Amazon workers to strike over 'unsafe' conditions amid virus

Hundreds of Amazon employees are expected to strike from Tuesday to protest conditions they say are unsafe and demand better protection in the workplace against the coronavirus pandemic.

This is "the biggest mass action by workers yet, as frustrations mount around the company's failure to protect workers and public health in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic," said the Athena coalition, a group of workers' rights organizations, in a statement released Monday.

The protest by more than 300 warehouse workers comes three days before an online strike by Amazon coders and engineers.

The online retail giant has been accused since the start of the pandemic of failing to sufficiently protect its employees, as well as of firing employees in the US who led protest movements.

"For weeks, Amazon workers... have sounded the alarm over unsafe conditions at facilities," Athena's statement said, pointing to 130 warehouses where workers have contracted COVID-19, some "with more than 30 confirmed cases."