Amazon has apologized for some tweets from its corporate news account in which they attack. Mark Pocan (D-California) was attacked for criticizing the company’s workplace environment amid a major union push at a fulfillment center in Alabama.
“It was an end in itself, we are unhappy about it and we owe it to Representative Pocan,” Amazon said in a statement Friday.
Pocan replied Saturday morning.
‘Sigh. It’s not about me, it’s about your workers – who you do not treat with enough respect or dignity, “he wrote.
Amazon is fighting a union in a Bessemer, Alabama, facility that threatens to boost union efforts elsewhere across the country. The company last week raised eyebrows at a series of uncharacteristic reactions to politicians who tweeted about their workers and business practices.
It was apparently a top-down strategy – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wanted his corporate communications team to respond more aggressively to allegations of unfair labor practices, according to Recode.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Among others, expressed strong support for Amazon workers’ pursuit of better conditions. Last Wednesday, Amazon CEO Dave Clark snarkily welcomed the senator at the Alabama facility in a tweet in a tweet thanking him sarcastically for his work on behalf of U.S. workers.
“I often say we’re the Bernie Sanders of employers, but that’s not entirely right, because we’re actually delivering a progressive workplace,” Clark said.
It was Pocan who jumped in to respond to Clark. “If you pay $ 15 an hour to workers, you do not make it a ‘progressive workplace’ if you make a union and have workers urinate in water bottles,” he tweeted.
Amazon News, a corporate Amazon Twitter account, responded to a similar tone as Clark on Pocan.
‘You do not really believe the thing of fluffing in bottles, do you? If it were true, no one would work for us, “reads the tweet.
In fact, it is well documented that Amazon employees are subject to strict and physically demanding protocols. Some workers say they sometimes take extreme measures to prevent them from stopping work because too much ‘time-off’, as Amazon calls breaks, can result in discipline.
Amazon’s warehouse workers are less likely to use bathroom shortcuts than delivery managers, who struggle to find public restrooms – especially during the coronavirus pandemic.
In its Friday statement, Amazon acknowledged that the tweet was incorrect.
“It did not take into account our large driver population and wrongly focused only on our fulfillment centers,” the company explained that it was aware that delivery managers were struggling to find toilets and committed themselves to finding a solution to the problem in the industry. .
Amazon then distinguishes its managers from its workers for the fulfillment of centers.
” A typical Amazon fulfillment center has dozens of restrooms, and employees can walk out of their workstation at any time. If any employee in a performance center has a different experience, we encourage them to talk to their manager and we will work to rectify this. “
Amazon’s apology to Pocan was published late Friday, which could be interpreted as an attempt to silence it. The company also remained a mother on Amazon News’ other tweets aimed at Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Which also proved her to be one of Amazon’s harshest critics in Congress.
Amazon workers have already voted on the union question, but according to AL.com, their votes are still being counted. Nearly 6,000 ballots were sent out. Results are expected in the next week.
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