Red Star Live talks to Christian Zamarrón, who works for Amazon at its main delivery station in Chicago (known as DCH1), about what “essential” workers are facing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Corporations like Amazon and the big grocery chains are calling their employees “heroes” for working during this crisis, but management isn’t treating workers’ health and safety as essential or paying them a living wage or providing health insurance even as they risk infection. Christian and Vicko Álvarez of Red Star Live talk about the conditions at DCH1 that led workers to launch a petition for better conditions and hold several shift-long safety strikes. The warehouse workers first started organizing as DCH1 Amazonians United last summer to demand better conditions—part of a national and international wave of Amazon workers coming together to fight for more.

To learn more, look for DCH1 Amazonians United on Facebook and Twitter (@DCH1United). Red Star Live is a production of the Chicago chapter of Democratic Socialists of America that provides a socialist perspective on different aspects of the coronavirus crisis in our city. Find out more about DSA at Facebook (@ChicagoDemSocialists) and Twitter (@ChicagoCityDSA).

Recorded 4/13/20