Amazon apologized to a US congressman after scoffing allegations that its employees sometimes resorted to urinating in plastic bottles, saying that their reaction was a “against goal” and “incorrect” goal.
In a tweet posted last month, Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, criticized Amazon for its efforts to fight unions and a history of working conditions, drawing special attention to employees who did not have time to find and use a bathroom.
In response, Amazon tweeted: “You really don’t believe in this thing of peeing in bottles, do you? If that were true, no one would work for us. “
This generated a wave of negative reactions and several articles refuting Amazon’s position.
Most notably, The Intercept published a story detailing the internal correspondence of Amazon managers concerned about workers urinating and, in some cases, defecating, during delivery.
In a blog post, Amazon said its response “did not address our large driver population and instead erroneously focused only on our distribution centers,” indicating that it believed the problem was confined to its network of drivers. delivery.
“This was a goal against,” wrote Amazon. “We are unhappy with this and we owe an apology to Representative Pocan.”
He said the tweet did not receive “proper analysis” internally, but said the problems with drivers’ bathrooms were due to “traffic or sometimes rural routes”, a problem she said has increased due to public toilet closures related to Covid-19.
Amazon then listed a series of tweets and news articles that refer to the same problem involving companies like Uber and UPS. Uber declined to comment. It was not possible to contact a UPS spokesperson.
Amazon added: “Regardless of the fact that this is the entire industry, we would like to address it. We still don’t know how, but we will look for solutions. “
The apology comes when nearly 6,000 Amazon workers at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, await the results of a unionization vote. Counting is expected to begin next week. If the union is successful, it will be the first time that Amazon workers in the country have achieved collective bargaining power.
Supporters see the union movement, which has attracted considerable political support, as a potential starting point for action across the workforce of the United States-based e-commerce giant, which grew rapidly during the pandemic and now reaches more than 950,000 .
This number does not include your delivery drivers, who are hired by third parties. This weekend, several drivers pledged to quit their job in protest against what they consider unacceptable workloads, as Amazon continues to grapple with rising pandemic demand.
“197 stops, that’s ridiculous,” said a driver in a video posted on Reddit on Friday. “It is not realistic to do this in a reasonable amount of time. How safe is that? “
He added: “This needs to stop, we need to join a union. And by the way, yes, we all urinate in bottles – we have to. “