Just a couple of hours before midnight on July 23, Italo Medelius-Marsano decided to begin a 40-day hunger strike to demand better working conditions in the warehouses of Amazon.com, the global technology and e-commerce company. During that period, he would only consume water.
“I decided to go on a hunger strike primarily to emphasize that this fight to start a union at Amazon is not a game, it’s incredibly serious, and it’s a matter of life and death,” Medelius-Marsano told Enlace Latino NC, on day 38 of his hunger strike.
“I started the strike like this, more or less impulsively, and I did it quietly, but on the 10th or 12th, I decided to make it public,” he added.
On the 33rd day of the strike, Medelius-Marsano participated in a press conference in which he acknowledged that "he did not know that the human body could withstand so many days without eating."
“And here I am, still standing, working every day,” Medelius-Marsano declared. Although he claims to feel “spiritually strong,” he acknowledges that brain fog and short-term memory loss have begun to affect him.
“My mind is starting to fail a little; I don’t clearly remember what I did yesterday,” he added on day 33.
Four years of complaints about working conditions at Amazon
His employment with the company is not new. Medelius-Marsano has worked at Amazon fulfillment centers in North Carolina since 2022. He started at the RDU1 facility in Garner and, since early 2026, has been working as an associate at the SNC3 center in Durham.
During this time, he also assumed the role of secretary of Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE), an independent, worker-led union that seeks to organize Amazon employees in North Carolina. In that role, Medelius-Marsano has publicly denounced the precarious working conditions which, he says, is what workers face in these centers.
In 2025, during the first mobilizations to organize a trade union in Durham, declared to Enlace Latino NC :
“Working conditions are very precarious compared to what we should have in the United States,” he said.
With the hunger strike, Medelius-Marsano seeks to bring attention to the demands that CAUSE has been making for years, including holding town hall meetings and opening talks with Amazon to demand better working conditions, higher wages, and greater safety measures. However, he maintains that, after years of complaints, formal channels for reaching agreements with the company have been exhausted.
“We’ve been fighting this battle against Amazon for four years. And sometimes, doing it the right way or in a nice way just doesn’t work,” he explained.
Now, what began as an individual decision by Medelius-Marsano has solidified into a structural complaint against a corporation that workers accuse of prioritizing efficiency metrics over the health of its staff.
“These corporate empires don’t care, not even when people are dying and dropping like flies inside their facilities,” he added.
The activist was referring to the recent deaths of workers at the RDU 1 plant in Garner.
Regarding fatalities in RDU 1
The most recent incident occurred on March 1, 2026, when, according to CAUSE, an employee suffered a cardiac collapse on the fourth floor of the facility during his workday.
Brad Glasser, Amazon's corporate communications representative, told Enlace Latino NC that the employee had a personal health problem before starting his shift.
“He was conscious and talking with our center’s security team, who provided initial assistance and escorted him to our internal wellness center for an evaluation. As a precaution, we contacted local emergency services; after the evaluation, the employee declined to be taken to the hospital and decided to leave on his own,” Glasser explained.
This death adds to the one recorded on July 20, 2025 in the same Garner warehouse, when another worker, employed by an external contractor of the company, lost his life after suffering health complications at the establishment.
“Our team immediately called 911 and performed CPR until the local emergency medical services arrived and transported him to the hospital. We were deeply saddened to learn that he later passed away,” Glasser said.
According to Amazon, the incident on July 20, 2025 was determined to be non-work-related. Enlace Latino NC He contacted the North Carolina Department of Labor (NCDOL) to verify that classification, but did not receive a response before the publication of this article.
Disputed emergency policies
According to members of CAUSE, these incidents have worsened due to internal guidelines that allegedly delay 911 emergency calls.
According to Medelius-Marsano, in the March 1 incident, one of the workers present at the plant was an immigrant and “was afraid to call 911 because of what [management] tells us, as Amazon workers.”
Regarding the internal guideline that discourages calling 911, Amazon told this publication that “there are no policies restricting who can call 911 from the premises,” and added that “any employee is encouraged to call 911 in an emergency and, if unable to do so, should immediately notify management.”
However, company employees interviewed by Enlace Latino NC They pointed out that there are practical obstacles to carrying out such notification.
Workers' fear in the workforce
Reverend Ryan Brown, an Amazon employee at RDU1 from September 2019 to December 2024 and founder of CAUSE, told Enlace Latino NC that according to his experience at RDU1, there was a real fear among workers of reporting security problems and calling 911 directly.
