Jennifer Bates is an organizer with the BAmazon Union , the effort to organize Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama. BAmazon Union is affiliated with the Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union (RWDSU). I spoke to Ms. Bates at the Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference (SHROC) which was recently held in Nashville. SHROC is an opportunity for human rights organizers and defenders to come together to share strategies, learn from each other, and build relationships. It’s a gathering of grassroots organizers and human rights defenders from across the U.S. and Global South. Ms. Bates and I discussed the history of the struggle in Bessemer, working conditions at Amazon, and the challenges of union organizing in the south.

Margaret Kimberley: What should we know about working conditions at Amazon warehouses?

Jennifer Bates: The working conditions are terrible. The working conditions don’t have the employee at heart. Working at Amazon is more so profits over people. And there’s a phrase I use to say, we’re just a “sweep away.” So almost like if you fall out on the floor and pass away, they just take a broom and move you on and put someone else on your station.

I’ve never seen the injury rate like Amazon’s. And most of the time they rush to put employees back to work with injuries. They even call doctors. I had one doctor tell me they were trying to force them to release workers back to work knowing that they were still injured. They’re not reporting to EEOC (the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) like they should. And I think at one point where two people died within one day, like a night shift and the day shift. And that week, EEOC said that Amazon only reported one, even with the accidents, they said we have no lost time accidents, they’re not reporting the injuries, because they are pressuring the employees to come back to work.

MK: People order from Amazon, because it’s so fast. But that means the speed that most people like in getting something they want, that takes a toll on the workers, correct?

JB: That’s correct. They are telling you we want more, but they don’t think, they really don’t care about the injuries that are caused. And we have people with back problems. People who have knee injuries, arm and hand injuries as well. I just had surgery a couple of months ago........

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