By Dana Mattioli and Sebastian Herrera
On a mid-March midnight shift, one of Kristy Granados's
co-workers coughed and said he felt nauseated.
As he took a break, workers at the Amazon.com Inc. warehouse in
Charlotte, N.C., shared worries that they could catch the
coronavirus, Ms. Granados said. Most didn't have masks or supplies
to disinfect workstations, even as cleaning products streamed past
them on conveyor belts. On some recent days, about half the workers
hadn't even shown up, she said.
Her co-worker soon returned to his station, and Ms. Granados
continued preparing packages, concerned but also mindful her work
was likely essential for the millions of people who had turned to
online shopping for groceries and thermometers. She never found out
what was ailing him.
"We're playing a vital role to get people the supplies they
need, whether it's the elderly or people with health issues," said
Ms. Granados, who is 41 years old. "A lot of people are depending
on us."
The coronavirus is pulling Amazon, America's largest online
retailer, in many directions. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos is
counting on front-line workers like Ms. Granados to bring essential
goods to millions of homebound Americans. So far, it has been a
bumpy ride.
Amazon order volumes match those of the holiday season. Usually,
the company has months to prepare. Before the pandemic hit, it has
had just weeks, and the strain is showing in shortages, delays and
worker unrest, including some walkouts, no-shows and Covid-related
sickness.
At times, Amazon has had to operate warehouses with half the
typical number of workers, according to employees. On Tuesday,
employees at Whole Foods Market, a grocer owned by Amazon,
organized a "sick out" at its stores and called on management to
provide hazard pay and other benefits.
While the coronavirus is straining Amazon's retail operations,
it is boosting some of its other businesses. Companies are relying
on its cloud-computing arm, Amazon Web Services, as their employees
work from home, and customers are streaming home-entertainment
content on Amazon Prime.
Earlier in March, Amazon's retail operations moved to rein in
sales of counterfeit goods and price-gouging, removing thousands of
listings related to face masks and hand sanitizer. As it stepped up
policing efforts and removed some sellers from the site, many items
were unavailable.
In some areas that have emerged as hot spots for the virus,
including San Francisco, Chicago and New York, items such as Lysol
disinfecting wipes and office supplies useful for working at home
haven't been available or cannot be delivered for a month or
longer. Many customers in those areas haven't been able to place
grocery orders.
"Leaders across Amazon are meeting every day to consider the
evolving situation and are consulting with medical experts to
ensure the safety for our sites, employees and customers," an
Amazon spokeswoman said via email. She said the company has a
unique role to play in getting needed goods to families in a time
of social distancing and that the company is "working around the
clock to bring on additional capacity to deliver all customer
orders."
Amazon has been processing from 10% to 40% more packages than
normal for this time of year, according to an employee tally at one
delivery center. The company's website had 639,330,722 visits for
the week of March 9, according to data from Comscore, up 32% from
the year earlier.
From Feb. 20 to March 23, Amazon's sales of toilet paper
increased 186% from the year-earlier period, according to analytics
firm CommerceIQ, which said that before the coronavirus hit it had
forecast a 7% increase for the period. CommerceIQ said sales of
cough and cold medicine grew by 862%, compared with a forecast
growth rate of 110%, and children's vitamins by 287%, compared with
a forecast rate of 49%.
"Our teams are adjusting, rapidly implementing a dizzying array
[of] process and policy changes on a daily, and sometimes hourly
basis," wrote Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president of
world-wide operations, in a memo to employees. The company has had
to make more than 100 significant changes to human resources and
operations over the past few weeks, the memo said.
Senior executives are aware that Amazon's response will shape
public opinion about the company for years to come, according to
people familiar with their perspectives. That is true both among
consumers and in Washington, where antitrust investigations of the
company are continuing. Some executives are hopeful that success
would lead to greater appreciation of Amazon's vast scale,
according to one person who has spoken with executives.
Mr. Bezos is focusing almost exclusively on Amazon's coronavirus
response. Although he and President Trump have been frequent
antagonists, Mr. Trump has praised the company for keeping
deliveries going in a time of need. The company recently announced
plans to hire 100,000 new workers in the U.S. to deal with the
crisis.
"This isn't business as usual, and it's a time of great stress,"
Mr. Bezos said in a memo to employees on March 21. "It's also a
moment in time when the work we're doing is its most critical."
Through a company spokesman, Mr. Bezos and other Amazon executives
declined to be interviewed.
Amazon began ramping up for a potential onslaught of orders back
in January after seeing indicators of huge demand for some
products, according to one retail employee.
After seeing a spike in searches and orders for face masks and
health-care products, Amazon began contacting its suppliers to
secure more of those goods, the person said. "Some of our suppliers
hadn't even heard of this thing then," he said, referring to the
coronavirus.
Although Amazon does disaster and business-continuity planning,
it didn't model for a pandemic, according to people familiar with
the matter. Most of its planning revolved around responding to a
major earthquake in Seattle, former executives said. All critical
executives at the company carry satellite phones they test every
quarter to make sure they could run operations, the former
executives said.
