theintercept--2020-12-03--Immigrants Detained by ICE Say They Were Punished for Requesting Covid-19 Tests

to feel sick in late June .
He stayed inside his cell at the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden , Alabama , suffering from a fever , a pounding headache , cold sweats , and an “ onion burning sensation ” behind his eyes .
He slept for days on end .
When he finally felt well enough to reemerge , “ the entire unit is sick , ” Golding recalled .
“ Everybody have some symptom or the other.
” Three months earlier , as The Intercept previously reported , Golding , who has asthma , was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jail pushing for stronger measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus .
Now , as he looked around , he realized that the detainees ’ worst fears had come true .
Etowah , which contracts with the federal government to hold people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement , stated in court documents that it was taking precautions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , including quarantining new arrivals , implementing social distancing measures , and providing cleaning supplies .
But Golding and more than a dozen other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inadequate and led to a massive Covid-19 outbreak .
Seven of the men say they were given only one disposable mask every three weeks .
One shared a photo of what he said were the only “ cleaning supplies ” he ’ d received : a toothbrush , toothpaste , comb , and combination shampoo/body wash , which came inside a gift bag from the Salvation Army emblazoned with the words “ Merry Christmas.
” Immigrants inside Etowah also said that many new arrivals were quarantined for five or eight days rather than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the virus to spread .
According to a partial Etowah roster obtained by The Intercept and In These Times , ICE transferred at least 24 people into the facility in June .
By the second half of July , the agency reported that 21 detainees — nearly a quarter of those housed in Etowah ’ s ICE unit — were sick .
When Golding came out of his cell and saw the condition of those around him , the organizer part of his brain clicked back on .
“ I ’ m looking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pale in the face , ” he said .
“ And medical is doing nothing for them.
” Golding decided to tell everyone in the unit to request a test for Covid-19 .
“ So you have Africans , you have Jamaicans , you have El Salvadorans — you have different groups , ” Golding explained .
“ What I did was say , ‘ Hey , listen , you talk to your peoples , you tell them this.
’ ” Many people were apprehensive about asking for a test , as guards @ @ @ @ @ @ @ presumed positive into solitary confinement , a fate the United Nations says amounts to torture .
In solitary , detainees said they were locked in cells without air conditioning for around 23 hours a day .
The average high temperature in July in Gadsden is 91 degrees .
Nevertheless , by July 4 , everyone in the unit — more than 80 people — had put in requests to be tested , according to interviews with Golding and another detainee , as well as the affidavits of nine detainees included in a petition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filed on his own behalf in the Northern District of Alabama in September .
Two days later , according to the 11 detainees , Etowah County Sheriff ’ s Office Capt .
Mike O ’ Bryant called a lockdown of the unit and read out the names of 10 detainees who ’ d been especially vocal in calling for mass testing , including Golding .
O ’ Bryant told them to pack their bags because they were being sent to solitary confinement .
At the time of their transfer , none had tested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said they felt this was punishment and retaliation for requesting the coronavirus tests .
“ I noticed that all of us who were randomly picked were the ones who were vocal , outspoken , and shown desire to be tested , ” Stanley Walden wrote in an affidavit dated August 7 .
“ He hand-picked cells and made an example in front of everyone that he really meant to throw anyone who get tested into a dungeon , ” Sebastian Abalo Cunna wrote in an affidavit dated July 28 .
“ It feels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right to health and safety.
” After locking down the unit , the captain and other staff members went cell to cell asking the remaining detainees if they still wanted to be tested for Covid-19 , according to Golding and the affidavits of nine others .
Most detainees revoked their requests and agreed to sign waivers saying they no longer wanted to be tested .
In a recorded conversation involving two Etowah employees obtained by The Intercept and In These Times , one employee described the events of July 6 as an attempt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ getting tested .
Afterward , both employees said in the recording , immigrants inside Etowah appeared too scared to seek even basic medical care .
Four of those who were sent to solitary confinement said they were unable to communicate with their families for days , leading some concerned family members to call the facility .
The relatives of one detainee said jail staff assured them that their family member was fine ; at the time , he was in solitary confinement having developed symptoms of Covid-19 .
Golding ’ s mother said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the virus at the facility , even as ICE listed at least one coronavirus case at Etowah on its website .
According to the family members interviewed for this story , neither ICE nor Etowah ever reached out to tell them their loved ones were sick .
The Etowah County Sheriff ’ s Office did not respond to detailed questions from The Intercept and In These Times about the jail ’ s Covid-19 precautions , the detainees ’ allegations of retaliation , and whether detainees had authorized the release of their medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health , safety , and welfare of those in our care remain a top priority and concern for the agency , ” a spokesperson for ICE wrote in an emailed statement .
“ Since the outbreak of Covid-19 , ICE has taken extensive steps to safeguard all detainees , staff and contractors , including : reducing the number of detainees in custody by placing individuals on alternatives to detention programs , suspending social visitation , incorporating social distancing practices with staggered meals and recreation times , and through the use of cohorting and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guidance on how detention centers should respond to the pandemic says “ facilities must ensure that medical isolation is operationally distinct from administrative or disciplinary segregation , or any punitive form of housing.
” Yet , as a previous investigation by The Intercept found , a number of ICE facilities have failed to adhere to this requirement .
According to detainees at Etowah , solitary confinement was used not only as leverage to discourage requests for testing , but also to isolate people with Covid-19 .
The Intercept and In These Times spoke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Covid-19 while detained at Etowah .
Each said he spent weeks in solitary .
Shemoi Edwards developed Covid-19 symptoms just days before Golding .
At first , he planned to quietly sweat out the illness .
But with a history of bronchitis and a recent diagnosis of sickle cell trait , he got too scared to ride it out on his own .
He hobbled over to an officer and told him he felt like he ’ d been hit by a truck .
Not long afterward , Edwards said , he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ described the conditions in solitary confinement as squalid .
In their affidavits , many expressed distress that they no longer had access to mental health professionals , the law library , sunlight , or fresh air .
“ Civil detention have turned into torture , ” Falaye Kourouma wrote .
Bakhodir Madjitov , who was deported in September , wrote that there were cockroaches and flies in the unit .
Golding wrote that he was fed uncooked frozen food and didn ’ t have access to drinking water because the sink in his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ No one wants to be treated how I am currently being treated , ” Dawa Sherpa wrote in his affidavit .
“ I fear that I may die here at Etowah County Detention Center.
” One detainee said he spent 21 days in isolation .
Another counted 35 days , and a third counted 54 .
Golding said he was in solitary confinement from July 6 until August 28 .
Edwards said he was put in isolation on June 29 and wasn ’ t released until July 28 .
“ We was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] you get in trouble , ” Edwards said in an interview .
“ Even though it ’ s probably a different word — it ’ s ‘ isolation ’ — it ’ s still a form of punishment that they ’ re putting us in.
” Edwards received the results from his coronavirus test on July 8 ; he was positive .
One day later , Golding received the same bad news .
In isolation , the men say , their phone access was limited .