“Personally, I witnessed countless times how employees were discouraged from calling 911 during emergencies. They were expected to follow Amazon’s internal emergency response protocol instead,” Brown said.
Brown added that during his time on staff, it was comprised mostly of African American and Latino workers, including many Spanish speakers. This led him to directly question management about whether anyone on the emergency medical staff was bilingual; the answer was no.
“That response troubled me, because an emergency doesn’t wait for an interpreter to arrive. When someone is having trouble breathing, experiencing chest pain, or trying to explain what’s happening to their body, the ability to communicate can be a matter of life or death,” Brown explained.
Beyond the fear, and despite the fact that Brown no longer works at the facility, the experiences he recounted to Enlace Latino NC Regarding automated scanning, productivity metrics and working conditions in the workforce are similar to those of other workers currently employed in state centers.
The work environment: the voice of the workers
Liam, an associate at the SNC3 rapid delivery center in Durham, told Enlace Latino NC Direct contact with human supervisory personnel is limited, as daily operational management is primarily carried out through algorithms and digital applications.
According to their testimony, when security incidents or medical emergencies occur on the premises, management also rarely issues official notifications, forcing employees to rely on informal networks and peer feedback to learn about the internal situation.
“There was a stabbing a few months ago, I think at the beginning of the summer, and we didn’t receive any communication about it from our employer: no email, nothing through the app,” Liam explained.
This lack of direct channels is compounded by an automated monitoring environment which, according to testimonies, makes it difficult for staff to stop their work to ask for help.
Edgar Arrieta, an employee of the SNC3 center and member of the CAUSE union, described Enlace Latino NC the intensity of daily monitoring:
“There’s so much surveillance and constant monitoring of everything you do that they usually already know before you even tell them,” he explained. Arrieta added that working under these conditions “definitely creates that feeling that you’re always being watched and that you always have to be on your toes.”
This tracking is done using productivity algorithms that record work breaks. Arrieta explained that if employees go to the bathroom and leave their workstations, the system records the inactivity as "Time Off Task" (TOT).
“Even if you were fast, they deduct a few minutes when they check your time card,” Arrieta explained.
The pressure of automated metrics is framed within the contractual vulnerability of the workforce. Enlace Latino NC He acquired the contractual document from Medelius-Marsano at the SNC3 plant, which mentions that associates operate under the condition of "at-will employment," and specifies that "both you and the Company may terminate the employment relationship at any time and for any reason, with or without cause."
For several workers, this fear of discretionary dismissal in a digitally controlled environment leads Liam to describe the warehouse atmosphere as "laboratories of authoritarianism".
The demand for collective dialogue
It is in this context that CAUSE, together with Medelius-Marsano, justifies its demands for community assemblies in the warehouses.
“The town hall is really for transparency,” Arrieta stated.
Amazon responded that they maintain “an open-door policy and our leaders are always available to talk to employees, listen to their feedback and address any questions or concerns.”
However, this call for collective dialogue has also garnered support from federal congresspeople from North Carolina. On February 20, 2026, Valerie Foushee, Representative for District 4, sent a formal letter to the management of three Amazon fulfillment centers in Durham, Smithfield, and Garner. In it, she urged them to schedule these assemblies at the centers.
Foushee also warned in her letter that the company's refusal "raises serious questions about transparency, accountability, and respect for the local workforce." She also asked the company to provide a written response with a proposed timeline. However, Medelius-Marsano said the company has not responded to the legislator.
Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Representative Foushee's letter. Enlace Latino NC He will update this note with his statement.
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State inspections of two Amazon centers remain open s
Over a five-year period, from 2021 to 2026, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has conducted nine inspections at Amazon facilities in North Carolina.
Two of these are currently open:
- A planned security inspection for the center located in Smithfield, opening on July 20, 2026.
- A "complaint" security inspection for the DRT7 center located in Garner, opened on July 6, 2026.
Although worker complaints can lead to inspections, the state also conducts planned inspections. According to OSHA's official inspection fact sheet, these can target specific high-risk industries or workplaces that have reported high rates of injuries and illnesses.
Under this criterion, the inspection currently underway at the Smithfield center is classified as a scheduled full inspection.
While Medelius-Marsano prepares to end his hunger strike this Wednesday, September 2, the state review process of these two Amazon facilities in the state remains open.
For these cases, the NCDOL's Division of Planning, Statistics and Management of Occupational Safety and Health Information pointed to Enlace Latino NC that “the inspection process is not complete at this time”, specifying that the information from the files will be sent to this media outlet once the “compliance determinations or corresponding citations” are issued.
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