Amazon workers stage vigil at Jeff Bezos’ Beverly Hills mansion

The warehouse worker organizer decried the world’s richest man for profiting off laborers and contributing to income inequality as a small crowd lined up along Angelo Drive in Beverly Hills. Behind him, the green expanse of a massive hedge and a pitch-black steel gate towered over, hiding Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ $165 million mansion from sight.

At a mock vigil Tuesday night, protesters brought plastic candles, which provided soft lighting on an otherwise dark street, to highlight the plight of Amazon’s frontline workers on Prime Day, the e-commerce giant’s annual flagship sales event. At one point, the crowd broke out in chant: “Hey Jeff Bezos, you can’t hide. We can see your greedy side.”

The demonstration was organized by the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, a Southern California nonprofit worker advocacy group trying to raise awareness about unsafe working conditions inside Amazon warehouses as the company continues to expand. It’s the second time this month advocates targeted Bezos’ home.

Amazon is also catching the attention of California’s worker protection agency. Last week the California Occupational Safety and Health Agency, or Cal/OSHA, cited Amazon for coronavirus safety violations at its Hawthorne delivery center and Eastvale fulfillment center. The fines — $935 at each facility — represent the smallest penalties that Cal/OSHA has imposed on employers for COVID-19 related violations.

Despite phasing out pandemic incentives, Amazon says it’s done plenty for its workers. Over the summer, Amazon paid full-time employees who worked during the month of June a one-time $500 bonus. The company said it paid over $500 million in bonuses that month.

“It was obvious to the full-time workforce that this organization used Prime Day to raise its own visibility, conjured misinformation and a few associate voices to work in their favor, and fuel media attention,” the company wrote in a statement to CalMatters.

Amazon points out the company has invested $4 billion in COVID-related initiatives to provide safe working conditions, but workers say there’s been a lack of transparency and communication about infections.

In late March, a Cal/OSHA agent wrote in a summary after receiving a complaint about the Eastvale fulfillment center how workers were scared after two employees tested positive “but the rest of warehouse employees are required to work with no restrictions, no personal protective equipment.”

At the Hawthorne facility, an agent wrote: “NO SOCIAL DISTANCING.”

Even so, Cal/OSHA has closed many worker complaints related to COVID hazards without any inspection or citation. As of Oct. 4, the agency closed at least 29 complaints related to Amazon facilities across the state, according to federal complaint data. The records show that only one resulted in an on-site inspection. Cal/OSHA likely dealt with the rest by sending a letter, which CalMatters has reported is the agency’s default strategy for dealing with coronavirus related complaints.

The closed complaints from around the state range from allegations that Amazon trucks were not sanitized, drivers were not socially distanced during morning meetings, work areas weren’t cleaned after workers were diagnosed with the virus, sick employees were showing up to work without protective equipment, social distancing was not possible within fulfillment centers, and managers weren’t enforcing mask-wearing or even wearing their own masks properly.

Earlier this month, Amazon revealed that 20,000 of its 1.37 million Amazon and Whole Foods workers in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus from March 1 to Sept. 19.

The report did not offer a detailed breakdown of the case data, but Amazon noted that its infection rate was lower than that of the general U.S. population.