In 2021, workers at six east coast warehouses took action together to demand the right to have our personal cell phones with us on the warehouse floors. Amazon barred us from having our phones with us during work. That left us cut off from our families in case of emergencies. Our young children were unable to reach us if they needed to. 

We saw many things we needed to change at work, but, in order to start somewhere, workers agreed to focus on Amazon’s “no phones on the floor” policy as a common demand. We knew that we’d have more power presenting a unified front to Amazon across all of our warehouses. 

We drafted a petition demanding access to our cell phones, and, emboldened by such a large-scale collaboration, hundreds of workers across the six warehouses signed the petition. The final product contained signatures from workers across state borders, all unified around a common goal. And to further drive home how collaborative this multi-warehouse front was, we made sure to hand deliver each of our copies of the signed petitions with a special twist: the same demands, with the same signatures, were all delivered at the same time to unsuspecting managers. Hard to miss that point!

One day after we gave management the signed petitions at all the warehouses, Amazon sent out a system wide message officially rescinding the no-phone policy. They also rolled out warehouse calling numbers, which were essentially answering machines, so that our family members could contact the warehouse. Amazon management of course never acknowledged our union, but that’s why they caved to our demand. 

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Photo credit: Amazonians United

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