There's good news for Amazon warehouse workers who are worried about being injured, laid off or replaced by machines, who can write a letter to company mascot Peccy if they're facing financial hardship this holiday season or hope "some of their holiday wishes" come true.
A new report from The Guardian reveals that Amazon warehouse SWF1 at RockTavern in New York has posted a flyer that reads: "Are you or someone you know facing financial hardship this holiday season? Peccy wants to help! Drop it in. If the Peccy team chooses you, some of your holiday wishes could come true!"
Peccy is Amazon’s orange mascot, definitely not a copycat of the Minions. He also serves as the company's "cultural ambassador." Why is he called Peccy? Amazon's director of human resources said that's because "he represents our unique approach."
Writing to an orange mascot in hopes of spending Christmas or spending time with loved ones doesn't seem to go down well with employees. Keith Williams, an employee at Amazon's SWF1 warehouse, was particularly critical of the competition as the company made $9.9 billion in profits last quarter on $143 billion in revenue.
He told the Guardian: "It's amazing that they spend so much money promoting Amazon and getting people excited about Amazon without actually giving us what we want - a salary."
"All we're asking of Amazon is to use the billions of dollars they have to do what they obviously can do. We just want to share some of the efforts we're doing for Amazon," Williams added. "We want wages. Not trinkets."
The average wage for an Amazon warehouse worker is $20.50 an hour, but starting pay is $17 an hour. During holidays and sales events, employees often work overtime and overtime, working six to seven days in a row. "People are pushed to their limits," Williams said. An April report found that worker injury rates at Amazon warehouses in 2022 were 70% higher than similar warehouses, with rates of serious injuries twice as high.
Amazon warehouse workers are also concerned that their jobs could be taken away by robots. In October, the company unveiled two new machines: the Roomba-like Sequoia and the humanoid Digit, a bipedal robot with its own arm/hand-like clasp that can walk forward, backward, sideways, squat and bend, and use its robots to move, grasp and handle objects.
Amazon defended the campaign as well-intentioned while claiming it received a lot of positive feedback from employees. Amazon also noted that the initiative is limited to the New York site rather than company-wide and that it is investing more money in salary increases and additional holiday pay incentives.