Hundreds of workers in an Amazon warehouse were given a choice: a ten-and-a-half hour shift or losing their jobs
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousForced to shifts exhausting, of 10 hours. Alternatively they will have to say goodbye to your workplace. We are in Chicago, in the USA, where this is the proposal put forward by The Amazon to some warehouse workers from one day to the next.
According to a Motherboard investigation on January 25, hundreds of workers in a Amazon warehouse in Chicago a disconcerting choice was made: a ten and a half hour shift or losing your job.
Management informed workers that their warehouse, known as DCH1, would be closed and that they were being offered a 1:20 to 11:50 shift, known as a “megacycle,” at a new Chicago warehouse.
Protests, strikes and petitions organized by workers against the closure have been triggered as the option offered to employees is inhumane, even more so in the midst of a pandemic that has already blown up countless jobs.
“[This decision] is cruel and the antithesis of family-friendly corporate responsibility,” the facility's organized workers who rely on DCH1 Amazonians United told Motherboard. "The new program is impractical, particularly for many mothers, those who care for elderly relatives and others who need to be home in the morning to take care of their children in e-learning."
We asked for months but Amazon kept us in the dark till suddenly we have a week to mold our lives around zombie shift or we’re out of a job. All so customers have till 12am to place their orders for immediate processing. The least they could do is offer schedule accommodations
— Amazonians United Chicagoland (@AUchicagoland) January 28, 2021
That megacycle that is extending everywhere
The ultimatum presented to DCH1 workers reflects a broader strategy in the United States by Amazon. According to Motherboard, in recent months the company has been quietly moving warehouse workers to delivery stations nationwide on the "megacycle". The latter is a 10-hour shift which starts around one in the morning and ends at lunchtime. An Amazon spokesperson told Motherboard that more than half of its delivery network has already switched to the new model.
DCH1 workers were previously offered several shift options, including an 8-hour night shift ending at 4:45 am, a 5-hour morning, and a 4-hour other. From now on, ordinary DCH1 workers will have only the megacycle option in a new facility, Amazonians United told Motherboard DCH1.
Amazon's nationwide push to shift its workers from shorter day shifts to longer shifts starting in the middle of the night is part of the company's efforts to increase efficiency and accelerate the speed of delivery for its customers, but to the detriment of the health and safety of workers.
“We've been asking for months, but Amazon kept us in the dark until suddenly we had a week to shape our lives on the zombie shift or run out of jobs,” workers complain.
Shorter delivery times (to reduce labor costs)
However, Jen Crowcroft, a spokesperson for Amazon, told Motherboard that the move to megacycle offers customers a longer window to place orders and an improved experience for workers that makes collaboration between different delivery stations easier.
Labor experts are not of the same opinion that the decision to consolidate changes in the warehouse sector is a tactic used for some time by employers to reduce labor costs. Fewer workers for longer shifts cost less.
Can you imagine working 1am-noon, 4 days a week? What time will we sleep and live life?! How do we adjust during our weekends? This change will be nationwide at Delivery Stations—Amazon is setting an example for how other companies can exploit workers with this inhumane shift.
— Amazonians United Chicagoland (@AUchicagoland) January 28, 2021
Unfortunately, this transition to the "megacycle" does not seem to concern only Chicago. According to a group of Sacramento workers known as Amazonians United Sacramento, most of the delivery stations in their region have already moved to the megacycle.
In recent days, the coalition of workers has published one petition asking for an extra $ 2 an hour for megacycle shifts nationwide, as well as accommodation for mothers and parents and 20-minute paid breaks.
Delivery Station workers being converted into or already working the Megacycle (1:20a-11:50a in Chicago): don’t allow Bezos to mold our lives around Amazon’s hours without a fight. It’s wrong to make mothers choose between caring for kids or having a job. https://t.co/GuaNZutg3O
— Amazonians United Chicagoland (@AUchicagoland) February 2, 2021
An Amazon spokesperson did not answer questions about when the company began implementing those shifts or when the transition will be completed.
Posts referencing that turn on Reddit suggest that Amazon warehouses across the U.S. have rapidly shifted to this new schedule since at least August 2020, often on short notice. For workers used to picking and packing boxes on four, six or eight hour shifts, switching to the ten hour shift creates an even greater risk of workplace injury.
Mega Cycles??? from AmazonDS
Nothing matters, only the profit. It doesn't matter if the workers will be paying for it, especially in a difficult time like this.
Source of reference: VICE / Motherboard
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