They could only make calls during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than 75 minutes ) , which occurred on an irregular schedule .
Sometimes , they said , it might be in the middle of the night .
Before he got sick , Edwards would speak with his mother and brother a few times each week .
After not hearing from him during the first week of July , his brother Nickoy Edwards , who is a police officer in Flint , Michigan , called Etowah .
The first person he spoke to transferred him to someone else .
“ That person answered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the computer and they told me Shemoi is OK.
He ’ s on the floor .
And nothing is wrong with him.
” Nickoy believed the facility — at first .
Then , a few weeks later , his brother finally called , telling Nickoy he was in solitary confinement and had the coronavirus .
Nickoy called Etowah again .
“ And they told me the same thing : ‘ He ’ s OK. ’ ” “ I felt like they weren ’ t telling the truth , ” Nickoy said .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because I want him to be OK. ” Their mother , Tyson Mills , also began to worry .
When she was finally able to get through to Etowah , Mills explained who she was and asked about her son .
“ Ma ’ am , he ’ s OK , ” Mills said she was told .
“ He ’ s all right .
Nothing to worry about.
” She said it was suggested that her son didn ’ t have enough money on his commissary account to call .
“ It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ I was like breaking down in tears.
” Golding ’ s mother , Mervine Duhaney-Metzgar , said she called Etowah six times after not hearing from her son .
At first , her calls were transferred between different people .
“ And it happened that I called again , and they told me that everything is OK , and there ’ s no evidence of any illness being there .
And I know that wasn ’ t true , ” she said .
“ It was very disturbing as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Shemoi Edwards ’ s attorney , said the lack of communication isn ’ t surprising .
“ ICE is essentially kind of a closed book to us , ” he said .
“ Etowah adds another level of complexity to it because Etowah is a county jail .
And so it ’ s not really run by ICE .
It ’ s run by the Etowah County sheriff ’ s department.
” According to a 2015 agreement between Etowah and the federal government , Etowah is responsible for medical care inside the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guidance on how detention facilities should handle the pandemic does not say anything about how ( or whether ) facilities should notify the family members of immigrants who get sick .
Jessica Vosburgh , an attorney at the Adelante Alabama Worker Center , has represented immigrants seeking release from Etowah because of medical conditions that put them at risk during the pandemic .
“ Because the jail is a health care provider , HIPAA applies to them , ” Vosburgh said of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act .
“ They have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not disclosing someone ’ s medical information without their consent.
” “ When I need to get someone ’ s medical records from Etowah , I need their signed consent and then [ the jail ] can share it with me .
And I think it would work similarly for a family member , ” Vosburgh said .
“ I don ’ t think there ’ s anything in HIPAA that would require or allow people to lie or provide false information about someone ’ s health .
That ’ s different than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s something they can ’ t disclose , they just have to say , ‘ I can ’ t disclose.
’ ” “ Even if someone is being imprisoned , they have the right to proper health , to proper medical attention , ” Golding ’ s mother , Duhaney-Metzgar , said .
Even before Golding got sick , she had contacted her congressperson , Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York , asking for an investigation into how her son had been treated in ICE custody and requesting that he be transferred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ My office has repeatedly reached out to follow up on the case for Mrs. Metzgar ’ s son Karim , and it has been months since their last reply , ” Meeks said of ICE .
“ ICE ’ s response time is simply unacceptable , especially now during a pandemic when it ’ s a matter of health and safety.
” “ I am so hurt deep down with what ’ s going on , ” Duhaney-Metzgar said .
“ Behind it , I strongly know that it ’ s an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s attorney , agreed .
“ This administration , in my view , does not give a shit about detainees , immigration detainees , ” he said .
“ So how does it fit into the kind of larger discussion about racial justice and Black Lives Matter ?
I think it ’ s an integral aspect of that .
I mean , immigration detention is , in many ways , simply an extension of the kind of mass incarceration crisis that America has gone through.
” The criminal justice system and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harsh consequences for Black immigrants in particular .
One out of every five people facing deportation because of a criminal conviction is Black .
As of July , about half of the people detained by ICE at Etowah were Black , including Golding , Edwards , and many of the other men interviewed for this story .
Several are lawful permanent residents who lost their green cards and became “ deportable ” after criminal convictions .
Rather than accept deportation , many immigrants remain at Etowah for years as they fight their cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go back to .
Golding and Edwards were both born in Jamaica and came to the United States as children .
Edwards , now 30 , arrived at 15 on a green card ; most of his family now lives in the United States .
Golding , now 36 , arrived at age 9 to reunite with his mother , who had fled an abusive relationship .
He has never been back to Jamaica .
Before being incarcerated by ICE , Golding served a 10-year sentence in federal prison .
He and his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there would be immigration consequences for his criminal conviction and that he has served his time .
“ I just want my son to get to come home , ” Golding ’ s mother said .
“ Every one of us has the right to be forgiven.
” Nothing to His Name Edwards was nearing one month in isolation when his third Covid-19 test came back positive .
Medical staff at Etowah had informed detainees that they would need two consecutive negative tests to leave solitary and return to the general population — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up and told him to pack his things , he was confused .
“ I thought I was going back to my original unit , ” he said .
But then a sergeant appeared and told him he was being released .
“ And I ’ m like , OK !
” Edwards said .
“ So I just got to packing , you know , packed all my legal work , and I gave all my commissary away to everybody.
” Two weeks earlier , on July 16 , Edwards ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a lawful permanent resident named Jervis Glenroy Jack .
The federal government had sought to deport Jack based on a conviction for unlawful gun possession in New York state , but the 2nd U.S .
Circuit Court of Appeals found that the state-level gun conviction did not qualify as a deportable offense .
Edwards ’ s case was nearly identical to Jack ’ s : Edwards , a longtime permanent resident , served two and a half years in prison on a similar conviction in New York .
When Edwards was out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into custody .
Doing his own legal research , Edwards came across the Jack case in 2019 and contacted Phillips , who agreed to represent him .
After Phillips won Jack , he assumed the reversal would also help Edwards , but no one from ICE notified him until moments before Edwards was released .
Outside Etowah , Edwards asked the ICE officer for his ID and a Greyhound bus ticket .
“ I ’ m basically explaining to him , like , I ’ m from New York .
How are you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down here and then just tell me that you just gon na release me with no ID , no bus ticket , plane ticket , no nothing to get back to my family ?
” Edwards said .
“ He was saying that because the way I won my case , he ’ s not entitled to give me anything.
” The ICE officer did give Edwards something : directions to a Greyhound bus station a mile away .
After that , Edwards was on his own .
He had about $ 100 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 87 degrees as he started his walk down the four-lane highway , schlepping a heavy black garbage bag full of legal paperwork .
He stopped at the first gas station he saw to buy a mask .
Etowah released him with a mask that was weeks old and filthy , Edwards said , despite the fact that he had recently tested positive for the virus .
When he finally made it to the bus station , he asked about the next trip to New York .
Two days , the person at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ week .
