House Committee Investigating Amazon's Labor Practices:
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has opened an investigation into Amazon's labor practices during severe weather, according to a letter the members sent to Andy Jassy, Amazon's chief executive.
"We are concerned about recent reports that Amazon may be endangering the health and safety of its workers, including requiring them to work in hazardous conditions during tornadoes, hurricanes, and other extreme weather conditions," indicates the letter, signed by the chair of the committee. [...]
The investigation will focus on the December tornado who hit amazon's delivery station in Edwardsville, Illinois, killing six people. Most employees at the facility were not direct Amazon employees. They were contracted delivery drivers, a complication that hampered the response when authorities could not easily determine how many people were at the scene.
[...] "Our goal remains to support our employees and partners, the families who have lost loved ones, the surrounding community, and everyone affected by the tornadoes," Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said Friday. "We will respond to this letter in due course."
What does YOUR workplace do in severe weather?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pkrasimirov on Wednesday April 06 2022, @04:07PM (1 child)
My workplace recommends me to work from home in any weather. Being in IT has its benefits. Besides, working with people across the world makes everything online anyway so it does not matter if I have a fake office background in Zoom or a real one.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @05:23PM
And without those physical labor jobs, your JIT delivery of perishable foods, new office/computer supplies, and all kinds of other key physical goods and services would be unavailable, causing the virtual world to collapse just like our physical world currently is.
One of the biggest shams of 'my' generation (millenial plus) that was caused by the boomer/bro generation was the valuation of 'virtual' companies, because of how intellectual property laws were skewed since the 1970s-1980s. Companies producing billions a year in physical goods suddenly became small fish compared to the valuation of tech companies who essentially produced nothing, and then were used to dramatically push up the amounts of money being printed, allowing first the skew to billionaires, and now rapidly approaching the skew to trillionaires, when the entire global resource pool should only be a few trllion, no state should be more than a trillion (backed by resources+labor/services), and no individual should be topping more than a billion no matter their business, and certainly only at the very end of a very lucky AND skilled lifetime's worth of work.
But instead we have the societal shithole we have today based entirely on an imaginary reality that is going to collapse sooner or later, and leave us with a devastation worse than the Dark Ages.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @05:47PM
Certainly not the workers.
They will get what scraps will be left after the Lawyers, Judges and Politrickians feed.
And left with some obscure law and promises as icing on the cake.
(Score: 5, Informative) by dalek on Wednesday April 06 2022, @06:49PM
This is inexcusable. Amazon has more than enough money to put safe rooms in warehouses. When there's a tornado warning, order the workers to the safe rooms. Anyone contracted delivery drivers who refuse to go to a safe room have to leave the premises.
St. Louis has a history of damaging and violent tornadoes. There's generally a good level of preparedness in St. Louis for tornadoes, probably better than areas in the Southeast. This isn't exactly a region where tornadoes are rare. During the past several years, there have been several very damaging severe thunderstorms that have affected the St. Louis area. I know that December isn't the typical season for severe storms, but it's not incredibly rare in St. Louis, either. For example, there were several tornadoes in the St. Louis area on December 31, 2010, one of which I believe was rated EF3. I don't think tornadoes directly affected St. Louis St. Louis, but areas in central and southern Missouri had many tornadoes, some strong, on January 7, 2008. This isn't so unusual, either for the time of year or the location.
The National Weather Service office in St. Louis also did a really good job of warning those storms. The storms were moving rapidly and conditions were generally favorable for tornadoes, so they pretty much put tornado warnings on any storm where radar suggested a tornado was possible. They were more aggressive with issuing warnings than they might be in other situations. The warnings were issued a county or more ahead of the storms to give people as much lead time as possible. The storm responsible for the tornado had also produced a damaging tornado just west of St. Louis, in St. Charles County. This was after dark, and conditions were favorable for tornadoes developing quickly, which is why forecasters issued so many warnings and issued them as far ahead of the storms as they did. With rapid storm motions and the potential for tornadoes to develop quickly, they couldn't wait for clearer radar signatures to issue warnings.
The region generally does have a good level of preparedness for tornadoes. December tornadoes aren't at all unprecedented in St. Louis, and some of the most damaging tornadoes in the region have occurred during the cool season. The National Weather Service did an excellent job in giving ample lead time with the warnings.
As I see it, this is 100% on Amazon for not adequately protecting their workers.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest just whinge about SN.
(Score: 4, Informative) by khallow on Wednesday April 06 2022, @10:17PM
Yes, I should have an ad blocker going, but it's pretty nasty behavior just the same (and makes you wonder what else the site does).