Eric Deshaun Lerma felt a wave of unease as he sat down to tally up new costs as part of his daily routine since Amazon returned to the office this spring. Parking is available. I have fuel. I have lunch. The surcharge, which amounts to at least $200 a month, is to support a policy whose justification is completely incomprehensible — after his three years of working from home for him and his teammates.
Still, when Mr. Lerma heard that some of his colleagues were organizing a strike to protest a return-to-office policy requiring employees to come to work at least three days a week, he was initially hesitant about joining. After all, he recognizes that thousands of Amazon employees don’t have the flexibility to work from home. Their jobs require them to enter warehouses every day and do physically demanding labor.
“I really felt a conflict between working from home and whether it was a luxury or a right,” said Lerma, 27, who joined the company as an executive assistant in Seattle. “My role entitles me to various rights and benefits.”
But in the end, he decided he would probably attend virtually. “Warehouse workers have much tougher working conditions than I do, but I should be able to reserve my right to protect my autonomy as an employee,” he said.
Thousands of corporate employees are now facing strain, regardless of the industry they adamantly say they don’t want to go back to the office. How do their demands differ from those of millions of workers who have not been able to easily work remotely until now? ? And could the employee’s argument be useful to workers outside the company’s sphere, including workers seeking to form a union?
The tension has exacerbated the divide between white-collar workers who can work from the safety of their homes and those who cannot and are often at higher COVID-19 risk. It was created by receiving
At the same time, amid a tightening labor market that was once called the “worker economy,” workers in both the corporate and non-corporate spheres are reassessing their working conditions, leaving their jobs one after another, and asking for wage increases. demanding. The unemployment rate has remained low at 3.4% this spring, and wages are rising.
Hundreds of Amazon employees will take an hour off work on Wednesday to protest the company’s back-office policy, layoffs and issues such as the company’s climate impact. A few weeks ago, an employee expressed his dissatisfaction with the RTO policy in a remote advocacy channel attended by her more than 30,000 members on the workplace messaging system Slack.
The company has over 350,000 corporate and technical employees worldwide. More than 800 people in Seattle and more than 1,600 around the world have pledged to join the strike. Some employees, especially dual-income parents, attribute some of their frustration to the financial burden of returning to the office, especially the cost and pressure of raising children.
The majority of Amazon’s more than one million employees have worked directly throughout the pandemic, including those who unionized at a Staten Island warehouse.
Apple, employee-issued open letter I encountered a similar movement at Gap, protesting in-person work. At Starbucks, more than 70 anonymous employees and other anonymous employees issued statements. petition I have asked the company to allow me to continue working remotely this year. Members of the union representing Starbucks baristas have supported nearly 250,000 U.S. employees, including employees at more than 300 unionized stores, even though most of them cannot work from home. .
In fact, many workers in warehouses and stores were quick to endorse their colleagues, pointing out that they would gain nothing if office workers lost the flexibility the pandemic had proven possible. showing.
“The work that we do is in two separate areas,” said a member of Inland Empire Amazon Workers United, a group of warehouse workers who work at an Amazon facility in San Bernardino, California. said Anna Ortega, 23, who is ., for almost two years. “This just shows that Amazon has a problem listening to workers and us.”
Ortega spends his days lifting 50 pounds, a job he could never do at home. But she said she supports Amazon employees who want the flexibility to continue working remotely.
“I believe that if our employees are happy and can work productively from home, we can do better,” Ortega said.
Amazon spokesman Brad Glasser said the company respects “the right of employees to express their opinions and assemble peacefully,” but said that since more employees returned to the office, it had “become a better option.” “I felt the energy,” he said.
At Starbucks, union members representing store workers reach out to company employees on Discord and other platforms to offer help. And when company employees released a petition, they called on the company to both rescind its return-to-office policy and allow free and fair union elections store-wide.
Starbucks software engineer Jake Slarlew, 34, who signed the petition, was frustrated with the return-to-office policy after buying a house in an affordable neighborhood 30 miles from his office during the pandemic. was You can continue working remotely. When he worked in restaurants early in his career, he commuted as much as his three hours per day, and current calls for fairer company policies have led to baristas demanding respect at work. I think it’s related to the struggle.
“When you talk to people who work in stores, they’re not asking other people to have to work face-to-face,” he said, noting that Starbucks is working remotely for some people. He added that it made no sense to finish the work. Because not everyone can do it. “This feels like an eye for an eye situation. You’re not helping anyone, you’re just hurting everyone.”
Starbucks said its policy of requiring its 3,750 employees to come to work three days a week includes an element of fairness towards employees, or “partners,” because “many partners didn’t have the privilege of working remotely.” suggested that However, some union members reject this logic.
For Sarah Papin, 32, shift supervisor at Starbucks in Seattle, what corporate workers want is directly related to what store workers want, including increased safety protections in the face of COVID-19. It is said that there is
“Even if you think you have a dream job, it can be exploited,” she says. “I think there is a growing understanding that we are all workers.”
But even that sense of solidarity doesn’t erase the guilt felt by some office workers who wish to protect their living room freedom during the workday. Many office workers also find benefits in their organizational efforts as well.
“We are pretty close to leadership,” Lerma said. “I have access to my work-issued laptop and have a complete address book for everyone within Amazon. I have access to Slack so I can get the contacts I need. can’t afford that.”
