Warehouse, delivery and retail gig workers in the United States went on strike on Monday to call attention to safety and wage concerns for people laboring through the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reported.
Among the strikers were some of the roughly 200,000 workers at U.S. online grocery delivery company Instacart, according to strike organizer Gig Workers Collective, founded earlier this year by Instacart worker Vanessa Bain.
Fifteen workers at an Amazon.com warehouse in Staten Island, New York, also walked off the job on Monday following reports of COVID-19 among the facility’s staff.
Amazon said later it fired an employee who helped organize the action for alleged violations of his employment, including leaving a paid quarantine to participate in the demonstration. New York’s attorney general said her office was “considering all legal options” in response to the firing, citing the right to organize in the state.
Workers have also protested in other countries. Dozens of Amazon workers at a facility near Florence, Italy, went on strike on Monday.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said last week that pressure on Amazon employees to work despite inadequate protections was “unacceptable”.
From delivery drivers to grocery store clerks, shelf stockers and fast-food employees, workers have kept food and essential goods flowing to people who have been told by their governments to stay home to stop the spread of coronavirus.
More than 738,500 people have been infected across the world and about 35,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
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