Activists slathered “Protect Amazon workers” in paint on a street outside CEO Jeff Bezos’s Washington mansion to protest the online retail giant’s treatment of workers during the coronavirus crisis. The protesters covered the road in giant red and yellow letters along with silhouettes of three masked faces. It took about an hour for them to …
Activists slathered “Protect Amazon workers” in paint on a street outside CEO Jeff Bezos’s Washington mansion to protest the online retail giant’s treatment of workers during the coronavirus crisis.
The protesters covered the road in giant red and yellow letters along with silhouettes of three masked faces. It took about an hour for them to finish the mural outside Bezos’s massive DC spread, according to the Washington Post.
Local activist groups ShutDown D.C. and La ColectiVA reportedly organized the protest to slam Amazon’s failure to protect front-line staffers from the deadly coronavirus. Amazon warehouse workers have also staged protests of their own over an alleged lack of protective gear and other conditions.
“We’re calling all these essential workers heroes — grocery store workers and delivery drivers and everyone working at these Amazon warehouses filling people’s orders — but corporations aren’t doing enough to protect them,” Laura Beth Pelner, who designed the mural, told the Washington Post.
The house’s windows were drawn shut and there was no movement while the mural was painted, according to the paper. It’s unclear whether Bezos was at the sprawling pad in DC’s Kalorama neighborhood.
Activists have said more than 100 Amazon warehouse workers have contracted the coronavirus. But the company reportedly stood by its efforts to protect them during the pandemic.
“Whether it’s temperature checks, getting masks to all employees and partners, to gloves, procuring necessary cleaning supplies, to moving fast to shift social distancing in our sites, we have aggressively worked to ensure the safety of our teams,” Amazon spokeswoman Lisa Levandowski told the Washington Post.
