- Amazon advised the workers who sort and move your packages on Sunday evening to wear face masks to work.
- However, the company has only a "limited" supply as they work to source more masks.
- Meanwhile, an external communication from Amazon said all warehouses would have masks early on in the week of April 5. These blogs did not mention a limited supply of masks.
- Workers at more than 50 Amazon warehouses have reported coronavirus cases.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The employees on Amazon's operations side received a text message Sunday evening that they are "recommended" to wear a mask to work.
However, Amazon will only have "limited" quantities of masks available to employees and they will have to ask a manager for the mask. The Centers for Disease Control recommended Americans on April 3 to wear a mask when they leave their homes.
The message read (emphasis ours):
Your health and safety is most important. We recommend everyone wears a facemask of some kind covering their nose and mouth from arrival through departure of your shift. We will have facemasks in limited quantities for anyone entering the building to wear as a recommended preventative measure, and if you prefer you may bring your own mask, including fabric masks. We have teams working nonstop to continue sourcing supplies, including masks, and are working hard to stay in stock with masks during this event.
If you would like a mask, please ask a manager or designated "Hand-out POC" at the start of your shift. The mask should be used by one person for the shift and not be shared. You must also know how to use it and dispose of it safely.
Details will be posted around the site.
At the end of the text message, employees were advised to read an April 2 blog post from Dave Clark, senior vice president of operations at Amazon. This communication stated that disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer were already staples across Amazon's fulfillment network, and that all locations would have masks by early in the week of April 5.
A press representative for Amazon directed Business Insider to a post on Amazon's "Day One" corporate blog published on April 5, the same day Amazon sent the operations employees the text message. The representative declined to comment specifically on the "limited" quantities of masks available to employees.
The Amazon blog post said that the company is distributing the "millions of masks we ordered weeks ago" to Amazon's operation network. The post also said that masks will be available at "all sites in our operations network" early this week.
The external communication from Amazon did not state that limited quantities of masks would be available for operations workers, though that was made clear in the text message that employees received on April 5.
In the US, Amazon employs some 400,000 warehouse workers across 175-plus facilities. These employees all received a temporary $2 an hour pay raise through the month of April, and Amazon is hiring an additional 100,000 workers at the fulfillment centers.
"We have already hired over 80,000 people into those roles, and have spent more than $150 million to support our team of associates and partners," Clark wrote on April 2. "We expect to go well beyond our initial $350 million investment in additional pay, and we will do so happily."
Employees at more than 50 Amazon warehouses have reported coronavirus cases, The New York Times reported on Sunday. Some workers fear that Amazon has not adequately protected employees from the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 10,000 across the US as of April 5.
In response, Amazon fulfillment employees in Michigan and New York have staged walk-outs to protest Amazon's response to the coronavirus. Staten Island employees who protested said the company needs to offer more paid sick leave and to close the facility for a longer period of time to clean after workers there have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Clark wrote on April 2 that all workers who want time off are supported, and all those who cannot secure a test for the coronavirus but show the symptoms are receiving extra paid time off. And in late March, the company began conducting temperature checks on employees at select warehouses in the Amazon network.
"I touch over 2,000 different items every day I work there. I have to grab products out of the shelf and put them in the bins. ... And I'm not wearing any protection," Terrell Worm, who works at Amazon's Staten Island location and participated in the walk-out, told NPR. "Amazon says we're all a family there. If they really saw us as family, they'd care about keeping us safe and keeping us home."