His best bet would be to keep walking up to Walmart , where he could buy a phone or a charger .
At Walmart , Edwards started making calls : to Phillips , to his brother , and to Shut Down Etowah , an organization that helps immigrants after their release from ICE custody .
“ I basically explained my situation , and they said , ‘ We ’ re gon na have somebody come and pick you up .
Just stay at the Walmart.
’ ” Shut Down Etowah booked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same evening , and a volunteer accompanied him to the airport in Birmingham .
It was eerily empty , and Edwards was nervous .
He didn ’ t have any identification and worried he would be sent back to jail .
“ My main mindset was that I do not want to go through this in a different jail , ” Edwards said .
“ Even if it ’ s for two , three hours , or even a day .
I do not want to do that.
” The volunteer from Shut @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , pulling different legal documents out of Edwards ’ s bag to explain to the airport security officer who he was and why he didn ’ t have an ID .
Somehow it worked .
“ I guess the guy must have felt sorry for me , ” Edwards said .
Arriving in Michigan felt surreal to Edwards .
Everyone had grown up so much in the years he ’ d been away .
“ They literally was babies when I left , ” Edwards said .
His mom calls every day to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t been able to see her .
She lives in Massachusetts , and Edwards hasn ’ t been able to get a driver ’ s license .
Edwards now works long hours at a factory , and he ’ s decided to stay in Flint .
He ’ s started working with Shut Down Etowah and speaks with college students and other groups about his experience in immigration detention and the criminal justice system .
After almost a decade behind bars , he doesn ’ t believe anyone should be incarcerated , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You saying we incarcerate somebody for rehabilitation ?
I don ’ t see it .
They don ’ t rehabilitate you .
They just put you in there till your time up and be like , ‘ Go.
’ That ’ s it , ” he said .
“ I don ’ t feel like we have the right to do that.
” Edwards , Golding , and the other men interviewed for this story who contracted the virus while at Etowah say they ’ re experiencing possible long-term symptoms of Covid-19 : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and more .
While Edwards is at home with family , Golding remains alone and in custody .
“ ICE detention has been far more degrading than any prison confinement I have experienced , ” Golding said .
“ As far as rights go , you basically have no rights.
” This article was supported by a grant from the Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting .

Karim Golding began to feel sick in late June. He stayed inside his cell at the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Alabama, suffering from a fever, a pounding headache, cold sweats, and an “onion burning sensation” behind his eyes. He slept for days on end. When he finally felt well enough to reemerge, “the entire unit is sick,” Golding recalled. “Everybody have some symptom or the other.”
Three months earlier, as The Intercept previously reported, Golding, who has asthma, was a lead organizer of a protest inside the jail pushing for stronger measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Now, as he looked around, he realized that the detainees’ worst fears had come true.
Photo: Obtained by The Intercept
Etowah, which contracts with the federal government to hold people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stated in court documents that it was taking precautions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including quarantining new arrivals, implementing social distancing measures, and providing cleaning supplies. But Golding and more than a dozen other ICE detainees say the measures taken were inadequate and led to a massive Covid-19 outbreak.
Seven of the men say they were given only one disposable mask every three weeks. One shared a photo of what he said were the only “cleaning supplies” he’d received: a toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, and combination shampoo/body wash, which came inside a gift bag from the Salvation Army emblazoned with the words “Merry Christmas.”
Immigrants inside Etowah also said that many new arrivals were quarantined for five or eight days rather than the recommended two-week period, potentially allowing the virus to spread. According to a partial Etowah roster obtained by The Intercept and In These Times, ICE transferred at least 24 people into the facility in June. By the second half of July, the agency reported that 21 detainees — nearly a quarter of those housed in Etowah’s ICE unit — were sick.
Photo: Courtesy of Karim Golding
When Golding came out of his cell and saw the condition of those around him, the organizer part of his brain clicked back on. “I’m looking at people that’s literally looking pale in the face,” he said. “And medical is doing nothing for them.” Golding decided to tell everyone in the unit to request a test for Covid-19.
“So you have Africans, you have Jamaicans, you have El Salvadorans — you have different groups,” Golding explained. “What I did was say, ‘Hey, listen, you talk to your peoples, you tell them this.’”
Many people were apprehensive about asking for a test, as guards had already put the few who were presumed positive into solitary confinement, a fate the United Nations says amounts to torture. In solitary, detainees said they were locked in cells without air conditioning for around 23 hours a day. The average high temperature in July in Gadsden is 91 degrees.
Nevertheless, by July 4, everyone in the unit — more than 80 people — had put in requests to be tested, according to interviews with Golding and another detainee, as well as the affidavits of nine detainees included in a petition for a writ of habeas corpus Golding filed on his own behalf in the Northern District of Alabama in September.
Two days later, according to the 11 detainees, Etowah County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Mike O’Bryant called a lockdown of the unit and read out the names of 10 detainees who’d been especially vocal in calling for mass testing, including Golding. O’Bryant told them to pack their bags because they were being sent to solitary confinement. At the time of their transfer, none had tested positive for Covid-19. All 11 sources said they felt this was punishment and retaliation for requesting the coronavirus tests.
“I noticed that all of us who were randomly picked were the ones who were vocal, outspoken, and shown desire to be tested,” Stanley Walden wrote in an affidavit dated August 7.
“He hand-picked cells and made an example in front of everyone that he really meant to throw anyone who get tested into a dungeon,” Sebastian Abalo Cunna wrote in an affidavit dated July 28. “It feels like punishment for standing up for our right to health and safety.”
After locking down the unit, the captain and other staff members went cell to cell asking the remaining detainees if they still wanted to be tested for Covid-19, according to Golding and the affidavits of nine others. Most detainees revoked their requests and agreed to sign waivers saying they no longer wanted to be tested.
In a recorded conversation involving two Etowah employees obtained by The Intercept and In These Times, one employee described the events of July 6 as an attempt to “bully” people into not getting tested. Afterward, both employees said in the recording, immigrants inside Etowah appeared too scared to seek even basic medical care.
Four of those who were sent to solitary confinement said they were unable to communicate with their families for days, leading some concerned family members to call the facility. The relatives of one detainee said jail staff assured them that their family member was fine; at the time, he was in solitary confinement having developed symptoms of Covid-19. Golding’s mother said she was told there was no evidence of the virus at the facility, even as ICE listed at least one coronavirus case at Etowah on its website. According to the family members interviewed for this story, neither ICE nor Etowah ever reached out to tell them their loved ones were sick.
The Etowah County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to detailed questions from The Intercept and In These Times about the jail’s Covid-19 precautions, the detainees’ allegations of retaliation, and whether detainees had authorized the release of their medical information to family members.
“The health, safety, and welfare of those in our care remain a top priority and concern for the agency,” a spokesperson for ICE wrote in an emailed statement. “Since the outbreak of Covid-19, ICE has taken extensive steps to safeguard all detainees, staff and contractors, including: reducing the number of detainees in custody by placing individuals on alternatives to detention programs, suspending social visitation, incorporating social distancing practices with staggered meals and recreation times, and through the use of cohorting and medical isolation.”
