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Somali Workers in Minnesota Are 1st Known Group To Force Amazon To Negotiate

Somali Workers in Minnesota Are 1st Known Group To Force Amazon To Negotiate

As one of the world’s biggest employers seeks to squeeze more profit from its workers, Amazon may have met its match in the form of Somali-American workers, who organized in Minnesota to fight for better working conditions at the e-commerce giant’s fulfillment centers.

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More than a year after Somali workers first started to organize, they finally brought Amazon to the negotiation table—and it’s unprecedented, according to a New York Times report by Karen Weise.

Labor organizers and researchers said they knew of no other time when Amazon came to the table in the U.S. under pressure from workers, even for private discussions.

Hibaq Mohamed, a Somali refugee who immigrated to Minneapolis, got a job in 2016 at a new Amazon warehouse, packing boxes for delivery to customers.
As time passed, Amazon required Mohamed and her co-workers to pack at a faster rate, increasing from 160 items an hour to at least 230. Mohamed, who is Muslim, said that Amazon let her take paid breaks to pray, as required by state law, but her managers made her keep up with the quota.
Mohamed and dozens of East African colleagues — many, born in Somalia — organized to complain. It was an unusual move.
“Nobody would assume a Muslim worker with limited language skills in the middle of Minnesota can be a leader in a viable fight against one of the biggest employers in the world and bring them to the table,” said Abdirahman Muse, executive director of  Awood Center, a nonprofit group focused on assisting East African worker issues. Awood led the formal meetings and complaints with Amazon, New York Times reported.
Ilhan Omar, center, the first Somali-American elected to a state legislature, speaks during a rally Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016, at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Minneapolis, calling for $15 minimum wages. Those in attendance included airport workers. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

 

Employees at an Amazon warehouse in Eagan, Minn., made claims of exhaustion, dehydration and injuries at the facility, which they said had no air conditioning. They said they had to do work as individuals that was meant to be done in teams, according to Minnesota Public Radio.
An Amazon spokesperson disputed the claims in an email, saying, “We offer a positive and accommodating workplace for employees at this delivery station, including great pay of more than $15 per hour and benefits. The site is equipped with air conditioning in the break areas and fans throughout the building.”
More than 46,000 Somali-born residents and their children live in Minnesota. Four out of five are at or near the poverty level. Refugees began moving to the area in the 1990s, fleeing Somalia’s civil war.
Amazon recruited East African immigrants heavily with local ads and billboards, New York Times reported. Sixty percent of Amazon’s 3,000 workers in the region are East African, Awood estimates, but the group has found only one manager who speaks Somali. Amazon disputes that number, saying there are a lot fewer East Africans, and four area managers who speak Somali.
As part of the negotiations, Amazon agreed to hire a general manager and a Somali-speaking manager to agree on any firings related to productivity, designate a manager to respond to individual complaints within five days and meet with workers quarterly, according to the New York Times.
A group of about 40 workers decided the compromises weren’t enough. Their main concern — the pace at which they are expected to work — wasn’t addressed. They voted to stage a large protest and walkout on Dec. 14, in the miffle of the holiday season.
Ashley Robinson, a company spokeswoman, said that the company “does not see its work with the East African workers as a negotiation but rather as a form of community engagement similar to its outreach efforts with veterans and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees,” New York Times reported.