Instacart contractors weigh strike as Amazon workers plan walk-out

Workers at food shopping and delivery service Instacart are preparing for a possibility for a strike. Contractors are demanding the company start providing hand sanitizer, increase their hazard pay and expand the current sick pay policy. Separately, Amazon's Staten Island workers plan to walk out on Monday because they say the company is mishandling its response to the coronavirus pandemic. The "Squawk Box" crew reports.

Amazon warehouse workers on New York’s Staten Island plan to strike Monday to call attention to what they called a lack of protections for employees who continue to come to work amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Nearly 100 workers at the facility, known as JFK8, plan to participate in the work stoppage, planned for noon ET. The employees will walk out Monday morning and “cease all operations” until their demands are heard by site leadership, said Chris Smalls, a management assistant at JFK8 and a lead organizer of the strike.

Smalls and other workers said they’ve grown increasingly concerned about coming into work after an employee tested positive for the virus last week. An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC it was supporting the person, who is in quarantine, and asked anyone who was in contact with the worker to stay home with pay for two weeks. The facility has remained open.

“We are following all guidelines from local health officials and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of employees at our site,” the spokesperson said.

The workers want to pressure Amazon to close the facility for cleaning and offer employees paid time off while it’s shut down. Smalls said the facility has continued to run as usual since the employee tested positive. He fears the virus will spread like “wildfire” if no extra precautions are taken. JFK8 is 855,000 square feet and has 4,500 workers.

“Since the building won’t close by itself, we’re going to have to force [Amazon’s] hand,” said Smalls, who is also a member of nonprofit advocacy groups Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change. “We will not return until the building gets sanitized.”

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