Shemoi Edwards outside his home in Flint, Mich., on Nov. 20, 2020. Photo: Cydni Elledge for The Intercept
“A Form of Punishment”
ICE’s public guidance on how detention centers should respond to the pandemic says “facilities must ensure that medical isolation is operationally distinct from administrative or disciplinary segregation, or any punitive form of housing.” Yet, as a previous investigation by The Intercept found, a number of ICE facilities have failed to adhere to this requirement. According to detainees at Etowah, solitary confinement was used not only as leverage to discourage requests for testing, but also to isolate people with Covid-19.
The Intercept and In These Times spoke with five men who tested positive for Covid-19 while detained at Etowah. Each said he spent weeks in solitary.
Shemoi Edwards developed Covid-19 symptoms just days before Golding. At first, he planned to quietly sweat out the illness. But with a history of bronchitis and a recent diagnosis of sickle cell trait, he got too scared to ride it out on his own. He hobbled over to an officer and told him he felt like he’d been hit by a truck. Not long afterward, Edwards said, he was transferred to solitary.
The men universally described the conditions in solitary confinement as squalid. In their affidavits, many expressed distress that they no longer had access to mental health professionals, the law library, sunlight, or fresh air. “Civil detention have turned into torture,” Falaye Kourouma wrote.
Bakhodir Madjitov, who was deported in September, wrote that there were cockroaches and flies in the unit. Golding wrote that he was fed uncooked frozen food and didn’t have access to drinking water because the sink in his cell didn’t flow properly.
“No one wants to be treated how I am currently being treated,” Dawa Sherpa wrote in his affidavit. “I fear that I may die here at Etowah County Detention Center.”
One detainee said he spent 21 days in isolation. Another counted 35 days, and a third counted 54. Golding said he was in solitary confinement from July 6 until August 28. Edwards said he was put in isolation on June 29 and wasn’t released until July 28.
“We was getting the same treatment as [when] you get in trouble,” Edwards said in an interview. “Even though it’s probably a different word — it’s ‘isolation’— it’s still a form of punishment that they’re putting us in.”
Shemoi Edwards in his home in Flint, Mich., on Nov. 20, 2020. Photo: Cydni Elledge for The Intercept
Edwards received the results from his coronavirus test on July 8; he was positive. One day later, Golding received the same bad news.
In isolation, the men say, their phone access was limited. They could only make calls during a brief daily free period (no more than 75 minutes), which occurred on an irregular schedule. Sometimes, they said, it might be in the middle of the night.
Before he got sick, Edwards would speak with his mother and brother a few times each week. After not hearing from him during the first week of July, his brother Nickoy Edwards, who is a police officer in Flint, Michigan, called Etowah. The first person he spoke to transferred him to someone else. “That person answered and told me that they looked in the computer and they told me Shemoi is OK. He’s on the floor. And nothing is wrong with him.”
Photo: Cydni Elledge for The Intercept
Nickoy believed the facility — at first. Then, a few weeks later, his brother finally called, telling Nickoy he was in solitary confinement and had the coronavirus.
Nickoy called Etowah again. “And they told me the same thing: ‘He’s OK.’”
“I felt like they weren’t telling the truth,” Nickoy said. “I was a little upset and concerned because I want him to be OK.”
Their mother, Tyson Mills, also began to worry. When she was finally able to get through to Etowah, Mills explained who she was and asked about her son. “Ma’am, he’s OK,” Mills said she was told. “He’s all right. Nothing to worry about.” She said it was suggested that her son didn’t have enough money on his commissary account to call. “It wasn’t nice,” Mills said. “I was like breaking down in tears.”
Golding’s mother, Mervine Duhaney-Metzgar, said she called Etowah six times after not hearing from her son. At first, her calls were transferred between different people. “And it happened that I called again, and they told me that everything is OK, and there’s no evidence of any illness being there. And I know that wasn’t true,” she said. “It was very disturbing as a mother.”
Shemoi Edwards in his home in Flint, Mich., on Nov. 20, 2020. Photo: Cydni Elledge for The Intercept
Nowhere to Go
Nicholas Phillips, Shemoi Edwards’s attorney, said the lack of communication isn’t surprising. “ICE is essentially kind of a closed book to us,” he said. “Etowah adds another level of complexity to it because Etowah is a county jail. And so it’s not really run by ICE. It’s run by the Etowah County sheriff’s department.”
According to a 2015 agreement between Etowah and the federal government, Etowah is responsible for medical care inside the facility. But ICE’s 36-page guidance on how detention facilities should handle the pandemic does not say anything about how (or whether) facilities should notify the family members of immigrants who get sick.
Jessica Vosburgh, an attorney at the Adelante Alabama Worker Center, has represented immigrants seeking release from Etowah because of medical conditions that put them at risk during the pandemic. “Because the jail is a health care provider, HIPAA applies to them,” Vosburgh said of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. “They have to respect patient privacy, which means not disclosing someone’s medical information without their consent.”
“When I need to get someone’s medical records from Etowah, I need their signed consent and then [the jail] can share it with me. And I think it would work similarly for a family member,” Vosburgh said. “I don’t think there’s anything in HIPAA that would require or allow people to lie or provide false information about someone’s health. That’s different than not disclosing, right? If there’s something they can’t disclose, they just have to say, ‘I can’t disclose.’”
Etowah County Detention Center in downtown Gadsden, Ala., on Dec. 3, 2011. Photo: Sarah Dudik/The Gadsden Times/AP
“Even if someone is being imprisoned, they have the right to proper health, to proper medical attention,” Golding’s mother, Duhaney-Metzgar, said. Even before Golding got sick, she had contacted her congressperson, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, asking for an investigation into how her son had been treated in ICE custody and requesting that he be transferred to a facility closer to home.
“My office has repeatedly reached out to follow up on the case for Mrs. Metzgar’s son Karim, and it has been months since their last reply,” Meeks said of ICE. “ICE’s response time is simply unacceptable, especially now during a pandemic when it’s a matter of health and safety.”
“I am so hurt deep down with what’s going on,” Duhaney-Metzgar said. “Behind it, I strongly know that it’s an act of racism.”
Phillips, Edwards’s attorney, agreed. “This administration, in my view, does not give a shit about detainees, immigration detainees,” he said. “So how does it fit into the kind of larger discussion about racial justice and Black Lives Matter? I think it’s an integral aspect of that. I mean, immigration detention is, in many ways, simply an extension of the kind of mass incarceration crisis that America has gone through.”
The criminal justice system and the immigration system are deeply entangled, with harsh consequences for Black immigrants in particular. One out of every five people facing deportation because of a criminal conviction is Black. As of July, about half of the people detained by ICE at Etowah were Black, including Golding, Edwards, and many of the other men interviewed for this story. Several are lawful permanent residents who lost their green cards and became “deportable” after criminal convictions.
