Amazon is trying a new tactic in its never-ending public relations battle against stories of its exhausting and exploitative working conditions: total denial. Is not working.
When responding to a tweet from Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) complaining about the company’s tactics to fight unions and the fact that some of its workers are forced to “urinate in water bottles”, Amazon’s official Twitter account answered: “You really don’t believe in this thing of peeing in bottles, do you? If that were true, no one would work for us. “
But people believe these stories and for a very simple reason: there are countless reports of this happening, documented by officials and journalists around the world.
In fact, after Amazon sent its ill-judged tweet, reporters covering the company’s labor practices practically lined up to flood the company with evidence. Among them is English journalist James Bloodworth, whose 2018 book Hired: Six months undercover in Britain on low wages documented his experience of underpaid work for companies like Amazon:
Bloodworth’s book has led to some of the most widely shared stories about Amazon workers being forced to pee in bottles to save time while meeting the company’s goals, but he is far from the only one to document this exact example of poor living conditions. Work.
Here’s Will Evans from The Center of Investigative Reporting:
And Lauren Kaori Gurley’s Motherboard. (Gurley also wrote a story with photographic evidence, including several examples of the subreddit for Amazon delivery drivers.)
And Ken Bensinger’s BuzzFeed News:
And Alex Press’s Jacobin, who shares a much darker anecdote from an Amazon worker who suffered a seizure at one of the company’s facilities:
In fact, while Amazon is trying to refute the “pee in bottles” stories that have become an abbreviation for the company’s dire working conditions, they are only the tip of the iceberg.
Other evidence includes the high injury rates in Amazon’s warehouses (7.7 serious injuries per 100 employees); employees dying of COVID-19 after complaints that the company was not doing enough to mitigate the risks of the virus; widespread breakdown of unions; production targets that treat humans like robots; and horrible anecdotes like the story of the Amazon worker who died of a heart attack and, say colleagues, was left at the workplace for 20 minutes before receiving treatment.
Amazon denied this last story, of course, saying it responded to the man’s collapse “in minutes”. But Amazon proved its willingness to edit reality. And if the company is happy to suggest that its employees never pee in bottles, despite many reports to the contrary, it is difficult to take the company’s “truth” seriously.