Amazon.com Inc apologized to US Representative Mark Pocan, D-Wis., Admitting that he scored a “own goal” in his initial denial of his suggestion that his drivers were sometimes forced to urinate in bottles during delivery rounds. .
“We know that drivers can and have difficulty finding restrooms because of traffic or sometimes rural routes, and this was especially the case during Covid, when many public restrooms were closed,” the company said in a blog.
His admission came a week after the Democrat criticized Amazon’s working conditions, saying in a tweet: “Paying workers $ 15 / hour doesn’t make you a ‘progressive workplace’ when you break the union and make workers urinate in water bottles ”.
Amazon initially denied it, saying in a tweet: “You really don’t believe in this thing about peeing in bottles, do you? If that were true, no one would work for us. ”But later he withdrew those comments.
“That was a goal of its own, we are dissatisfied with that and we owe an apology to Representative Pocan,” said Amazon in its blog post, adding that its previous response referred only to staff at its warehouses or distribution centers.
The company said that the problem covers the entire sector and that it will seek solutions, without specifying which ones they will be.
Amazon’s apology comes at a time when Alabama warehouse workers are waiting for a vote count that could result in the online retailer’s first syndicated installation in the United States and set a watershed for organized work.
Amazon has long discouraged attempts to organize its more than 800,000 American employees. The claims of many workers in a strenuous or unsafe workplace have made unionizing the company a key goal for the United States labor movement.