After lying about the fact that some of his workers are under so much pressure that they are forced to release in bottles to meet their quotas, Amazon said quietly he said I’m sorry in his own very strange way and acknowledged that drivers actually do this. Then he pointed to other companies like UPS and Uber and said that the drivers from these companies do the same.
One news article posted late Friday before Easter, Amazon apologized to Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan, with whom he fought last week in a Twitter explosion of Bonkers over the issue of urinating in bottles. Pocan commented on another random and aggressive response from Amazon retail chief Dave Clark, who was fighting Senator Bernie Sanders because he was not progressive enough.
“Paying workers $ 15 / hour doesn’t make you a ‘progressive job’ when you unionize your bust and make workers urinate in water bottles.” Pocan posted on Twitter then.
And then, despite the fact that there is enough evidence that the company’s workers are, unfortunately, placed in situations that make them pee in bottles, Amazon has exploded and decided to lie. (If you are wondering, a Recode report states that the company’s aggressive communication movements came after CEO Jeff Bezos expressed his dissatisfaction that Amazon officials were not pushing back enough against “inaccurate” or “misleading” criticism).
“You don’t really believe in peeing in bottles, do you?” If it were true, no one 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 extraordinary salaries and health care from day one, ”the Amazon News account replied in a tweet la Pocan. “We hope you can adopt policies that get other employers to offer what we already do.”
G / O Media may receive a commission
The e-commerce giant’s response puzzled the internet and did not win many fans. After a few days on the subject, Amazon apparently decided it wasn’t the company’s best time.
In the news article, Amazon said that its tweet in response to Pocan was “incorrect” and did not take into account the large number of drivers, focusing instead only on employees in its fulfillment centers. The company also added that the tweet did not receive “adequate control” and did not meet its accuracy standards.
Both points are debatable. It should be said that the employees of the fulfillment centers not really easy to go to the bathroom, either. Employees at fulfillment centers have reported that they frequently pee to avoid spending “free time”, which some workers say can lead to disciplinary action and even termination, on the motherboard.
Amazon denies this, however, saying that in its fulfillment centers, employees can go to the bathroom at any time. Given that some employees claim that they do not even receive lunch breaks or rest due to the volume of work that the company accumulates, the claim is a bit hard to believe.
Now, here, Amazon has acknowledged the problem its drivers face on the road, forcing them to pee in bottles, but does not recognize its role in this regard, instead choosing to attribute this to traffic, rural routes and the pandemic. However, there was nothing in the company’s statement about the workload it puts on its drivers – motherboards often state that drivers 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 was especially the case during Covid, when many public toilets were closed, ”Amazon wrote. “This is a long-term problem at the industry level and is not specific to Amazon.”
The company added that although this was an industry-wide problem, it wanted to solve it, but did not yet know how to do it.
As if denying any responsibility wasn’t enough, Amazon continues to point the finger at other companies, such as Uber and UPS, whose drivers have also apparently relief themselves in bottles or other containers. It includes links to nine links to stories from other news outlets and even the Pew Charitable Trust, about Uber, UPS and other companies, and incorporates a handful of tweets from people who sympathize with his situation.
Honestly, it’s not a classic Amazon move here. These companies are in the spotlight right now because of the war they started on the tweet (however, who knows what the future depends on). And if that’s supposed to be an excuse, it doesn’t make sense to start saying, “Well, other companies do, too,” instead of understanding your mistakes. However, this does not mean that these companies do not deserve control.
But the biggest failure of Amazon’s strange excuses was probably the people it didn’t apologize to: its workers who are forced to release bottles and, frankly, anything else that isn’t a proper toilet. These are the people who is deprived of food and water while driving to the Amazon to avoid going to the bathroom, these are the people who are forced to pee and poop in extreme conditions, these are people who agree to be treated with less dignity because of fear to lose their job. It’s a fear that Amazon has created.
These are the people who deserved an apology. Pocan, the person who actually received it, issued the same call in a Post on Twitter on Saturday.
“I sigh. It’s not about me, it’s about your workers – who you don’t treat with enough respect or dignity,” he wrote. “Start by acknowledging the inadequate working conditions you have created for ALL of your workers. , then fix them for everyone and finally let them unite without interference. ”
You can read Amazon full apologies here.