As Amazon has moved to prioritize shipments of essential items
such as cleaning supplies, face masks and shelf-stable food, it has
been hit with a raft of absences at many facilities, according to
employees at warehouses around the country.
Employees have tested positive for Covid-19 or been placed in
quarantine in at least 15 Amazon locations in the U.S. used for
storing, sorting or delivering packages, from California to New
York, according to the company. Facilities with at least one
confirmed case can be temporarily closed for cleaning and reopen
once that process is complete, Amazon said. In states with more
stringent guidelines, warehouses can be closed for longer.
Absences have been one reason for delayed shipments. Amazon went
from being able to deliver some orders in hours or days to needing
weeks for certain in-demand products. Social distancing efforts
have contributed to delays, said a person familiar with the
matter.
That was an impetus for Amazon's U.S. hiring spree, a figure
that would represent a 20% increase in its workforce in the
country.
Amazon, which is responsible for more than one-third of
e-commerce volumes in the U.S., has long faced complaints from
warehouse workers about working conditions and their position in
the employee hierarchy. The company, which is the nation's
second-largest employer, in recent years has taken steps to boost
hourly wages and improve employee-training opportunities.
Now, front-line workers find themselves with more leverage.
Facing a daily threat of coronavirus infection at work has
galvanized some.
Since the emergence of the coronavirus, workers have pushed for
and received a raft of concessions. On March 9, Amazon announced it
would relax its time-off policy for warehouse employees, allowing
them unlimited unpaid time off that now extends through April.
Two days later, it revised its stance to offer paid sick days to
fulfillment center workers possibly infected, and said subsequently
that employees who show any symptoms could be eligible for paid
sick leave. Amazon raised pay for all employees in fulfillment
centers, transportation, stores and deliveries in the U.S. and
Canada by $2 an hour through April, bringing its lowest hourly rate
to $17 per hour for those employees.
On March 23, Amazon said it granted paid time off to all
part-time workers, something warehouse employees across the country
had been asking for since last year.
Some company warehouse and delivery employees said such measures
were vital to get people simply to come to work.
The company's engineers, data scientists and marketers have been
working from home for weeks, and some managers are leading "morale
groups," with virtual trivia nights and happy hours.
In the warehouses, employees who ship items to customers, pack
them and deliver them across Amazon's warehouse and delivery
networks have been navigating increased demand while trying to
avoid contracting the virus at work.
Some employees said in interviews that while they recognize the
public need, they have concerns about working alongside hundreds of
people in relatively close quarters. Some ride shuttles from
parking lots to the facilities.
Amazon has secured an additional 450,000 canisters of
disinfectant wipes and more than 50,000 hand sanitizers for its
warehouse staff, according to a memo reviewed by The Wall Street
Journal. Some employees said they have had to bring their own masks
because Amazon hasn't been able to secure them yet. Those who have
come to work face immense pressure to keep up with demand, workers
said.
One employee in King of Prussia, Pa., said that because too many
people didn't show up for work, she was responsible for twice as
much package-sorting.
On March 19, around 60% of employees at an Amazon Southern
California fulfillment center didn't report to work after a
colleague showed up earlier in the week with symptoms consistent
with an infection, a person familiar with the issue said.
The Amazon spokeswoman said the company is "communicating
directly to employees when there is a confirmed case of Covid at
their site, and we are consulting with health authorities and
medical experts on how to handle building closures for deep
cleaning if an employee tests positive."
In Chicago, workers organized and pushed for benefits, including
the paid time off for all part-time workers that Amazon eventually
granted.
"Everything they've done so far won't prevent us from getting
[the virus]," said Ted Miin, who sorts Amazon packages overnight in
Chicago and has been involved in leading workers to push for better
benefits. "We're working to supply people needed medical supplies
and groceries, and a lot of people are relying on Amazon. We
recognize the importance. But at the same time, that has to be
weighed against the risk."
Maurice Baze, 38, said he believes he is putting his life at
risk every time he delivers a package for Amazon in the Baltimore
area. Mr. Baze said he is HIV-positive, and he is aware of warnings
from health experts that those with compromised immune systems face
the highest risks from the coronavirus.
On a recent afternoon, a customer opened her door and put her
hands out to receive a package, but Mr. Baze set it on the ground,
per Amazon's recommendations to its drivers. He worried that it
seemed rude.
"It's a lose-lose," Mr. Baze said. "If I don't go to work, I
can't pay my rent. If I do go, I could get sick and never work
again because I lost my life."
On March 18, Jenna Bailey, 36, was processing a return for
medical masks at a facility in Lexington, Ky., when she noticed a
note from a customer explaining the reason for a return. The
customer wrote about ordering more masks than intended, including a
comment to thank Amazon "for everything you're doing."
Ms. Bailey's eyes welled up as she thought about one of her
brothers, who is worried about losing his job.
"I'm very grateful" for having work, she said. "But I'm also
very scared."
Write to Dana Mattioli at dana.mattioli@wsj.com and Sebastian
Herrera at Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 31, 2020 10:44 ET (14:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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