Amazon Has Hired 80,000 Workers Out of 100,000 Plan Announced Weeks Ago
April 02 2020 - 11:37AM
Dow Jones News
By Sebastian Herrera
Amazon.com Inc. has filled 80,000 jobs in the span of a few
weeks, part of a hiring spree to add 100,000 workers to meet
soaring demand in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The tech giant also announced a raft of worker protections,
including plans to check employee temperatures at its facilities in
the U.S. and Europe and at Whole Foods Market locations by early
next week. The company is checking the temperature of 100,000
employees a day and plans to provide masks to all facilities by
next week, according to Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president
of world-wide operations.
The announcement comes after Amazon warehouse workers and other
hourly employees have called on Amazon to do more to protect them.
Employees in at least 15 warehouses in the U.S. have tested
positive for Covid-19 or entered quarantine due to symptoms, the
company said this week. That list has grown almost daily in recent
weeks. Amazon employs more than 500,000 people in the U.S., making
it the second largest private employer.
About 15 employees at a warehouse in Staten Island, N.Y., walked
out of work on Monday, according to Amazon. The walkout was
followed by similar actions at facilities in Chicago and the
Detroit area, as well as a "sick out" on Tuesday by workers at
Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon.
Write to Sebastian Herrera at Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 02, 2020 11:22 ET (15:22 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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