Hello and welcome back to Primer, a podcast about all things Amazon.

I'm Alex Press, joined as ever by my producer, Sarah Hurd.

So it's been a while since our last episode.

As it turns out, the problem with being the sole host of this show is that when my schedule

fills up, we have to put the project on pause.

But I'd like to fill you in on what I've been up to while we were on that break.

As listeners are aware, I'm a staff writer at Jack Bin magazine, so I've still been writing

there.

As you may have noticed, I haven't written much about Amazon lately, and that's because

there's been a real uptick in labor militancy in the United States, and I've been doing

my best to cover that phenomenon, speaking with workers, especially ones who are on strike,

as well as analyzing what this shift means.

It's not exactly the subject of Primer, but it's not entirely unrelated.

Coming off of over a year of a very poorly handled pandemic in this country, during which

many workers not only continued having to go to work, in factories, in warehouses, in super

markets and hospitals, but had to work more hours than ever.

That's one experience shared among many of the people who are either going on strike

in the private sector, or quitting their jobs entirely in search of a more sustainable

job.

Mandatory overtime, that can mean up to 40 hours a week.

The pandemic has led them to re-evaluate their priorities, and a lot of them are no longer

willing to put up with being worked that long.

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