Activist Group Protests Amazon On Black Friday, Say Workers' Health Is Suffering Amid COVID Pandemic
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- While many people turned to Amazon this Black Friday for gifts, others took to the streets, protesting for workers' rights.
The activist group Church of Stop Shopping held a rally for Amazon workers Friday at Madison Square Park.
They say 19,000 Amazon employees have tested positive for COVID and claim the company has not provided enough PPE and safety measures.
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They're demanding action, saying workers' health is suffering at the cost of convenience.
"We will stop this poisonous company right now. It cannot exist in its present form, profiteering off the pandemic," one protester said.
CBS2 reached out to Amazon for comment, but did not hear back before this story aired.
On Saturday, Maria Boschetti, a spokesperson for the company, sent us the following statements:
"This is a series of misleading assertations by misinformed or self-interested groups who are using Amazon's profile to further their individual causes."
"Amazon prioritizes the safety and health of its employees and has invested millions of dollars to provide a safe workplace, which is why at the onset of the pandemic we moved quickly to make more than 150 COVID-19 related process changes. Today, we are anything but complacent and continue to innovate, learn and improve the measures we have in place to protect our teams. This is in addition to supplying masks, gloves, thermal cameras, thermometers, disinfectant spraying in buildings, increased janitorial teams, additional handwashing stations, hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, and piloting COVID testing at many of our sites."
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