Rather than accept deportation, many immigrants remain at Etowah for years as they fight their cases, often because they have nothing to go back to. Golding and Edwards were both born in Jamaica and came to the United States as children. Edwards, now 30, arrived at 15 on a green card; most of his family now lives in the United States. Golding, now 36, arrived at age 9 to reunite with his mother, who had fled an abusive relationship. He has never been back to Jamaica.
Before being incarcerated by ICE, Golding served a 10-year sentence in federal prison. He and his family say they didn’t know there would be immigration consequences for his criminal conviction and that he has served his time.
“I just want my son to get to come home,” Golding’s mother said. “Every one of us has the right to be forgiven.”
Shemoi Edwards reviews his Etowah County Detention Center release documents in Flint, Mich., on Nov. 20, 2020. Photo: Cydni Elledge for The Intercept
Nothing to His Name
Edwards was nearing one month in isolation when his third Covid-19 test came back positive. Medical staff at Etowah had informed detainees that they would need two consecutive negative tests to leave solitary and return to the general population — so when a guard later woke Edwards up and told him to pack his things, he was confused. “I thought I was going back to my original unit,” he said. But then a sergeant appeared and told him he was being released.
“And I’m like, OK!” Edwards said. “So I just got to packing, you know, packed all my legal work, and I gave all my commissary away to everybody.”
Two weeks earlier, on July 16, Edwards’s attorney had won a case on behalf of a lawful permanent resident named Jervis Glenroy Jack. The federal government had sought to deport Jack based on a conviction for unlawful gun possession in New York state, but the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the state-level gun conviction did not qualify as a deportable offense.
Edwards’s case was nearly identical to Jack’s: Edwards, a longtime permanent resident, served two and a half years in prison on a similar conviction in New York. When Edwards was out on parole, immigration authorities took him into custody.
Doing his own legal research, Edwards came across the Jack case in 2019 and contacted Phillips, who agreed to represent him. After Phillips won Jack, he assumed the reversal would also help Edwards, but no one from ICE notified him until moments before Edwards was released.
Outside Etowah, Edwards asked the ICE officer for his ID and a Greyhound bus ticket. “I’m basically explaining to him, like, I’m from New York. How are you going to bring me all the way down here and then just tell me that you just gonna release me with no ID, no bus ticket, plane ticket, no nothing to get back to my family?” Edwards said. “He was saying that because the way I won my case, he’s not entitled to give me anything.”
The ICE officer did give Edwards something: directions to a Greyhound bus station a mile away. After that, Edwards was on his own. He had about $100 and a dead cellphone. It was 87 degrees as he started his walk down the four-lane highway, schlepping a heavy black garbage bag full of legal paperwork. He stopped at the first gas station he saw to buy a mask. Etowah released him with a mask that was weeks old and filthy, Edwards said, despite the fact that he had recently tested positive for the virus.
Shemoi Edwards walks up to his home in Flint, Mich., on Nov. 20, 2020. Photo: Cydni Elledge for The Intercept
When he finally made it to the bus station, he asked about the next trip to New York. Two days, the person at the counter said. And Flint? A week. His best bet would be to keep walking up to Walmart, where he could buy a phone or a charger.
At Walmart, Edwards started making calls: to Phillips, to his brother, and to Shut Down Etowah, an organization that helps immigrants after their release from ICE custody. “I basically explained my situation, and they said, ‘We’re gonna have somebody come and pick you up. Just stay at the Walmart.’”
Shut Down Etowah booked Edwards on a flight to Detroit that same evening, and a volunteer accompanied him to the airport in Birmingham. It was eerily empty, and Edwards was nervous. He didn’t have any identification and worried he would be sent back to jail.
“My main mindset was that I do not want to go through this in a different jail,” Edwards said. “Even if it’s for two, three hours, or even a day. I do not want to do that.”
The volunteer from Shut Down Etowah did most of the talking, pulling different legal documents out of Edwards’s bag to explain to the airport security officer who he was and why he didn’t have an ID. Somehow it worked.
“I guess the guy must have felt sorry for me,” Edwards said.
Arriving in Michigan felt surreal to Edwards. Everyone had grown up so much in the years he’d been away. “They literally was babies when I left,” Edwards said. His mom calls every day to hear his voice, but he hasn’t been able to see her. She lives in Massachusetts, and Edwards hasn’t been able to get a driver’s license.
Edwards now works long hours at a factory, and he’s decided to stay in Flint. He’s started working with Shut Down Etowah and speaks with college students and other groups about his experience in immigration detention and the criminal justice system. After almost a decade behind bars, he doesn’t believe anyone should be incarcerated, especially not for immigration violations.
“You saying we incarcerate somebody for rehabilitation? I don’t see it. They don’t rehabilitate you. They just put you in there till your time up and be like, ‘Go.’ That’s it,” he said. “I don’t feel like we have the right to do that.”
Edwards, Golding, and the other men interviewed for this story who contracted the virus while at Etowah say they’re experiencing possible long-term symptoms of Covid-19: trouble breathing, exhaustion, gastrointestinal problems, and more. While Edwards is at home with family, Golding remains alone and in custody. “ICE detention has been far more degrading than any prison confinement I have experienced,” Golding said. “As far as rights go, you basically have no rights.”
This article was supported by a grant from the Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting.


theintercept--2020-12-03--Amazon Workers Are Organizing a Global Struggle

dizzying statistics have circulated on social media about Amazon ’ s pandemic-era boom and the obscene wealth accrued by its CEO , and Earth ’ s richest man , Jeff Bezos .
The company reported revenue of $ 96.1 billion just last quarter , which , according to the Institute for Policy Studies , means Bezos could personally pay Amazon ’ s 876,000 workers a bonus of $ 105,000 each — and would still be as filthy rich as he was prior to the pandemic .
Warehouse workers in the U.S. and U.K. , who have been forced into perilous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ orders , have been offered a $ 300 holiday bonus .
Many who toil in other areas of Amazon ’ s vast supply chain will receive far less , if anything at all .
Numerous business publications framed the trillion-dollar empire ’ s bonuses as a generous offering .
“ Amazon spends another $ 500 million on bonuses .
Some of its workers are still going on strike , ” read a CNN Business headline .
The notion conveyed apparent incredulity that low-wage employees would fight for more from a corporation famed for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ productivity that saw warehouse employees reportedly urinating in bottles so as to avoid bathroom breaks .
The incredulity is misplaced .
Yes , Amazon workers are escalating the ongoing struggle for their rights , protections , as well as fair pay — and , for the first time , the strategy is international .
Black Friday saw the launch of a new wave of organizing by a global coalition of warehouse workers , trade unions , and activists under the banner Make Amazon Pay — the first such coalition of broad international scope @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and protests of varying size have taken place in Bangladesh , India , Australia , Germany , Poland , Spain , France , the U.K. , the U.S. and beyond .
The workers and organizers deserve vigorous support : The stakes of leaving Amazon ’ s power and practices unchecked — from the further decimation of the global working class , to irreversible environmental degradation — are intolerable .
