Instacart, Amazon workers strike over coronavirus safety concerns

Yahoo Finance’s Akiko Fujita joins Zack Guzman to discuss why Amazon and Instacart workers are striking against their employers as their concerns grow over the spread of the coronavirus.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: But right now we're digging into the workers at some big-name companies, including Amazon and Instacart, as well as Whole Foods, potentially raising a lot of concerns here with management, as they continue to work, as others work from home, putting themselves in harm's way as [INAUDIBLE]-- as people try and avoid coronavirus out there. Our own Akiko Fujita is digging into the strikes that are now potentially being organized, as workers finally say, enough is enough. And Akiko, what are you hearing out there?

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, Zack, when you think about the conversations we've had over the last few weeks, we've talked about these companies ramping up in hiring. So somebody like an Amazon saying they're going to hire an additional 100,000 workers. Instacart coming out last week saying they want to hire 300,000 over the next three months because of the surge in demand they've seen. But while we've seen this week now is employees, who are currently working for these platforms, pushing back and saying, wait a second. We need to be protected for the risks that we're taking on a daily basis.

And what we're seeing in terms of the demands do vary. So let's start with Amazon today because, as you point out, we are seeing that strike, nearly 100 workers over at the JFK 8 facility over in Staten Island. This is a warehouse facility, where at least one employee that we know of has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Amazon, immediately after that, came out, and said that they have quarantined that employee. And they were taking all the proper safety guidelines. But the workers there say that's not enough. They want the entire warehouse to be shut down, to be sanitized. And they also want to be paid during that time that the warehouse has been closed down.

Separately, we've got this national walkout happening with Instacart. And those employees there, similar demands, but they're also saying that they don't believe that the company is taking enough steps to protect the workers. So one of the demands initially was safety protection gear. And since then, we've heard Instagram come out with a statement saying that they will be providing everyone of these employees with hand sanitizers that, according to the company, is being delivered or developed by a third party.

The organizing group, Gig Workers Collective, came back today and said that kind of response is a sick joke that doesn't go far enough. They want additional $5 in hazard pay. And then finally, Zack, we've got another sick out that is planned tomorrow, this time with Whole Foods workers, that's being organized by a group known as Whole Worker WFM. And specifically, they've got a long list of demands, but one of them is also hazard pay. They're asking for double pay while on the job, given the surge in demand right now.

ZACK GUZMAN: And when you look at Whole Foods traffic, we've got an updated report from [INAUDIBLE] AI showing that-- that foot traffic at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's have been falling as well. Not all of these stores getting impacted the same way, but all of them having to deal with the same issues that their workers are talking about, and those workers dealing with it on their own in different measures as well. Akiko following the latest on the front lines at some of these companies. Thank you so much for bringing us that.