'No justice, no work': Amazon workers demand safety and fair pay

Workers at the Amazon warehouse in East Point, ATL 6, held a rally this week demanding higher pay and safer working conditions. Hundreds signed a petition earlier this month for a $5 raise for current employees and $18 an hour starting pay. Employee Brandon Callaway, who helped organize the petition, said he was fired shortly after.

“Your timing couldn't be more clear — I felt retaliated against for practicing my right to organize,” Callaway said. “I already had a target on my back right out there. I won't stand for this retaliatory behavior, and neither will my fellow ATL 6 associates.”

ATL 6 employees are filing multiple unfair labor practice charges at their facility. Cynthia Winters works at the warehouse where she says it’s dangerously hot.

“We should have water; we should have Gatorade packets,” Winters said. “We should have all of that in here. But do we get it? We get it every blue moon. Do we get anybody to come and say, 'Hey, how do you feel?' No, we do not.”

At the rally, employees also spoke out about the lack of accommodations for disabled workers. ATL 6 Employee Karen M. Tucker said she was one of the employees receiving disability benefits until Amazon’s mandatory scheduling changed that.

“I lost my benefits because I had to work 25 hours a week when I'm only allowed to work 20,” Tucker said. “So they're forcing people who get disability to work and jeopardize their checks. I think that it's wrong.”

Employees from ATL 2, Amazon’s warehouse in Stone Mountain, showed up in solidarity. Workers there held a walkout last week during Prime Day, and organized a strike last month demanding better conditions.

ATL 2 employee Thometra Robinson said she wants people to be educated about their rights as workers.

“Unionize, don't quit,” Robinson said. "You have help. This company makes money. You deserve it. You shouldn't have to beg for it."

East Point's Amazon workers aren’t currently working towards unionization, but locations across the country have been. So far Amazon workers in Staten Island, N.Y., are the only successfully unionized Amazon warehouse.