“ Amazon is able to build power by operating on a global level without opposition , ” said Casper Gelderblom , a Netherlands-based trade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , one of the groups organizing the Make Amazon Pay effort .
“ We have to match the transnational scope of its organization with an internationalist strategy.
” Make Amazon Pay brings together worker collectives — from hawkers in India to warehouse workers in Poland — with large international union federations .
The coalition also includes major nonprofits such as Greenpeace to address stunning facts like the scale of Amazon ’ s carbon footprint , which is larger than two-thirds of the world ’ s countries .
On Thursday , the coalition published @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over 401 politicians from over 34 countries , including Rep. Rashida Tlaib , D-Mich. , Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison , and Rep.-elect Jamaal Bowman , D-N.Y , from the United States .
The letter , which pledges support for the Make Amazon Pay effort , is addressed to Bezos .
It begins , “ We , elected representatives , legislators , and public officials from around the world , hereby put you on notice that Amazon ’ s days of impunity are over.
” see that Amazon is too powerful , that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that it intimidates workers , lowers wages , busts unions , and ensures precarity .
The corporation also pays scant tax bills .
In 2019 , Amazon paid just 1.2 percent federal tax on its U.S. profits ; the prior two years , it paid none .
It ’ s harder to know what a successful multifront , international resistance to Amazon ’ s hegemonic power would look like .
Make Amazon Pay ’ s demands to the company are broad but no more than fair : permitting workers to organize ; ending @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health and safety conditions ; ensuring job security ; committing to zero emissions by 2030 ; ending Amazon Web Services contracts with fossil fuel companies ; ending partnerships with the forces of racist state violence , like police and immigration authorities ; and paying taxes in full .
The coalition has developed a robust policy platform , rich in references to existing laws and precedents , intended to guide lawmakers to use legislative tools to make the demands a reality .
In the face of Amazon ’ s might , however , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like a fair-minded wish list .
Anyone who cares about working people and life on this planet can commend it ; realizing the proposed changes and diminishing the corporation ’ s planetary death grip is a different question .
Coalition organizers see a necessary first step in recognizing the expanse of Amazon ’ s supply chain operations , often obscured to the consumer .
The company is best understood not as a retailer but a monopolist empire : a 21st century East India Company , and no less colonialist in its practices of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s infamous warehouses are “ the nearest site where customer comfort and worker exploitation come into contact , ” wrote political economist David Adler and organizer James Schneider , both members of the Progressive International secretariat .
“ But , ” they argue , the fight against Amazon “ must stretch across the global economy and the regulatory archipelago that runs through it.
” While coordinated , the recent worker actions around the world have reflected the current labor concerns specific to different regions of Amazon ’ s domain .
Garment workers in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supplier in Dhaka , behind a bright red “ Make Amazon Pay ” banner .
The company has reportedly not paid its Bangladeshi suppliers for completed orders that were canceled in the pandemic .
Workers in Germany went on a three-day strike , an escalation in a yearslong battle with Amazon for better pay and working conditions ; approximately 2,500 people took part .
In Poznań , in the west of Poland , workers brandished the same “ Make Amazon Pay ” signs during a coordinated work stoppage .
Polish workers have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strikes — to have their minimal holiday bonuses raised to match the amounts workers in other countries will receive .
Warehouse workers told me by video conference that employees in Poland had been paid four times less than their counterparts in Germany ; through union organizing , that discrepancy has shrunk to three times less , while the cost of living is by no means three times cheaper .
In the U.S. , workers are taking historic steps just to unionize .
In every jurisdiction , especially at this time of mass unemployment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at a disadvantage against Amazon ’ s ability to attract precarious , unprotected employees ready to take any available work .
Contracts are often fixed-term , zero-hour , and unstable .
Bogus self-employment contracts for de facto Amazon employees are common , even in countries where many workers are unionized .
“ This is Amazon policy , rotating workers .
It ’ s extremely difficult to organize , ” said Jan Pękala , a forklift driver and union shop steward from southern Poland .
“ With every new worker , you have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ warehouse in Poznań , Roman Lupiński , agreed : “ It creates fear , people on unstable contracts feeling like they can lose their jobs.
” Amazon relies on the same strategy globally .
“ Covid has really chilled workers , ” said Sheheryar Kaoosji , director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center , who spoke to me from Ontario , California .
“ They brought in a lot of people desperate for work .
We have to meet people where they ’ re at , to build a long-term strategy.
” Kaoosji @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where one of Amazon ’ s largest facility clusters is expanding .
The corporation employs 30,000 in the area alone ; the asthma rates in the Amazon-occupied region are twice as high as the national average .
“ This is the year that Amazon really consolidated power , ” Kaoosji said , offering that this made the imperative to organize stronger .
“ It ’ s the right time to be doing this.
” One of the keys to the Make Amazon Pay policy platform are guidelines to regulate the sort of contracts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it more costly for the company to rely on “ self-employment ” contracts .
These precarious agreements have become normalized in the neoliberal labor market , and regulating against Amazon ’ s use of them would have a knock-on effect for labor rights in general .
keys to the Make Amazon Pay policy platform are guidelines to regulate the sort of contracts Amazon offers to workers , like making it more costly for the company to rely on “ self-employment ” contracts .
These precarious agreements have become normalized in the neoliberal labor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s use of them would have a knock-on effect for labor rights in general .
“ The situation at Amazon is a look into the future of labor , the future of our economy , and the future of the planet , ” said Tlaib , the House member from Michigan and letter signatory , told me by email .
“ The results of the experiment are clear — left to their own devices , giant corporations like Amazon will ruthlessly extract every last dollar from their workers and the communities they exploit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the bone and putting their profits before the livability of the planet.
” Tlaib stressed that it is possible to force Amazon to change its practices , as was evidenced when it raised its minimum wage in the U.S. to $ 15 , following sustained pressure from Sen. Bernie Sanders , I-Vt. , among others .
Likewise , the push last year by left-wing lawmakers in New York , working alongside local organizers , thwarted Amazon ’ s seemingly unstoppable plans to open up a second headquarters in Queens .
Tlaib told me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Congress that would help us fight back against this staggering corporate greed , and there are some other important interventions that will need to be drafted.
” The Protecting the Right to Organize Act , for example , passed the House earlier this year , and would dramatically weaken decades of anti-worker , anti-union labor laws in this country .
Make Amazon Pay ’ s international lens makes crystal clear the need to empower workers to unionize and enable unions to be effective for workers .
“ We have a lot more control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a packer in the Poznań warehouse , told me .
She noted that while Amazon regularly finds ways to bypass the union , the workers ’ “ capacities are far greater as an entity that the company has to contend with.
” The success of Amazon workers in France in forcing Amazon to address concerns about Covid-19 safety shows the necessity of pro-worker legislation combined with strong unions .
Mass protests , strikes , and union complaints led to a Parisian judging order that Amazon develop improved health and safety measures with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a penalty of over $ 1 million per day and per violation .
