We are glad to share this important report on work conditions during peak season from the New Labor Organizing Committee-affiliated shop organization New Day at Amazon. To reach out to them, email newdayatamz@proton.me.

This last December, a New Day at Amazon-led shop committee at an Amazon Delivery Station in Ohio organized a walkout at the height of “peak season” to combat poor working conditions and pay. During peak season, which begins in late November and extends throughout the month of December, many Amazon workers are forced to work up to 60 hours in mandatory overtime shifts, leading to 12 hour work days. This extended work time occurs on top of the already brutal workload and oppressive conditions Amazon workers experience day to day. In this way they are even further exploited than usual during Peak time.

The New Day at Amazon shop committee organized a mass meeting, figured out key demands, and established a plan to fight for them. They mobilized a few dozen co-workers and walked out demanding more compensation, which was one of the primary grievances raised by the workers. The next day they were given double overtime pay, something the majority of other warehouses did not receive. It was by putting up this fight, and through the tools of mobilization and organization, that the workers won their daily economic demands. New Day at Amazon is a shop organization which is affiliated to the New Labor Organizing Committee, a national organization of workers devoted to reconstituting an independent, class-conscious and militant labor movement within the United States. Through the work of revolutionaries-in-formation on the ground, and the national leadership and the workplace-based shop paper system of the NLOC, these small battles for economic demands are linked to the broader historic struggle against the imperialist system and for the seizure political Power for the multinational US working-class.

In the January edition of the New Day at Amazon shop paper, Amazon warehouse workers explain how the intense pace of the peak season typically leads into a “ramp down” and mass lay-offs for so-called “seasonal associates” in January, and how that is linked to the lessons they have gained form the walk-out, stating:

With the New Year in full swing we are facing the ramp-down period at Amazon. Obviously a large increase in volume due to the holiday season caused Amazon to spend much more money on labor costs. Everything from simply spending more on wages due to overtime worked, to any little gifts given out, or even providing food was to keep us engaged and coming back everyday. Now after spending all that money and the inevitable decrease in sales, Amazon now looks to keep costs low to start the year. In Q4 of 2024, Amazon made $187.8 Billion Dollars in net sales. In Q1 of 2025, Amazon made $155.7 Billion Dollars in net sales. This is a pattern that occurs every single year.

For workers at Amazon, in years past this meant surprise layoffs of seasonal associates, targeted write ups and firings of veteran associates, and enormous amounts of Voluntary Time Off given out. All this adds up to losses for the workers at Amazon and big profits for the capitalists who own and control Amazon.

This means for our organization have continue to lead a fight against Amazon. In 2026, we will need to organize shop committees among every shop and contact we come across. These shop committees will need to lean on our main principle of class struggle. Understanding we are a class against a class: the working class against the capitalist class. Or the associates versus the large shareholders and owners of Amazon. We will do this with our principles leading us. Not the other way around.

All throughout Amazon warehouses, we will need to build up to slowdowns, walk-outs, and strikes. Our aims should be to commence labor action as soon as we have the strength to do so and the timing is right. Meaning our main goal is to use the one weapon we have at our disposal: the collective withholding of our labor. All of this should give us the ability to organize our shop committees into a united union of Amazon workers. We as Amazon workers have to take the momentum we gained from 2025 and transfer it into 2026 using the same methods we used last year. First, by basing ourselves on principles of the working class. Second, by uniting in class struggle for our everyday demands. All so we can unite in shop committees and organize a union that Amazon will not be able to stop.