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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.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @01:38PM (6 children)
Right but there's a difference between everyday complaining about the weather and serious complaining whereupon you let it stop you from getting what needs done done.
I'm not saying they shouldn't. It would almost certainly even increase productivity more than enough to warrant the cost. I'm just saying Texans working in 100F is not an unpossible or even out of the ordinary situation like the chick interviewed was claiming.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:13PM (5 children)
I agree with that.
In my growing up, people worked in the heat. But employers, and everyone generally, tried to make conditions as bearable as possible. Amazon should try that.
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(Score: 2, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @03:42PM (4 children)
Individual workstation fans and enough ice water jugs to last the day for everyone would be the bare minimum I'd go with. Keeping the place 70F would be difficult as hell with trucks going in and out all day long but keeping things more tolerable should be quite doable.
As for theft prevention measures, if you're hiring thieves, you're doing things wrong right from the start. Hire good people. Demand good work. Pay according to the value of the work you receive. And remember that having a more important job may make you more valuable to the company but it does not make you a better person. Shitty bosses often forget this last bit; good ones never do.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday May 10 2018, @05:07PM (3 children)
At last check, comfortable working conditions and respect were really good for productivity, and good morale reduced turnover, training and mistakes.
But in a country partly founded on the profits from slave labor, who are we to challenge traditions?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @05:27PM (2 children)
The truth of the matter is you get more value out of paying motivated workers than you do out of paying less for unmotivated assclowns or not paying slave labor at all. Those who recognize this will always have an advantage over those who don't. Whether they choose to exploit this advantage like good capitalists or piss it away like moronic altruists is up to them.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @10:26PM (1 child)
I don't think the data will be likely to hold up, training warehouse workers isn't that big of a time hit and keeping the volume of products moving is preferable even with mistakes. Like slavery the net benefit for society is worse, but for the owners it gives their bank accounts a nice bump. Why do you think they have performance metrics? Cut the dead weight when the human can no longer cope. Everything else costs money.
You think coal companies cared about making conditions safer for workers? Cheaper to fire/bury a worker and get a new one than to pay for safety precautions.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 10 2018, @11:47PM
Poorly compensated workers perform worse than well compensated ones. They are not motivated to do right by the company like people paid well are. There is a sweet spot that you have to find but it will never be shit wages and bad treatment.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.