House Committee Opens Investigation Into Amazon's Labor Practices.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has opened an investigation into Amazon's labor practices during severe weather events, according to a letter members sent to Andy Jassy, Amazon's chief executive. From a report: "We are concerned by recent reports that Amazon may be putting the health and safety of its workers at risk, including by requiring them to work in dangerous conditions during tornadoes, hurricanes and other extreme weather," said the letter, signed by the committee chairwoman, Carolyn B. Maloney, as well as Representatives Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The investigation will focus on the December tornado that hit Amazon's delivery station in Edwardsville, Ill., killing six people. Most people at the facility were not Amazon's direct employees. They were subcontracted delivery drivers, a complication that impeded the response when the authorities could not readily determine how many people were on site. The facility did not have a tornado safe room, which was not required by building code. At least one subcontracted driver was told to keep delivering during the storm, according to text messages Bloomberg News published.

I boycott amazon

[djp2204]

There is no product or service that I purchase from amazon, and I will do without before I purchase form any company owned by amazon. The issues outlined here explain why.

God I wish this was an April Fools...

[aaarrrgggh]

Really sick how stupid some companies have become. The whole "subcontracting" thing really needs to be addressed as well, although I do appreciate the complexity for a subset of cases.

Friendly fire

[sinij]

Nothing going to happen, Amazon is on their team and blue collar workers are seen as Trump-voting deplorables. Therefore, we already know how this investigation going to conclude.

Re:

[chadenright]

I think if they really wanted to go for Amazon's blood they'd open an investigation into Amazon's role as a vector for spreading Covid to its subcontractors and employees during the pandemic. Amazon has enough money to outright buy off any serious trouble, though. Might need to ask the EU for help on this one since the US has no balls where money is concerned.

Robots, the way forward

[backslashdot]

Automation is the only way to get things done. Humans are incapable of being happy with their pay and work. It is basically impossible to have humans do things for pay and them not to discriminate and harass others and/or for them to not perceive themselves as harassed or mistreated. It is very dangerous to hire people, you never know if they will harass a coworker or claim they were harassed by one. What if you say something that offends them? You cannot win. If you get sued you are fucked financially and

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

Automation is the only way to get things done.

Amazon has poured billions into R&D on robots and warehouse automation. They have been working on it for decades. It is surprising how little progress they made. Most items are still picked by humans.

Re:

[backslashdot]

They need to force their vendors to deliver everything in robot friendly packaging.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

You, sir, have a very poor opinion of people. Where I live, people typically enjoy each others' company & seek out opportunities to gather in public & share time doing whatever together. They like their families, friends, neighbours & colleagues. On the other hand, I guess if you treat the majority of people badly & pit them against each other for long enough, they might eventually get a bit unkind towards their family, neighbours & colleagues... kind of like a massive, ongoing version o

Re:

[backslashdot]

That might be most people, but there is a small but real percentage of people who aren't like that. Fact is fact.

In New York they just unionized

[rsilvergun]

And it's bound to spread from there. It'll be hard in the deep South since they have a lot of corruption but expect the rest of the country to start unionizing Amazon warehouses. If we can get Walmart employees to join in that'll be a good percentage of American workers returning the unions.

Police have unions. Doctors have unions. Even Tucker Carlson pays somebody to negotiate on his behalf he just calls it an agent instead of a union.

If unions didn't work companies wouldn't spend millions trying to stop them. People say they were corrupt but why not just fix the corruption? If your car needed an oil change what you set it on fire? Corruption in any large organization is just basic maintenance.

But that's not the point is it? At the union people complain about corruption not because they believe that shit but for the same reason you see political attack ads talking about generic moral failings instead of policy. They're just trying to play on your emotions and creative vague connection between unpleasant feelings and unions.

We need to learn how propaganda works and how people manipulate us.

Kill the good

[groobly]

Amazon as a provider of retail services is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Like anything else that is amazingly good, the Democrats want to kill it.

Re:

[Klaxton]

Why are you so eager to put the health and safety of Amazon workers at risk?