After months of criticism, Amazon has relented and will allow warehouse employees to keep their cell phones with them at work.
The last two years have shown that we can safely keep employees' mobile phones in facilities, and therefore we are making the temporary phone policy permanent worldwide.
In December of 2021, an Amazon warehouse in Illinois collapsed, killing at least six people, and triggering a fear amongst Amazon workers that mobile phones would once again be banned in warehouses. Workers said this decision would cut them off from important safety and weather warnings. The ban on mobile phones for warehouse employees was paused during the Pandemic, but Amazon wanted to have it back in January 2022.
A petition with over 300 signatures was sent to six warehouses by the Amazon workers movement group.
Inside the Staten Island fulfilment center. Credit: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Amazon workers have been campaigning for better working conditions and pay, job security, and employee rights for a long time. The first Amazon union was formed by warehouse workers in Staten Island, a company that has historically been anti-union. A second Staten Island warehouse is set to vote on whether or not to unionize this week.
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