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posted by martyb on Thursday May 10 2018, @11:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the Chaplin's-"Metropolis" dept.

The World Socialist Web Site reports

Injured Amazon worker Shannon Allen spoke to the International Amazon Workers Voice about the conditions at the DFW-7 fulfillment center in Haslet, Texas. Shannon described brutal working conditions, authoritarian-style surveillance of workers, and management demands to maintain frenetic rates of speed.

Shannon, 49, lives in Azle, Texas, a small town on the western outskirts of Fort Worth. She was injured while working at Amazon, returned to the job, and was injured again at the same workstation. Physically unable to continue work, Shannon now faces homelessness on top of her injuries, but she is determined to "fight or die".

[...] To maximize her income, Shannon volunteered for the overnight shift on Saturday through Thursday. The shift begins at 6:30 at night and ends at 5:00 in the morning. However, once Shannon received her first paycheck, she realized that her pay was $13 per hour for the weekend shifts, not the $13.50 that had been promised.

[...] Shannon worked as a "counter", whose job was to check the work of the pickers and stowers. Fail to catch a mistake, and become a target of a punitive system of "quality errors" and "write-ups".

Not long after starting to work at Amazon, Shannon began to recognize what she called the "dirty secrets". "These are the things they don't tell you about when you're hired."

Every time workers leave the facility, they are subjected to an invasive search. "You wait in line with a bucket like at the airport", she said. A worker is required to take off belt, shoes, and hat. Bags are sent through a conveyor belt and the worker goes through a full body scan. "If you set it off, you have to go through a second search, and they wand you front to back."

In a 10-hour shift, workers are permitted two 15-minute breaks and one 30-minute break for lunch. To go outside on a break, workers must submit to the search and go through the security line. "The lines to get outside on your 15-minute break are 20 to 30 deep on each line, and there are only two lines." Meanwhile, the breaks are timed from "scan to scan" at a worker's station, and workers are admonished, "Not one second more."

[...] "The heat is sweltering." Shannon described fans here and there, pointing down the aisles where workers walk to get to their stations, but not toward the workers to help them cool off. "Whoever thought of that design was a complete idiot", Shannon said. "Because we get no relief from the heat with them pointed down the aisle."

Temperatures reached 80, 85, and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. "In the summertime, it gets over 100 degrees in there", Shannon said. "Here is another genius idea. They have these signs hanging down that have our station numbers on them. These signs are probably as big as a 19-inch TV. They are in front of the fans and it blows the sign constantly. And we get no relief from the heat."

"July and August are the absolute worst", Shannon continued. "It was nothing to see an ambulance up at Amazon four to five times a night." Workers dropped at their stations, physically unable to continue working. "On my shift", Shannon said, "we were picking people up from heat exhaustion."

[...] In addition to having "expectations of the human body that are unrealistic", Shannon said the company expected workers to manage with faulty equipment and constant demands to meet strict time limits. Attempting to work at high speeds around faulty equipment was a common cause of injury.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @01:06PM (11 children)

    The shop is in Texas. Expecting Texans to be able to work in 100 degree temps is not an expectation of the human body that is unrealistic.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:30PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:30PM (#677875)

    Satan just called. He has a management position in Hell he would like you to fill and he thinks you would be ideal.

    You weren't kidding about having other jobs lined up.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @03:46PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @03:46PM (#677932)

      But when you get to Hell, the job turns out to be coding, that bit about management was a lie.

      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @03:56PM (4 children)

        I think you have a wire or two crossed. A bad surprise would be taking a coding job and getting stuck in management. The other way around is cause for celebration.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday May 10 2018, @05:31PM (3 children)

          by bob_super (1357) on Thursday May 10 2018, @05:31PM (#678015)

          You have to code in the latest popular javascript-related language and framework, the deadline is six month ago, the interfaces were defined by a newbie, trendy, and enthusiastic marketing moron, the workstation runs WinME, and the guy at the facing open-space desk is a transgender vegan who brings a Pug to work and goes from talking on the phone to singing along with the boys' bands background music.
          Fuck, how did I end up mostly describing my job ?

          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @05:52PM (2 children)

            Still better than having to manage an office full of those types mixed in with sane people and having to answer to a pinhead up the ladder about why production has slowed down even though "diversity" has increased when everyone knows "diversity" is the best possible thing to have.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @10:34PM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @10:34PM (#678154)

              You're both making stupid generalizations.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @04:49PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @04:49PM (#677988)

      He has a management position in Hell he would like you to fill

      Did you miss the part that we're already talking about Texas?

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @04:54PM

        You do know that Texans are hands-down the most patriotic people in the nation in regards to their state, yeah? There is nothing a Texan loves more than to tell you how great Texas is. It's damned annoying. Which is part of why it's so much fun watching the boys from Norman stomping the shit out of them in the OU/UT game every year.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by canopic jug on Thursday May 10 2018, @07:32PM (1 child)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 10 2018, @07:32PM (#678073) Journal

    The shop is in Texas. Expecting Texans to be able to work in 100 degree temps is not an expectation of the human body that is unrealistic.

    It's the lack of seasonal acclimation that makes people such wusses about the weather. When there was no AC, it was easy. As temperatures climbed as summer approached, you just got used to it. The last time I worked in a region with AC, I had the good luck for the AC to destroy itself so badly that it took all summer to repair and to be in a building that not only had windows but some that still opened. Yeah it was hot indoors, but when we went outside in the sun, it was no big deal. That contrasts with other areas where there was AC during working hours which made it impossible to be outside during the hot seasons. For a while, I was doing work outside during very hot weather and that was tolerable because we were outside all the time and used to it. That changed when the work moved indoors and was heavily cooled. Then it was hard to be outside even at night in the heat because of the massive temperature difference. Same for other jobs in other areas.

    I've even hiked when it was 105F in the shade, carrying extra gear (more than my share) and extra, extra water (for moochers). It was tiring, but the tiredness hit afterwards. Sure you're covered with salt but just stay hydrated and everything's fine. However, I could not have done it if I had been in air-conditioned facilities prior to that. As spring transitioned to summer, I got used to the heat as normal every year back then. It was then normal to be out in the weather a bit and, when indoors, to let the weather in by opening the windows all year except winter.

    I figure that the AC has little to do with comfort and more with builders being able to cut corners by not providing either windows or windows that open, let alone provide a floor plan that allows for cross-breeze. It probably also has something to do with the ability to jack up the overall price of the buildings by throwing in the AC and a markup on top of it. The AC also contributes to noise violations, often exceeding noise limits for adjacent zones.

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    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @08:48PM

      Well, we are talking about city folk here, even if they are Texans, so your argument has some merit. They're city folk who think nothing at all of standing out in the sun in 100F for hours to drink, grill out, drink, eat, and drink with the family or neighbors though.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.