The corporation announced in fury that it would suspend all of its French operations , but workers continue to receive full pay and the company says that it plans to follow the judge ’ s decision .
Piotr Krzyżaniak , a former warehouse worker and a lawyer representing the Polish workers ’ union , referenced the French example to stress the importance of permitting workers to strike .
In Poland , workers have had to engage in wildcat work stoppages @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complex .
“ We need the freedom to strike regulated on a European level , ” he told me , “ If Amazon workers go on strike in Germany , for example , we need to be able to join them.
” Following revelations in September that Amazon had engaged in widespread surveillance , harassment , and intimidation of workers in the U.S. , U.K. , and elsewhere who had attempted to organize , Amnesty International released a report calling on Amazon to “ let workers unionize.
” The report also cited how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to protect Amazon workers during the pandemic .
The corporate leviathan should have to reckon with such constraints on its power and its abuses in every country it operates .
presidency , especially if a Republican-led Senate remains , with a far-right judiciary , does not offer great promise for radical legislative shifts away from the neoliberal norms .
Labor-friendly politicians like Tlaib and other members of the Squad are in the minority .
The belief that Amazon needs to be reined in , however , is a popular one : Polling agency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believe that the company is too powerful .
Amazon , of course , is not capitalism gone wrong , but capitalism doing as it ’ s supposed to .
We don ’ t need every lawmaker to appreciate this to want to curb the company ’ s monopolistic control .
“ Even if you believe in free markets , it ’ s not healthy , ” Gelderblom , of Progressive International , told me .
In October , the House Judiciary Committee antitrust subcommittee — hardly a left-wing body — released a far-reaching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Google , and Amazon capitalize on and abuse their market power to benefit themselves .
The Make Amazon Pay coalition is clear that it wants to shift Amazon ’ s power structure too : among its demands is a plan to give workers robust voting rights in Amazon management .
This is not a far cry from the proposal made by Sen. Elizabeth Warren , D-Mass.
, a believer in so-called “ accountable capitalism , ” to give workers representation on company boards .
This management model , known as “ co-determination ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of capital , Germany ; the coalition argues the Europe ’ s co-determination models need further strengthening .
Radical and necessary change to the great empire of Amazon is a tall order , but the global plan to Make Amazon Pay should be considered common sense .

In recent weeks, dizzying statistics have circulated on social media about Amazon’s pandemic-era boom and the obscene wealth accrued by its CEO, and Earth’s richest man, Jeff Bezos. The company reported revenue of $96.1 billion just last quarter, which, according to the Institute for Policy Studies, means Bezos could personally pay Amazon’s 876,000 workers a bonus of $105,000 each — and would still be as filthy rich as he was prior to the pandemic. Warehouse workers in the U.S. and U.K., who have been forced into perilous proximity while dealing with the surge in orders, have been offered a $300 holiday bonus. Many who toil in other areas of Amazon’s vast supply chain will receive far less, if anything at all.
Activists of Sammilito Garments Sramik Federation stage a protest procession against the world’s leading digital retailer Amazon.com, demanding fair wages and union rights for all Amazon supply chain workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Nov. 27, 2020. Photo: Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Numerous business publications framed the trillion-dollar empire’s bonuses as a generous offering. “Amazon spends another $500 million on bonuses. Some of its workers are still going on strike,” read a CNN Business headline. The notion conveyed apparent incredulity that low-wage employees would fight for more from a corporation famed for worker abuses, such as pressure for productivity that saw warehouse employees reportedly urinating in bottles so as to avoid bathroom breaks.
The incredulity is misplaced. Yes, Amazon workers are escalating the ongoing struggle for their rights, protections, as well as fair pay — and, for the first time, the strategy is international.
Black Friday saw the launch of a new wave of organizing by a global coalition of warehouse workers, trade unions, and activists under the banner Make Amazon Pay — the first such coalition of broad international scope. Coordinated strikes, work stoppages, and protests of varying size have taken place in Bangladesh, India, Australia, Germany, Poland, Spain, France, the U.K., the U.S. and beyond. The workers and organizers deserve vigorous support: The stakes of leaving Amazon’s power and practices unchecked — from the further decimation of the global working class, to irreversible environmental degradation — are intolerable.
“Amazon is able to build power by operating on a global level without opposition,” said Casper Gelderblom, a Netherlands-based trade unionist and coordinator with the Progressive International, one of the groups organizing the Make Amazon Pay effort. “We have to match the transnational scope of its organization with an internationalist strategy.”
Make Amazon Pay brings together worker collectives — from hawkers in India to warehouse workers in Poland — with large international union federations. The coalition also includes major nonprofits such as Greenpeace to address stunning facts like the scale of Amazon’s carbon footprint, which is larger than two-thirds of the world’s countries.
On Thursday, the coalition published an open letter signed in solidarity by over 401 politicians from over 34 countries, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Rep.-elect Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y, from the United States. The letter, which pledges support for the Make Amazon Pay effort, is addressed to Bezos. It begins, “We, elected representatives, legislators, and public officials from around the world, hereby put you on notice that Amazon’s days of impunity are over.”
(Left/Top) Transportation workers protest outside an Amazon facility in Sydney, Australia. (Right/Bottom) Garment workers gather on the street in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Nov. 27, 2020. Photo: Courtesy of Make Amazon Pay Coalition
It’s easy to see that Amazon is too powerful, that its carbon footprint is a travesty, that it intimidates workers, lowers wages, busts unions, and ensures precarity. The corporation also pays scant tax bills. In 2019, Amazon paid just 1.2 percent federal tax on its U.S. profits; the prior two years, it paid none. It’s harder to know what a successful multifront, international resistance to Amazon’s hegemonic power would look like.
Make Amazon Pay’s demands to the company are broad but no more than fair: permitting workers to organize; ending surveillance and harassment; improving pay and health and safety conditions; ensuring job security; committing to zero emissions by 2030; ending Amazon Web Services contracts with fossil fuel companies; ending partnerships with the forces of racist state violence, like police and immigration authorities; and paying taxes in full.
Amazon is best understood not as a retailer but a monopolist empire: a 21st century East India Company, and no less colonialist in its practices.
The coalition has developed a robust policy platform, rich in references to existing laws and precedents, intended to guide lawmakers to use legislative tools to make the demands a reality. In the face of Amazon’s might, however, the campaign can, on paper, look like a fair-minded wish list. Anyone who cares about working people and life on this planet can commend it; realizing the proposed changes and diminishing the corporation’s planetary death grip is a different question.
Coalition organizers see a necessary first step in recognizing the expanse of Amazon’s supply chain operations, often obscured to the consumer. The company is best understood not as a retailer but a monopolist empire: a 21st century East India Company, and no less colonialist in its practices of exploitation and resource extraction. Amazon’s infamous warehouses are “the nearest site where customer comfort and worker exploitation come into contact,” wrote political economist David Adler and organizer James Schneider, both members of the Progressive International secretariat. “But,” they argue, the fight against Amazon “must stretch across the global economy and the regulatory archipelago that runs through it.”
