After lying about the fact that some of his workers are under so much pressure who are forced to unload in bottles to meet their quotas, Amazon has done so quietly He said I’m sorry in his very strange way and acknowledged that drivers do in fact. He then quickly pointed the finger at other companies like UPS and Uber and said the drivers of those companies do the same.
In a news article published late Friday before Easter, Amazon apologized to Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan, with whom he fought in a Twitter bombing last week over the issue of urinating in bottles. Pocan commented on another aggressive and random response from Amazon’s chief trade officer Dave Clark, who was fighting with Senator Bernie Sanders for not being progressive enough.
“Paying workers $ 15 an hour doesn’t make you a ‘progressive job’ when you reject unions and make workers urinate in water bottles.” Pocan tweeted at the time.
And while there’s ample evidence that the company’s workers are sadly in situations that make them pee in bottles, Amazon exploded and he decided to lie. (In case you were wondering, a Recode report indicates that the company’s aggressive communication changes came later CEO Jeff Bezos expressed dissatisfaction that Amazon officials were not backing down enough against “inaccurate” or “misleading” criticism).
“You really don’t believe in urinating in bottles, do you? If that were true, no one would work for us. The truth is that we have more than a million amazing employees around the world who are proud of what they do and who have a great salary and medical care from day one, ”explains the Amazon News account. replied a tweet a Pocan. “We hope you can enact policies that make other employers offer what we already do.”
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The e-commerce giant’s response baffled the Internet and didn’t win over many fans. After being there for a few days, Amazon seems to have determined it wasn’t the company’s best time.
In the news article, Amazon said its tweet in response to Pocan had been “incorrect” and did not contemplate its large number of drivers, instead focusing only on employees of its compliance centers. The company also added that the tweet did not receive “proper control” and did not maintain its standards of accuracy.
Both points are debatable. It must be said that employees of compliance centers i don’t have it easily to go to the bathroom, either. Employees of compliance centers have reported that they often maintain a flat to avoid spending “free time,” which some workers say can lead to disciplinary action and even termination, for motherboard.
Amazon denies this, however, by saying that at its compliance centers employees can go to the bathroom at any time. Given that some employees claim they don’t even get it breaks to eat or rest because of the amount of work the company is stacking on them, this claim is a little hard to believe.
Now, this is where Amazon recognized the problem facing their drivers on the road that forces them to pee in bottles, but does not recognize at all their role in this, but chose to attribute it to traffic, to rural routes and the pandemic. However, there was nothing in the company’s statement about the workload it puts on its drivers, according to the motherboard states that drivers often offer. 300 packages a day in a 10-hour shift—And the consequences they face, including disciplinary action and termination, if they do not meet their productivity quotas.
“[W]We know that drivers can and have trouble finding toilets due to traffic or sometimes rural routes, and this has been especially the case during Covid, when many public restrooms have been closed, “Amazon wrote.” of a long-running theme across the industry and not specific to Amazon. “
The company added that while it was an industry-wide problem, it wanted to fix it, but still didn’t know how to do it.
As if that were not enough to deny any responsibility, Amazon continues to point the finger at other companies, such as Uber and UPS, whose drivers have apparently also had relieve themselves in bottles or other containers. It includes links to nine links to stories from other media, and even the Pew Charitable Trust, about Uber, UPS and other companies, and incorporates a handful of tweets from people who understand their situation.
Honestly, this is not an elegant move with Amazon. These companies are in the spotlight right now because of a tweet war that started (still, who knows what the future holds). And if that’s supposed to be an excuse, it doesn’t make sense exactly to start saying, “Well, so do other companies” instead of taking charge of your mistakes. However, this does not mean that these companies do not deserve control.
But the biggest failure of Amazon’s strange apology was probably the people it didn’t apologize to: its workers who are forced to relieve themselves in bottles and, frankly, anything other than a proper toilet. These are the people who deprive yourself of food and water while driving to Amazon to avoid going to the bathroom, these are the people who are forced to pee and poop in extreme conditions, they are people who accept to be treated with less dignity for fear of losing their job. It’s a fear that Amazon has created.
These are the people who deserved apologies. Pocan, the person who actually received it, made the same call to Twitter post on Saturday.
“She is OK. It is not about me, but about your workers, whom you do not treat with enough respect or dignity, ”he wrote. “Start by acknowledging the inadequate working conditions you have created for ALL your workers, then correct it for everyone, and finally let them unionize without interference.”
You can read those from Amazon apologize here.