Amazon worker says retailer should close on Thanksgiving
Camille Carrigan wants to spend Thanksgiving with family just like many other Americans who don't have to work on the national holiday.
And since she works for a company that sells retail products, she believes her employer should be shut down just like other brick and mortar retailers in Massachusetts are on Thanksgiving.
But Carrigan, 60, of North Dighton, has been summoned to work Thursday by Amazon where she is a part-timer at the online giant's Stoughton sort center. She told the News Service Monday she's not sure if she plans to report for her four-hour shift that starts at 2:30 p.m.
"I think it's a day that should be spent with family, not working in a warehouse," said Carrigan, who says that without workers the online company wouldn't have "retail operations."
Carrigan said she called Attorney General Maura Healey's office to check on the legality of Amazon being open Thursday. She said she was told they were looking into it, but was unsure about the outcome.
Emalie Gainey, a spokesperson for Healey, said only that the office had received the complaint and was "reviewing the matter."
The attorney general's office is not expected to take enforcement action to stop operations at the Stoughton facility this Thanksgiving, according to her office.
There are 55 statutory exemptions to Thanksgiving and Christmas Day closing laws, but in order for general retailers to lawfully operate on those days, the state Department of Labor Standards would need to grant a statewide permit, the attorney general's office said. DLS, as in past years, is not expected to issue statewide approvals.
Amazon is citing an exemption for companies involved in loading and unloading of trucks, according to Carrigan, who counters that Amazon wouldn't have retail operations without the sort center workers.
"Personally, I consider them a retail operation," said Carrigan, who claims Amazon has backed off its initial plans to have the sort center open on Christmas. "Everything they do retail is online. But it is part of their retail operation."
Asked why the sort center was open on Thanksgiving, whether shifts were optional, and about Amazon's legal rationale for being open Thursday, Amazon spokesperson Aaron Toso said in an emailed statement, "Our facility in Stoughton is a transportation hub, which unloads packages, sorts them, and re-loads the packages for delivery. It is not a store or shop, and it does not offer retail goods for sale."
Massachusetts Association of Retailers President Jon Hurst said the issue highlights another imbalance between online retailers and brick and mortar stores. Hurst, who has long complained that online retailers have tax advantages, said he sympathizes with Carrigan.
"Clearly Amazon feels it's important for them and I'm sure it is," said Hurst. "Chapter 136 says that we can't be open on Thanksgiving or even working on Thanksgiving so I think everybody should be playing from the same rules. Either the rules should be applied equally to Amazon or they should be eased for stores."
While retailers in Massachusetts are "not beating down the doors to be open" on Thanksgiving, Hurst said stores are open in a limited manner in 47 states on the holiday and consumers clearly like to shop online.
"I get it for Amazon," Hurst says. "Thanksgiving is now a bigger online sales day than Cyber Monday."
Some stores in Massachusetts would like to staff stores on Thanksgiving night to prepare for 12:01 a.m. openings on Black Friday, Hurst said. And national retailers without warehouses would like to fulfill online purchases at closed stores on the holiday, said Hurst, who said the state's heavily amended "blue laws" need examination.
At the Stoughton facility, workers sort packages that are then loaded on pallets and prepared for delivery by UPS or Fedex.
Carrigan says some of her coworkers agree with her point about Thanksgiving while others have different views. When she noted that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was one of the world's richest people, a coworker said they should be grateful to have jobs, she said.
"I feel that they should be the ones who are grateful for us. Without us they don't have a business," Carrigan said.
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