Workers at companies nationwide planning walkout on Friday

Nationwide, essential workers are planning a strike for May Day. This comes at the same time as other groups are planning rallies to protest strict stay-at-home orders.

Employees of Amazon, Whole Foods, Target, FedEx, and other companies are planning to walk off the job or call out sick on Friday, International Workers Day, in cities across the US. They are doing this to demand hazard pay, unpaid time off work, sick leave, cleaning supplies, and protective gear.

Employees of some of these companies believe that flawed policies and subpar cross-contamination protection has led to many employees falling ill with COVID-19.

As of now, demonstrations are planned in New York City, Los Angelos, Washington, and other cities. They also ask consumers not to use their companies’ services for the day as a display of solidarity.

Nurses are also planning protests of their own. They will take to the streets in front of more than 130 hospitals across 13 states to protest the lack of personal protective equipment, as well as punishment nurses have received when they have voiced their disapproval.

According to Amazon, they have spent over $800 million putting safety measures into place to protect their employees. A spokesperson for Amazon expressed their support for employees’ rights to express themselves, however they objected to the false information and claims being spread by labor groups, stating they have gone to “extreme measures” to understand and address the pandemic.