Amazon kicked off the vacation weekend by backtracking barely on a social media offensive that unfolded within the waning days of a historic unionization vote. The earlier feedback reportedly arrived as Jeff Bezos was pushing for a extra aggressive technique.
Along with taking over Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the Amazon News Twitter account went toe to toe with Congressman, Mark Pocan. The Wisconsin Democrat cited oft-reported tales of Amazon employees urinating in bottles in response to feedback from Consumer CEO, Dave Clark.
“You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?” the account requested. “If that were true, nobody would work for us. The truth is that we have over a million incredible employees around the world who are proud of what they do, and have great wages and health care from day one.”
The Congressman’s preliminary response was pithy and to the purpose: “[Y]es, I do believe your workers. You don’t?”
Subsequent stories have served to cement these tales. One referred to as the urination challenge “widespread” amongst Amazon drivers, including that defecation had additionally, reportedly, grow to be an issue. Last evening, the corporate supplied a mea culpa of kinds, saying it “owe[s] an apology to Representative Pocan.”
Things break down a bit from there. Amazon’s apology acknowledges that employees peeing in bottles is a factor, however seems to suggest that it’s restricted to drivers and never the success middle workers on the middle of this massive scale unionization effort. From there, the corporate provides that drivers peeing in bottles is an “industry-wide issue and is not specific to Amazon.”
The firm helpfully features a checklist of hyperlinks and tweets which can be, at very least, an indictment of the gig financial system and the remedy of blue collar employees, typically. Essentially, Amazon is admitting to being part of the issue, whereas working to unfold the blame throughout an admittedly defective system.
Reports of employees urinating in bottles additionally transcend drivers, together with tales of warehouse staff resorting to the act with a view to meet stringent quotas.
“A typical Amazon fulfillment center has dozens of restrooms, and employees are able to step away from their work station at any time,” firm writes within the put up attributed to nameless Amazon Staff. “If any employee in a fulfillment center has a different experience, we encourage them to speak to their manager and we’ll work to fix it.”
Union vote counting for the corporate’s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse started final week. Results might have a wide-ranging impression on each Amazon and the trade at giant.
