Summary
The run-up to Amazon Prime Day, the e-commerce giant’s big July sales promotion, overlaps with Ramadan, 30 sacred days during which many observant Muslims fast and seek time off.
That’s creating tension in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region, where activists say Amazon.com Inc. employs more than 1,000 East African Muslim immigrants at four warehouses. Amazon needs to stuff its facilities with inventory in preparation for one of its busiest days of the year at the very time many of those workers want a break.
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The company also faces an unusual labor shortage, with the U.S. unemployment rate narrowing to 3.8 percent in May, matching a 48-year low, according to the Labor Department. “If there was ever an opportunity for aggressive union action, now is the time because the labor market has become so tight,” former National Labor Relations Board Chair William Gould said earlier this year.
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