Amazon Strikes Again Studet News Daily
R ina Cummings has worked three 12-hour shifts every week at Amazon'southward gargantuan New York City warehouse, chosen JFK8, on Staten Island since it first began operations in late 2018. As a sorter on the outbound ship dock, her job is to inspect and scan a mandated rate of 1,800 Amazon packages an 60 minutes – 30 per minute – that are sent through a chute and transported on a conveyor chugalug before leaving the facility for commitment.
Workers such equally Cummings helped Amazon achieve its all-time always Christmas this year. Faster aircraft collection Amazon'southward revenues to $87bn for quaternary quarter of 2019, adding another $12.8bn to founder Jeff Bezos'southward $128.9bn fortune. Amazon has merely signed a deal to have another 450,000 sq ft of warehouse space on the isle to speed delivery to its New York-area consumers.
But while New York customers, and Amazon'south shareholders, may be happy, some workers are non. In November, as the holiday rush got into total swing, Cummings was i of 600 workers at the Amazon warehouse who signed and delivered a petition to direction calling on Amazon to improve working weather.
The petition called on Amazon to consolidate workers' 2 15-minute breaks into a 30-minute i. Workers say it tin have up to 15 minutes merely to walk to and from the warehouse interruption room. Workers also called for Amazon to provide more reliable public transit services to the warehouse. They also called attending to reports of high injury rates at the facility in that location, which were plant to be three times the national average for warehouses, based on the company'due south injury reports to the Occupational Safety and Wellness Assistants (OSHA).
Cummings first became involved with Amazon worker organizing efforts subsequently witnessing several cases where, she claims, her colleagues were treated unfairly – and the prophylactic concerns she works through during her ain shifts at Amazon.
"There are days I say I'm only at the mercy of God," said Cummings. She said the only changes Amazon implemented after the high injury written report was published was to install video monitors around the warehouse that tell workers safety is the visitor'south number one priority.
"There has been no real change. At that place are still injuries. They were saying the written report is not accurate, only it'southward only a way for them to avoid responsibility," she said.
Cummings said injuries are common among her colleagues, and she often experiences close calls. A few weeks ago, a pin sticking out of the conveyor belt tore off i of her work gloves, about taking her mitt with it. She besides said some packages that drop on to her conveyor belt from the chute are either too large to be on it or improperly packaged, so the packet'southward contents burst open on the belt, which she said recently injured one of her colleagues.
When packages, especially envelopes with liquid, outburst on the conveyor chugalug, Cummings oftentimes has to cease the belt to clean upward the mess, just is still expected to hit her hourly charge per unit. She's been written up one time for missing her rate because several of these incidents happened in the same week.
"People get fired regularly," she said. "It just takes two or three write-ups, depending on the severity. Yous tin become fired for anything."
Cummings has impaired vision and is required by law to receive inability accommodations for her task. Merely she said new managers consistently try to identify her in other departments she is unable to do the work in.
"I had a director ask me: are you sure y'all tin can't run across?" said Cummings. Her mobility advisor sent Amazon a detailed electronic mail with suggestions on safety improvements, such as painting safety lines in the warehouse brighter colors and installing yellow safe strips on all stairs. But Cummings said all the suggestions were ignored.
An Amazon spokesperson said the company has a comprehensive medical accommodations process.
Raymond Velez worked equally a packer at the Amazon JFK8 warehouse from Oct 2018 to November 2019. He was required to pack at a rate of 700 items per hour. He said workers are regularly fired for missing rates.
"That'southward all they care nigh. They don't intendance about their employees," Velez added. "They care more near the robots than they intendance about the employees. I've been to Amcare [the company'south on-site medical unit] a couple times for not feeling well, and yous'd get an aspirin and sent back to work."
Juan Espinoza, who worked as a picker at the Amazon Staten Island warehouse, quit because of the grueling working conditions.
"I was a picker and we were expected to always pick 400 units inside the hour in seven seconds of each item we picked," said Espinoza. "I couldn't handle information technology. I'thou a human existence, non a robot."
Ilya Geller, who worked as a stower, told of the pressure workers face from being surveilled past computers to ensure productivity rates are met.
"You're existence tracked by a computer the unabridged time y'all're at that place. Y'all don't become reported or written upwardly by managers. You become written up by an algorithm," said Geller. "Y'all're keenly aware there is an algorithm keeping track of you, making sure yous keep going equally fast equally you can, because if there is besides much time lapsed betwixt items, the computer will know this, will write you up, and you will get fired."
An Amazon spokesperson told the Guardian in an email: "Similar most companies, we have performance expectations for every Amazonian and nosotros mensurate actual performance against those expectations."
The spokesperson said coaching is provided to nether-performing workers.
Jimpat Lacewell started working at Amazon in Staten Island in November as a sorter, but quit after three days because it reminded him of prison – not least considering of the xx-infinitesimal wait to get through security in and out of the facility.
"I would rather go back to a state correctional facility and work for 18 cents an hour than do that chore," Lacewell said. "I'm sure Mr Bezos couldn't do a full shift at that place as an secret boss."
Other Amazon workers at the New York Metropolis warehouse were reluctant to speak on the tape for fearfulness of retaliation, but also reported unaddressed safety concerns and frequent worker injuries.
"I've been out of work twice in the past year due to knee joint pain," said an Amazon social club picker. They explained their 2d injury was a event of their manager ignoring medical restrictions from surgery on his right human foot.
Another order picker said they are constantly dealing with chronic lower back pain and knee pain due to the chore.
"I take Tylenol or Aleve two to three times a calendar week," the worker said. "About every dark when I wake upwards, I have actually bad, sharp, needle-like lower dorsum pain. I've had to utilize my paid fourth dimension off a lot just to recover or piece of work half days."
An Amazon associate who transferred to the New York City warehouse to help train the new workers said they transferred to a different warehouse because their safety concerns and suggestions were repeatedly ignored by upper level managers.
"It has terrible safety for powered industrial truck (PIT) operators and pedestrian traffic, which is why I left," said the worker.
"I reported several violations to safety there – just to go brushed off and pushed aside."
They characterized the PIT lane as a highway for equipment such as forklifts and electric pallet jacks.
An Amazon spokesperson said the company recently installed guard rails across the dock at JFK8 to eliminate all pedestrian interaction with the PIT lane.
The spokesperson added: "Information technology's inaccurate to say that our FCs are unsafe and whatsoever effort to pigment our workplaces as such based on the number of injury recordings is misleading given the size of our workforce. While many companies nether-record rubber incidents in order to keep their rates low, Amazon does the reverse – we take an aggressive stance on recording injuries no matter how big or small.
"We believe so strongly in the environment provided for fulfillment centre employees, including our safety civilization, that we offer public tours where anyone tin come see for themselves 1 of our sites and its working conditions first-manus."
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This commodity was amended on 27 July 2020 to remove some personal information.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/amazon-workers-protest-unsafe-grueling-conditions-warehouse
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