BiBottomBoy Posted September 22, 2011 Posted September 22, 2011 After reading this article about the conditions in Amazon's US warehouses I don't think I'll ever purchase anything from Amazon again. http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917,0,7937001,full.story They kept their workers locked inside the warehouses - where the temperature often was well over 100 degrees. They wouldn't open any doors or windows citing concerns of theft, even when people were collapsing from heat stroke on a regular basis. They knew it was bad news as well - because they kept paramedics on standby in the parking lot at all times outside the locked doors. This all came to light because an emergency room doctor got tired of treating near death Amazon workers on a daily basis and called OSHA. They also had this weird employment system where employees were reprimanded and eventually fired, not by a real person but by a computer. What would happen is that if you were even a few seconds behind schedule on how many boxes you packed in a given hour - which you might be during a heat wave - the computer automatically gave you a demerit. When you hit a given number of demerits the computer then automatically notified security who then appeared to tell you you were fired and immediately escort you out the door (which, I guess was the one situation where they were willing to risk having fresh air come inside the warehouse.) It's really disgusting. Quote
Guest EXPAT Posted September 22, 2011 Posted September 22, 2011 If this is true it is horrible, but for some reason this doesn't sound plausible in this day and age. It sounds like an exaggeration potentially. Quote
Guest hitoallusa Posted September 22, 2011 Posted September 22, 2011 The economy being bad as it is, I think it's likely. I should not shop at Amazon any more. I buy my books near at a local book store or go to the library anyway. Quote
BiBottomBoy Posted September 22, 2011 Author Posted September 22, 2011 Except that after they got caught Amazon admitted it and in response to all the angry phone calls/emails etc... has agreed to buy ice machines and install air conditioning units. But they didn't do that until they were caught and if they hadn't been reported by that emergency room doctor you know it would still be going on. http://gawker.com/5842700/amazon-recruits-medics-for-its-sweatshop Quote
Guest EXPAT Posted September 22, 2011 Posted September 22, 2011 When I hear stories like this I try to find other big name media sources that are following it and so far I haven't found one. Have you found an article about this in the NYTimes or Washington Post as an example? I've been searching and I haven't found one yet. I know big companies are good at keeping bad stories at bay, but usually it's covered somewhere. Because this is an outrageous OSHA violation that could kill that business if found true and prevalent throughout their business. I have found it in some blog articles but I'm not confident that they are using proper journalistic confirmation. Quote
BiBottomBoy Posted September 22, 2011 Author Posted September 22, 2011 MSNBC http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/21/7879007-heated-tales-from-an-amazoncom-warehouse Time Magazine http://techland.time.com/2011/09/21/amazon-employees-carried-out-of-115-degree-warehouse-by-paramedics/ The New York Times http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/inside-amazons-very-hot-warehouse/ Quote
Guest JamesIvory Posted September 22, 2011 Posted September 22, 2011 Interesting articles. We might be seeing the beginning of a major story about to explode here. If all of this is true I wonder how other Amazon shipping centers employees are being treated and why we have not heard from them. Especially since the lid appears to be off the jar now. Thanks for posting the info / links. Quote
Members TampaYankee Posted September 22, 2011 Members Posted September 22, 2011 Interesting articles. We might be seeing the beginning of a major story about to explode here. If all of this is true I wonder how other Amazon shipping centers employees are being treated and why we have not heard from them. Especially since the lid appears to be off the jar now. Thanks for posting the info / links. It is situations like this where unions earn their stripes. Such conditions were commonplace before the era of unions. It seems they might be back on the rise with diminished union influence over the last few decades. Unions brought us humane working conditions, living wages, and some excesses too. Doing away with them will not benefit the American worker. Quote
BiBottomBoy Posted September 22, 2011 Author Posted September 22, 2011 Tampa, your response is so good I'd give you a blow job for it if I was near you. Quote
Members TampaYankee Posted September 22, 2011 Members Posted September 22, 2011 It is situations like this where unions earn their stripes. Such conditions were commonplace before the era of unions. It seems they might be back on the rise with diminished union influence over the last few decades. Unions brought us humane working conditions, living wages, and some excesses too. Doing away with them will not benefit the American worker. UPS also runs an abusive employee operation too or did. They have deliveries planned out to the second. If you aren't aware, on most deliveries the driver just leaves the package. He may or may not ring the doorbell then he is off to keep up with the clock they have him on. My son worked for them one holiday season. He screwed up a knee keeping up with the schedule jumping off and on the truck and running back upon package drop to meet the schedule for the next stop. I'm sure conditions are no better for FEDEX and other delivery companies too. They also keep many workers on part time to avoid benefits and organizing efforts. they pay fairly well but they work the employess hard. Quote
Members RA1 Posted September 22, 2011 Members Posted September 22, 2011 I heard from some of my friends who are FEDEX captains the same kind of complaints. They schedule us down to the last minute, etc. When we have flown a transcon at night, just because we have 45 minutes of duty time left does not mean it is "safe" to run us to another nearby city. We haven't had a raise in years, etc., etc. They all shut up when UA went bankrupt. FEDEX has never laid off a pilot. Now, I certainly realize that prima donna airline captains who make 200,000 a year are not in the same category as the worker bees driving the trucks. They all are perfectly capable of griping and also can leave any time they don't like it. Pilots cannot move so easily. A captain who leaves his airline and is hired by another has the lowest seniority and will not be a captain immediately for that airline. Here I mean the flag carriers, not necessarily the commuters. During the last 34 years that I have had an office on the airport, I have had UPS and FEDEX come by every week day. They have all seemed relatively happy with their jobs and always had a "quick" moment to talk (and complain, if they wished). This is far from a scientific study and I am sure they had compalints that I did not know about. I know the "hubites" often had complaints. I have known quite a few of those also. They are the workers who are at the FEDEX hub from mid-night until at least 0400 to do the package sort. Even though they may work only 28-30 hours or so per week and often have other jobs or are full time students, they are "full" employees at FEDEX with benefits. I have yet to find the perfect job, even mine isn't perfect. Best regards, RA1 Quote
Members lookin Posted September 23, 2011 Members Posted September 23, 2011 Tampa, your response is so good I'd give you a blow job for it if I was near you. This is the kind of acknowledgement and support that keeps posters coming back to MER! Lucky recently asked for fresh ideas as he considered a new format for the August Challenge, and I think this one may be a real contender. Back to topic, I've been dreading the day I'd have to leave Amazon behind, as my experiences have been nothing but positive so far. This is distressing news, but it needs to be heard. I hope Amazon will step up and fix what's wrong. TY, your post is spot on. A BJ seems the least we can do. Quote
BiBottomBoy Posted September 23, 2011 Author Posted September 23, 2011 That's interesting about FedEx. I have to admit that when I heard about states trying to ban unions my first thought was that they are trying to bring back the bygone era of zero workers rights. I think a lot of companies want to go by the wal-mart model of essentially turning workers into slaves and giving them zero power to do anything about their horrible working conditions and low wages. That's why it's interesting to me how many people vote for these types of politicians. The last time we had slaves in America we had to drag them here in chains. This time we are voting for our own enslavement. Quote
