1 workers, who had already been organizing around safety issues, decided to start a petition under the banner of Amazonians United Sacramento (AUS). In this petition we demanded that our coworker be rehired and all associates be given paid time off to begin fixing Amazon’s broken time off system. Over the course of a week and a half we collected over 70 signatures from workers at DSM1 and discovered that another co-worker had been unjustly fired for missing time while protecting their children during a domestic dispute. On September 29th 2019 we submitted this petition to DSM1 management and within a week both co-workers had been rehired and one of them received back pay for time missed.

This was a huge win for AUS because it demonstrated that if we work together we can push Amazon to treat us with dignity and respect rather than as replaceable parts in their machine. But while we were able to get our co-workers rehired, Amazon never met with us to discuss the underlying problems in their time off system that caused these unjust firings in the first place. Right after this victory, AUS also discovered in our handbook that regular part-time workers in California received up to 9 paid days off a year for working between 20–29 hours a week. We work on average 24 hours a week, so it didn’t make sense why we were not getting these benefits stated in our handbook and we decided to continue fighting for PTO.

We continued this fight first by pushing HR for clarification on why we were not getting PTO even though our handbook said that we should. Their response was that PTO was only for regular part-time workers and everyone at our site was either a “class q” or “class m” worker. This was the first time that any of us had heard of these terms “class q” and “class m,” and HR would not explain why were considered these classes rather than regular part-time workers. All that HR would say is that we do not get PTO. From this explanation, It was clear to us that Amazon had simply made up these classification so that they could deny us the same benefits they give to other part-time workers.

We then began another petition for PTO that gathered over 200 signatures in two weeks and was submitted to DSM1 management on December 1st 2019. Amazon still refused to meet with us to so we escalated to an online petition that gathered over four thousand signatures. During this time we were also distributing buttons at work that said “Amazonians United for PTO” so that co-workers could publicly show their support at work. Finally, we organized a walkout on December 23rd, where over 30% of our shift walked out together to demand PTO for all Amazon workers.

The walkout marked the high point of organizing for PTO in Sacramento but fellow Amazon workers took up the fight in Chicago, and then in New York City. It was only after workers in Sacramento, Chicago, and New York City came together and demanded PTO be given to all Amazon workers that Amazon finally extended PTO to class q and class m employees who had been denied this benefit for years.

While we celebrate this hard won victory we know that our organizing must continue for a variety of reasons. First, while Amazon has stated that any PTO we receive will exceed any required paid sick leave by state or local law, they have not made clear if PTO will accrue in addition to the sick leave we already receive in California or if it will replace our sick leave. It would be unconscionable for Amazon to take away our paid sick leave in the middle of a global pandemic. It is therefore absolutely essential that we continue to fight until Amazon guarantees that PTO will accrue in addition to paid sick leave rather than as a replacement of paid sick leave.

Second, while PTO has been extended to regular (class q) and and seasonal (class m) workers who make up the majority of workers at DSM1, it is still being denied to on-call workers (class x) who are among our most vulnerable co-workers because they have no guaranteed schedule. We continue to demand that PTO be extended to all Amazon workers, including on-call (class x) workers.

Third, despite extending PTO to class q and class m workers, Amazon still uses this classification system to deny us health insurance. Regular part-time workers receive health insurance while class q and class m workers, who work the same number of hours, are denied this benefit. The current coronavirus pandemic makes clear that it is in the interest of the general public for everyone to have health insurance. It is immoral for the richest man in the world to deny these benefits to warehouse workers who are risking their own health and the health of their families to deliver packages and enable social distancing. Health insurance must immediately be extended to all Amazon workers.

Finally, during this global coronavirus pandemic, Amazon needs to do more to protect warehouse workers from getting sick and spreading this virus to our families. This includes guaranteeing paid sick leave for workers regardless of diagnosis, granting childcare pay and subsidies to parents facing school closures, 1.5x hazard pay, suspension of rate based write ups so workers can follow proper hygienic protocols without fear, and the closure of facilities with pay when there is a positive diagnosis at a warehouse. Amazon has already taken some steps in response to COVID-19 including giving unlimited UPT and paid sick leave to diagnosed workers. However, they also try to hide positive cases from employees so that they can keep warehouses running with minimal disruption. This is unacceptable. If there is a positive diagnosis at a warehouse, that building needs to follow recommended measures and give all workers paid time to self-quarantine and contain the spread of COVID-19. Amazon can afford to implement these protective measures and the scale of the current crisis demands they do so.

All these demands are essential but to win them we need more Amazon workers around the country organizing their warehouse. If you work at Amazon and would like to learn how to do the same organizing that we have done at your location please reach out to us at amazoniansunitedsacramento@gmail.com.