Coronavirus Strikes at Amazon’s Operational Heart: Its Delivery Machine
Five warehouse workers in Europe have contracted Covid-19, while in the U.S. Amazon is struggling to hire enough people to meet an order spike.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
At least five workers at Amazon.com Inc. warehouses in Europe have contracted the coronavirus, a sobering development for a company already struggling to deal with a spike in orders for food and household essentials from customers hunkering down at home.
Cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, have appeared at Amazon warehouses in Spain and Italy, two countries hard hit by the spreading disease. In both nations, the company has opted to keep the three facilities open, prompting criticism from unions that Amazon is putting sales ahead of worker safety; on Monday workers at Amazon’s main Italian logistics hub in Castel San Giovanni called for a strike.