By R. Allen Wight
On July 24, Italo Medelius-Marsano began his 40-day hunger strike, during which he has not eaten any food and is only drinking water. Italo will end his strike on September 2, during Mass at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.
Italo is making three demands of Amazon.
- End policies or practices that discourage workers from directly contacting 911 during medical emergencies before going through Amazon’s internal response system.
- Hold open town halls with workers at RDU1, RDU5, SNC3, HRD2, and DRT8 so workers can openly raise their concerns and be heard.
- Immediately enter good-faith negotiations with the Amazon Labor Union-IBT1 (ALU) in Staten Island and agree to a fair contract.
The Circumstances
Italo’s decision to undertake this 40-day hunger strike—and his unwavering conviction throughout it—indicate the seriousness of the circumstances.
NC’s Amazon worker movement, Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE), told TFP that the hunger strike “grew out of concerns raised by workers about health and safety, workers’ ability to speak collectively about conditions inside Amazon facilities, and Amazon’s continued refusal to meaningfully engage with organized Amazon workers.”
Two Amazon employees at RDU1 have died while working this year. The first experienced a medical emergency on March 1. According to CAUSE, managers on duty did not call 911 and told his co-workers to stop rendering aid and go back to work. Amazon’s Wellness staff did not arrive for over 30 minutes. He was sent home and died the next day.
This was not unprecedented. Another co-worker died on July 22, 2025 in the warehouse. In both instances, management did not communicate anything regarding these deaths to the rest of the workers at RDU1, which numbers almost 5,000.
Throughout his hunger strike, Italo has continued working at Amazon in the VNA warehouse, which stands for ‘Very Narrow Aisle.’ VNA is where high-weight merchandise is manually loaded on and off of forklifts and other heavy machinery.
By August 24, Italo lost a total of 35 pounds (lbs), weighing in at 115 lbs. CAUSE told TFP how “deeply rooted” this strike is “in Italo’s Catholic culture and the tradition of fasting as a form of struggle-based sacrifice.”
CAUSE continued, saying it “was intended as an escalation to Amazon and the broader community to recognize the dignity and voices of Amazon workers. It was time to differentiate between a protest and a battle, where people are dying and losing their lives within one of the largest corporate empires in the history of the world.”
What Can We Do?
There are ways we can stand up for Amazon workers as they stand up for themselves.
- Share the hunger strike and CAUSE’s demands publicly and on social media.
- Encourage faith, labor, and community organizations to publicly express solidarity with Amazon workers.
- Follow and share CAUSE’s work on social media and their website, amazoncause.com, so that the attention generated by the hunger strike translates into lasting worker organization.
- Join CAUSE’s community committee to help local Amazon workers on the ground and take on Amazon directly through direct action – to join they can email us at communications@amazoncause.com.
Allen lives in Durham, NC, and is a contributing writer for Triangle Free Press.