As a worker at the Amazon fulfillment center in St. Peters, Jacob Frankenreiter suffered an injury while pushing a bulk container, and his manager chalked it up to a possible COVID-19 infection.
“I went to the hospital and found out it was a torn pectoral muscle, and this was during the pandemic when you couldn’t get test results until a week later,” he said. “I wasn't paid for those two weeks off and I had to really keep on top of Amazon to make sure they knew what was going on. They really didn't seem to care because it was an injury within their warehouse. They don't like being recognized for that.”
As a result of his experience, Frankenreiter was eager to participate in a rally last week aimed at raising awareness around the working conditions in Amazon warehouses statewide.
“The point of the rally, as far as my side goes, was to stand up against Amazon to get better pay for workers, better safety measures, better treatment, more recognition, and to show that we are everyday humans at Amazon that are being treated not fairly by a trillion-dollar company,” he said. “We want to get the message out that they need to do better.”
As previously reported in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the rally was organized by the Missouri Workers Center and held adjacent to Amazon’s Hazelwood warehouse at the First Missionary Baptist Church.
“They want us to move so fast for productivity and if you don't keep up with productivity, you get written up,” Frankenreiter told the Southern California Record. “After three writeups, you're out the door. To do better, Amazon needs to slow down, give us more rest time, and not be breathing down our necks about keeping up their productivity rates. Amazon customers keep buying more and more, while we're over here hurting ourselves and suffering for low pay.”
Currently, the 30-year-old is earning $17 per hour but he and his co-workers are asking for a $3 raise.
“Management is staying more distant from me, but as far as Amazon itself, they have not approached me at all when it comes to what has gone on with the rally and our demands,” Frankenreiter said.
Some Amazon facilities across the country are being unionized by the Amazon Labor Union. The first warehouse to be unionized was in Staten Island, New York in April, according to media reports.
“I would never ever consider my job a gig because Amazon pushes their packages out in a day or two to get to the customer’s door and we are working our finger to the bone making this company hundreds of billions of dollars,” Frankenreiter added. “I've been doing this for over two and a half years. If that's considered a gig job, then that's a long gig.”