While coordinated, the recent worker actions around the world have reflected the current labor concerns specific to different regions of Amazon’s domain. Garment workers in Bangladesh staged a protest outside an Amazon supplier in Dhaka, behind a bright red “Make Amazon Pay” banner. The company has reportedly not paid its Bangladeshi suppliers for completed orders that were canceled in the pandemic. Workers in Germany went on a three-day strike, an escalation in a yearslong battle with Amazon for better pay and working conditions; approximately 2,500 people took part.
In Pozna?, in the west of Poland, workers brandished the same “Make Amazon Pay” signs during a coordinated work stoppage. Polish workers have been organizing for weeks — including staging wildcat strikes — to have their minimal holiday bonuses raised to match the amounts workers in other countries will receive. Warehouse workers told me by video conference that employees in Poland had been paid four times less than their counterparts in Germany; through union organizing, that discrepancy has shrunk to three times less, while the cost of living is by no means three times cheaper. In the U.S., workers are taking historic steps just to unionize.
In every jurisdiction, especially at this time of mass unemployment and global economic devastation, organizers are at a disadvantage against Amazon’s ability to attract precarious, unprotected employees ready to take any available work. Contracts are often fixed-term, zero-hour, and unstable. Bogus self-employment contracts for de facto Amazon employees are common, even in countries where many workers are unionized.
“This is Amazon policy, rotating workers. It’s extremely difficult to organize,” said Jan P?kala, a forklift driver and union shop steward from southern Poland. “With every new worker, you have to start again.” His colleague from the warehouse in Pozna?, Roman Lupi?ski, agreed: “It creates fear, people on unstable contracts feeling like they can lose their jobs.”
Amazon relies on the same strategy globally. “Covid has really chilled workers,” said Sheheryar Kaoosji, director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, who spoke to me from Ontario, California. “They brought in a lot of people desperate for work. We have to meet people where they’re at, to build a long-term strategy.” Kaoosji organizes in and around San Bernardino, where one of Amazon’s largest facility clusters is expanding. The corporation employs 30,000 in the area alone; the asthma rates in the Amazon-occupied region are twice as high as the national average. “This is the year that Amazon really consolidated power,” Kaoosji said, offering that this made the imperative to organize stronger. “It’s the right time to be doing this.”
Amazon workers participate in the Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft union strike in Werne, Germany, on Nov. 27, 2020. Photo: Courtesy of Make Amazon Pay Coalition
One of the
keys to the Make Amazon Pay policy platform are guidelines to regulate the sort of contracts Amazon offers to workers, like making it more costly for the company to rely on “self-employment” contracts. These precarious agreements have become normalized in the neoliberal labor market, and regulating against Amazon’s use of them would have a knock-on effect for labor rights in general.
“The situation at Amazon is a look into the future of labor, the future of our economy, and the future of the planet,” said Tlaib, the House member from Michigan and letter signatory, told me by email. “The results of the experiment are clear — left to their own devices, giant corporations like Amazon will ruthlessly extract every last dollar from their workers and the communities they exploit, enriching executives while grinding workers to the bone and putting their profits before the livability of the planet.”
“The situation at Amazon is a look into the future of labor, the future of our economy, and the future of the planet.”
Tlaib stressed that it is possible to force Amazon to change its practices, as was evidenced when it raised its minimum wage in the U.S. to $15, following sustained pressure from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., among others. Likewise, the push last year by left-wing lawmakers in New York, working alongside local organizers, thwarted Amazon’s seemingly unstoppable plans to open up a second headquarters in Queens.
Tlaib told me that “there are already bills in Congress that would help us fight back against this staggering corporate greed, and there are some other important interventions that will need to be drafted.” The Protecting the Right to Organize Act, for example, passed the House earlier this year, and would dramatically weaken decades of anti-worker, anti-union labor laws in this country.
Make Amazon Pay’s international lens makes crystal clear the need to empower workers to unionize and enable unions to be effective for workers. “We have a lot more control as unionized workers,” Natalia Skowro?ska, a packer in the Pozna? warehouse, told me. She noted that while Amazon regularly finds ways to bypass the union, the workers’ “capacities are far greater as an entity that the company has to contend with.”
The success of Amazon workers in France in forcing Amazon to address concerns about Covid-19 safety shows the necessity of pro-worker legislation combined with strong unions. Mass protests, strikes, and union complaints led to a Parisian judging order that Amazon develop improved health and safety measures with the unions. Noncompliance would come with a penalty of over $1 million per day and per violation. The corporation announced in fury that it would suspend all of its French operations, but workers continue to receive full pay and the company says that it plans to follow the judge’s decision.
Piotr Krzy?aniak, a former warehouse worker and a lawyer representing the Polish workers’ union, referenced the French example to stress the importance of permitting workers to strike. In Poland, workers have had to engage in wildcat work stoppages, because formal strike procedures are prohibitively complex. “We need the freedom to strike regulated on a European level,” he told me, “If Amazon workers go on strike in Germany, for example, we need to be able to join them.”
Following revelations in September that Amazon had engaged in widespread surveillance, harassment, and intimidation of workers in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere who had attempted to organize, Amnesty International released a report calling on Amazon to “let workers unionize.” The report also cited how French labor unions and regulations had served to protect Amazon workers during the pandemic. The corporate leviathan should have to reckon with such constraints on its power and its abuses in every country it operates.
(Left/Top) A stencil of 'Make Amazon Pay' is seen in Mexico City, Mexico, made by the Progressive International members on Nov. 30, 2020. (Right/Bottom) A projection carried out by Progressive International activists is seen on Amazon's offices in Shoreditch, London, on Nov. 26, 2020. Photo: Courtesy of Make Amazon Pay Coalition
A Joe Biden presidency, especially if a Republican-led Senate remains, with a far-right judiciary, does not offer great promise for radical legislative shifts away from the neoliberal norms. Labor-friendly politicians like Tlaib and other members of the Squad are in the minority. The belief that Amazon needs to be reined in, however, is a popular one: Polling agency Survation found that 70 percent of people believe that the company is too powerful.
Amazon, of course, is not capitalism gone wrong, but capitalism doing as it’s supposed to. We don’t need every lawmaker to appreciate this to want to curb the company’s monopolistic control. “Even if you believe in free markets, it’s not healthy,” Gelderblom, of Progressive International, told me.
In October, the House Judiciary Committee antitrust subcommittee — hardly a left-wing body — released a far-reaching report on how Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon capitalize on and abuse their market power to benefit themselves.
The Make Amazon Pay coalition is clear that it wants to shift Amazon’s power structure too: among its demands is a plan to give workers robust voting rights in Amazon management. This is not a far cry from the proposal made by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a believer in so-called “accountable capitalism,” to give workers representation on company boards. This management model, known as “co-determination” is already common in the European bastion of capital, Germany; the coalition argues the Europe’s co-determination models need further strengthening.
Radical and necessary change to the great empire of Amazon is a tall order, but the global plan to Make Amazon Pay should be considered common sense.