Amazon is telling cash-strapped workers at one warehouse to write letters to Amazon’s mascot for a chance to win some extra money for the holidays.
The program, which started on Nov. 19, took the form of a flyer distributed to warehouse employees, according to the Guardian.
“Are you or someone you know facing financial hardship this holiday season? Peccy wants to help!” read the flyer, which was discovered at the SWF1 Amazon warehouse in Rock Tavern, New York. “Write a letter to Peccy, if the Peccy team selects you, some of your holiday wishes could come true!”
Peccy is an orange blob-like mascot that the company claims represents its “peculiar ways”, an Amazon HR director told Fast Company.
— Michael Sainato (@msainat1) December 18, 2023
“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,” Keith Williams, a worker at the SWF1 warehouse, told the Guardian. (RELATED: Automakers Lay Off More Workers As Strike Takes Its Toll)
“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,” Williams continued.
In Amazon’s most recent quarterly report, they noted a gain of 13 percent in revenue over the past three months and almost tripled their profits since a year prior.
“This was a well-intentioned holiday-giving initiative that received a lot of positive feedback from employees,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an email obtained by the Guardian, “However, our team is aware of the potential negative perception it created and apologize to anyone who may have been offended.”