Amazon issued an apology on Friday for a tweet last week denying allegations by some Amazon workers that they worked so hard that they were forced to urinate in plastic bottles instead of going to the bathroom.
The Amazon News account tweet came in response for a post from Rep. Mark Pocan
Mark William PocanWhite House delays budget plan launch Intercept reporter: ‘There’s no way’ Amazon management didn’t know about the ‘routine’ of peeing in bottles Union President: Amazon’s ‘progressive workplace’ claims are ‘outrageous’ and ‘deaf’ MORE (D-Wis.), Who commented on the claims of a “progressive workplace” by Amazon’s chief consumer, Dave Clark.
“Paying workers $ 15 / hour doesn’t make you a ‘progressive workplace’ when you break the union and make workers urinate in water bottles,” tweeted Pocan.
Amazon stepped back in its own tweet, writing: “You really don’t believe in this thing about peeing in bottles, do you?”
“If that were true, no one would work for us,” added the report at the time. “The truth is that we have over a million amazing employees around the world who are proud of what they do and receive great salaries and health care from day one.”
1/2 You really don’t believe in this pee in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, no one would work for us. The truth is that we have over a million amazing employees around the world who are proud of what they do and receive great salaries and health care from day one.
– Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 25, 2021
Amazon apologized on Friday for its response, writing in a blog post, “It was a goal against, we are unhappy with that and we owe an apology to Representative Pocan. “
“First, the tweet was incorrect,” said Amazon. “It didn’t look at our large driver population and instead erroneously focused only on our call centers.” The company noted that these locations generally have “dozens of bathrooms and employees can move away from their workstation at any time”.
“If any employee at a distribution center has a different experience, we encourage you to speak to your manager and we will work to fix it,” added the multinational technology giant.
Amazon also said that the tweet “has not received due scrutiny”, recognizing the “need to stay on an extremely high accuracy bar at all times, and this is especially true when we are criticizing other people’s comments”.
The corporation admitted that Amazon drivers, in particular, may “have trouble finding toilets because of traffic or sometimes rural routes, and this has been especially the case during Covid, when many public toilets have been closed.”
“This is a long-standing problem that spans the entire industry and is not specific to Amazon,” added the post before including a series of links to additional news about hitchhiking drivers and delivery company workers struggling to find toilets accessible while working.
Amazon went on to say, “Despite the fact that this is the entire industry, we would like to resolve it. We still don’t know how, but we will look for solutions. ”
Several Twitter users criticized Amazon for its response last week, including Pocan himself, who tweeted: “And yes, I believe in your workers. You do not want? “
Since 2018, some Amazon workers have made allegations that they were forced to urinate in bottles, as well as other allegations of abuse by workers, including that pregnant workers were forced to stand for hours on their shifts and were repeatedly targeted. resignation.