On this day, 26 April 2020, workers at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Shakopee, Minnesota, walked out on strike in protest at a colleague being fired for staying home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Workers claimed that over 50 members of the predominantly Somali workforce participated in the spontaneous work stoppage after the company sacked a worker called Faiza Osman who stayed home in order to protect her two children from the novel coronavirus, despite the fact that Amazon had informed workers they were allowed to stay home. Amazon claimed that fewer than 25 out of 1000 workers took part.
Strikers were also protesting against Amazon’s decision to terminate its unlimited unpaid leave policy, despite coronavirus cases being reported at over half of its 110 warehouses.
Following the walkout, Osman was reinstated by the company.
Pictured: Faiza Osman, photo from Awood Center https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1703296653188811/?type=3
“So long as an opinion is strongly rooted in the feelings, it gains rather than loses in stability by having a preponderating weight of argument against it.”
— John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women (via philosophybits)
At around 4AM last Saturday, around 900 Telus customers in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, lost internet access. According to Telus spokesperson Liz Sauvé, in a “very bizarre and uniquely Canadian turn of events,” a beaver chewed through several points in a crucial fibre cable, causing “extensive” damage and eventually leaving the community without internet.
“Our team located a nearby dam, and it appears the beavers dug underground alongside the creek to reach our cable, which is buried about three feet underground and protected by a 4.5-inch thick conduit. The beavers first chewed through the conduit before chewing through the cable in multiple locations,” the statement said.
Sauvé said that beavers had been using Telus materials to build their home. Additional crews and equipment were brought out to expose the cable and see how far the damage went up the line. Technicians also had a hard time due to the ground above the cable being partially frozen. Service was restored around 3:30pm local time, but cellphone services would be touch-and-go until the cable was properly repaired.
