Amazon apologized for disputing a lawmaker’s claim that its workers urinate in bottles, admitting in a Friday blog post that it was “incorrect” to deny the report. The online retailer said the problem affects drivers and not employees of its many stores in the United States
Questions about whether Amazon workers who operate with severe time restrictions sometimes resort to urinating in bottles appear in a 2018 book by The British journalist James Bloodworth, who set out to work briefly in an Amazon warehouse while documenting the difficulties of low-wage work in the UK. On his own, he came across what looked like a bottle of urine hidden on a shelf in the warehouse, which he assumed was a solution for workers to the difficulty of expressing themselves in bathroom breaks at the facility. massive lations.
Until his apology, Amazon had completely refuted these accounts. “You don’t really believe in peeing in bottles, do you? If that were true, no one would work for us,” the company’s Amazon News account posted on March 24 in response to criticism from Rep. Mark Pocan that the online monster was not enlightened in his work practices just because he offered a minimum wage of $ 15 per hour.
While Amazon denied these reports, other reporters documented company employees who relied on bottles to relieve themselves. Last month, Intercept released internal Amazon documents denouncing workers for “public urination” and “public defecation,” while one worker reported receiving an email from management telling drivers to check their vans to find “urine bottles” and to report these “infractions”. “
At the same time, Amazon has fought a number of other complaints about workers ’conditions, such as a lawsuit filed by New York State alleging that the company he could not protect the workers of COVID-19. Investors are also pushing Amazon to change, including the CtW Investment Group, which represents pension funds of about 5 million union workers.
“Very important symbol”
Amidst these challenges for Amazon, it is the reports of employees peeing in bottles that have galvanized the attention and sympathy of the public. Bloodworth told CBS MoneyWatch this month that his description of finding a bottle full of what looked and smelled like urine was a “throw line” in a book on low-wage working conditions.
“It has become an iconic image because we are talking about the richest multinational in the world headed by the richest man in the world and yet you have a staff that, in my own experience, was afraid to take breaks in the bathroom, “Bloodworth told CBS MoneyWatch earlier this month. “That’s pretty shocking in the 21st century.”
The issue has also been controlled by investors. CtW Investment Group CEO Dieter Waizenegger told CBS MoneyWatch that its pension funds care about workers’ conditions and that the company wants to ensure these values are reflected in its investments. The investment group, which owns 900,000 shares of Amazon and manages $ 250 billion in assets, has contacted Amazon to improve workplace conditions, such as improving health and safety protections.
“The urine in the bottles is basically a very important symbol, but it’s part of a much bigger picture,” Waizenegger said. “If you invest in your workers and give them good working conditions and a certain sense of dignity and respect, they will work harder for you.”
Amazon did not immediately return any feedback requests.
The experience of a former worker
While Amazon acknowledged that sometimes its drivers may resort to peeing in bottles, it described a different situation in its stores.
“A typical Amazon compliance center has dozens of bathrooms and employees can leave their workstation at any time. If an employee of a compliance center has a different experience, we encourage them to talk to their manager. and we will work to fix it, ”the company said Friday.
But former warehouse workers say it can be a challenge to take a break in the bathroom, given their 15-minute breaks and the vast spaces they sometimes have to travel to get there. Chris Smalls, a former assistant warehouse manager at Amazon who was fired in March 2020 after arranging an outing due to a lack of precautions to stop COVID-19 infections, said it was not easy to use the toilet.
Smalls told CBS MoneyWatch that workers “are located until the second,” adding that the store’s restrooms are usually a five- to ten-minute walk from a worker’s station, making it difficult to use the toilet in a 15 minute break. If workers spent time off, managers would write to them, Smalls said, which could end up causing dismissal.
As a supervisor, he said workers approached him with complaints about not having enough time to use the toilet. “I would say,‘ You can use the bathroom, ’but I had to warn them about the repercussions of going over time,” he recounted.
Once, Smalls added, human feces were found in a warehouse step, which he believed was due to a worker not being able to get to the toilet in time.
Smalls said his recommendation would be for Amazon to stop tracking workers when they use the toilet. “This time should not be used at all against them,” he said. “This is a human right.”
All eyes on the Alabama warehouse
The latest check on Amazon’s work practices reaches approximately 6,000 workers at a company warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, awaiting the results of a vote last month whether to unionize, which represents the largest labor push in the history of the retailer.
If the vote supports unionization, it could encourage more warehouse workers to unionize or demand better working conditions, according to experts. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store union, which led the union in Bessemer, declined to comment because votes are currently being counted.
Amazon’s initial response last month to criticism from Rep. Pocan, who claimed people wouldn’t work for the company if those stories were true, echoes the logic other employers have historically used to not provide sites. of safe and health work, said Professor Rebecca Givan: Associate Professor in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University.
“” If the children didn’t want to work in the mines, why would they take on that job? If people didn’t want to be sexually harassed, why did they work there? “It’s insulting because it dishonors workers who have bills and mouths to feed,” he said.
Even if the union vote fails, Amazon is likely to continue to be subject to scrutiny by customers and other stakeholders, according to experts. A vote against unionization will also highlight the problems faced by low-wage workers at a time of enormous wealth creation for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and investors.
“A lot of workers, especially lower wages, don’t have many options,” Givan said. “I don’t think we are able to conclude that these workers don’t want to have a voice at work, but it’s extremely difficult to organize” under current legislation.