Several Amazon employees working in warehouses around the country spoke with Wired this week about the dangers of their workplace during the Chinese virus pandemic. Some of the employees allege that Amazon has failed to take simple precautions that could mitigate the spread of the virus.
According to a report by Wired, Amazon warehouse workers are facing extra challenges during the Chinese virus pandemic. The employees claim that Amazon has failed to take simple precautions, such as sanitizing the entrances that hundreds of workers pass through at the beginning and end of each shift. Instead, workers have been instructed to follow social distancing guidelines.
One warehouse employee told Wired that Amazon is failing to take simple precautions that could mitigate the spread of the virus. For example, Amazon has insisted that workers continue to use turnstiles to enter the warehouse. Moreover, the employee claims that the turnstiles have never been sanitized.
Amazon releases their own little news alerts, and one of them told us that we need to make sure we’re cleaning our scanners. They told us to do it—the people who are also working on the floor, who are also responsible for getting a certain number of packages out every shift. This is what kills me: When we walk through the main front doors, we hit these turnstiles to enter. Everyone has to touch them, and I have never, not one time in my life, seen anybody clean those things. I know that in my fulfillment center, we’ve got over 900 people who work there, and we have three entrances to choose from. All it’s going to take is one infected person.
Another employee said that he has been forced to sit on hallway floors during his breaks because there is not enough space in breakrooms for the employees to follow social distancing guidelines. One employee asked Amazon management to provide milk crates as an alternative to chairs.
My employer never gave us any specific guidelines as far as social distancing goes. It’s kind of impossible to socially distance with our jobs, because our storage room is so small. They had us take out at least 70 percent of the microwaves, in the hopes that things would be more spaced out in the break rooms. But the problem is now we have an overwhelming amount of employees trying to use way fewer microwaves. An employee asked today if we had any milk crates, because there’s not enough chairs. So we have people sitting on the floor, in the hallways, because there just simply isn’t enough room for everyone to be spaced 6 feet apart.
Despite the claims, an Amazon spokesperson told Wired that the company is taking “extreme measures” to keep employees safe. The spokesperson claimed that Amazon is “tripling down” on their standard warehouse cleaning procedures.
“Our employees are heroes fighting for their communities and helping people get critical items they need in this crisis. Like all businesses grappling with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are working hard to keep employees safe while serving communities and the most vulnerable,” the spokesperson said. “We have taken extreme measures to keep people safe, tripling down on deep cleaning, procuring safety supplies that are available, and changing processes to ensure those in our buildings are keeping safe distances.”
In March, Amazon and Instacart workers threatened to strike over the Chinese virus pandemic. 100 Amazon warehouse workers walked out of a warehouse in Staten Island after management refused to comply with their demand that the facility cleaned after one employee tested positive for the virus.
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