Amazon is asking workers experiencing hardship to write a letter to its company mascot, Peccy, this holiday season so “some of their holiday wishes can come true”.
A flyer from the Amazon warehouse SWF1 in Rock Tavern, New York, states: “Are you or someone you know facing financial hardship this holiday season? Peccy wants to help! Write a letter to Peccy. If the Peccy team selects you, some of your holiday wishes could come true!”
Peccy – a Minion-like orange blob – is Amazon’s mascot and ‘cultural ambassador’. In an interview with Fast Company, an Amazon HR director said: “He’s called Peccy because he represents our peculiar ways. We call ourselves at Amazon very peculiar.”
Keith Williams, a worker at the Amazon SWF1 warehouse, criticized the contest given Amazon’s immense profits, its sky-high executive pay and the astronomic wealth of Amazon founder and chair, Jeff Bezos, who has a net worth of around $172bn.
Said Williams: “They basically say, ‘Tell us about your hardships, how hard this holiday season is for you,’ [and] if we feel it’s sad enough [then we’ll’] give your family some help.”
In Amazon’s most recent quarter, the company tripled its profits to $9.9bn, and revenues for the three months ending 30 September topped $143bn.
“It’s startling to see them shell out all this money to promote Amazon, get us excited about Amazon, but not actually give us what would endear us to Amazon, which would be a living wage,” he said.
Williams first heard of the Letters to Peccy last year when his fiancee was working at Amazon. They were disappointed because she initially assumed all employees were going to receive a gift or extra cash until management announced the winners of the contest.
“All we’re just asking for from Amazon is to do what they’re clearly able to do with the billions of dollars that they have. We just want to share in some of the efforts that we do for Amazon,” said Williams. “We want wages. Not trinkets. They have raffles for us. If they see us working real hard, they’ll give us three tickets and out of all the people here putting tickets in, we might get something, or they’ll put a Peccy pin on our desk so everyone knows we’re doing great instead of just giving us the safety and security of a living wage.”
During peak season, it is not unusual for workers working overtime hours and picking up extra shifts to work six or seven days a week, said Williams. With this grueling schedule, he said, it’s difficult to have a healthy work-life balance. Amazon pays an average of $20.50 an hour, but starting rates are $17 an hour.
“It’s like, how much can you show what you’ve done for Amazon? Write a letter to us and we’ll help you out, and only offer extra pay for maybe two or four hours if you come in on your sixth or seventh straight day of work and we’ll give you an extra $1o. They’re fully capable of doing it when it benefits them,” said Williams. He said several ambulances had already pulled up at the facility this peak season. “People are being pushed past their limit,” he said.
An Amazon spokesperson said in an email: “This was a well-intentioned holiday giving initiative that received a lot of positive feedback from employees, however, our team is aware of the potential negative perception it created and apologize to anyone who may have been offended.”