Do you buy things on Amazon? If so, please read:

[jillan]

Amazon offers items from individual sellers (like Ebay) or from their warehouse.

If you do purchase from them, you may want to think about buying from an individual seller rather than a company that has it's items shipped from the Warehouse. I believe they offer you free shipping if you choose the latter.

It seems they are modeling their work ethic after ones found in other countries.

http://www.uproxx.com/technology/2012/02/reporter-takes-job-at-online-retail-shipping-factory-to-see-how-awful-working-in-one-is/
snips~
Inside Amalgamated, an employee’s first day is training day. Though we’re not paid to be here until 6, we have been informed that we need to arrive at 5. If we don’t show up in time to stand around while they sort out who we are and where they’ve put our ID badges, we could miss the beginning of training, which would mean termination.

....we cannot miss any days our first week. There are NO exceptions to this policy. She says to take Brian, for example, who’s here with us in training today. Brian already went through this training, but then during his first week his lady had a baby, so he missed a day and he had to be fired.

More:
http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor?page=1

working more than eight hours is mandatory. Stretching is also mandatory, since you will either be standing still at a conveyor line for most of your minimum 10-hour shift or walking on concrete or metal stairs. And be careful, because you could seriously hurt yourself. And watch out, because some of your coworkers will be the kind of monsters who will file false workers' comp claims. If you know of someone doing this and you tell on him and he gets convicted, you will be rewarded with $500.

There are transition points in the warehouse floor where the footing is uneven, and people trip and sprain ankles. Give forklifts that are raised up several stories to access products a wide berth: "If a pallet falls on you, you won't be working with us anymore." Watch your fingers around the conveyor belts that run waist-high throughout the entire facility. People lose fingers. Or parts of fingers. And about once a year, they tell us, someone in an Amalgamated warehouse gets caught by the hair, and when a conveyor belt catches you by the hair, it doesn't just take your hair with it. It rips out a piece of scalp as well.
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There is more disgusting stories at these links.
How sad this is to have this occurring in the good ole USA at a time when people really need jobs.

[snagglepuss]

1. "ambulances are stationed outside because the employees drop like flies so frequently. "

Kicking to give this more attention. I had no idea the warehouse conditions were so bad.

[jillan]

2. Thanks for kicking - I'm kicking too.

Surprised this isn't upsetting to more people.

[renate]

3. this is upsetting

I buy a lot on Amazon, but 95% of what I buy is used books from independent bookstores, not from Amazon's warehouse. Still, I don't want a company that treats its workers like this to even get a cut of what I spend.

They must have an awesome PR department compared with Walmart's, because I've never thought of Amazon as being like this.

[one_voice]

4. Bookmarked for later reading. n/t

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

5. If work was fun/great then it wouldn't be work...

I've worked construction and these working conditions don't sound all that extraordinary. Certainly tougher and more strict than most computer-jockey cubicle-monkey jobs... but nothing too crazy. IMO the wages must be worth it because people are in fact working for them. Alot of people need to remember that it's the employee who is selling labor to the company.

[Budgies Revenge]

8. I think there is a difference between work and a soul crushing hell pit

I worked as an industrial mechanic/millwright for 5 years and that was WORK. We worked long, physically grueling hours in some really terrible and dangerous places, but I always knew that I mattered to my bosses--I was a person. They would never intentionally put me in harms way, or ask me to do anything that they wouldn't do themselves. If I had an emergency and had to leave, they understood. If I was injured while working, I would get medical attention and I wouldn't be fired. If we worked hard and finished a project sooner than expected or under budget, we got a bonus.

I also worked for 6 months for a mega retailer........that was a soul crushing hell pit. You had no life, were expected to forgo any thought of having a life because your life belonged to that company. Emergency? Sorry, you leave, you get terminated. Sick? Sorry, blood better be shooting out of your eyeballs and bothering the customers before management even considers letting you off the floor. Have a complaint about something? Better hope the wrong person doesn't hear it--sometimes people get fired for the strangest things! Scheduled time off? Why would you really think you were going to get that? After all, the computer never lies, and the computer says you don't have that day off! Paid overtime? What's that? Oh, but you better finish this check list before you leave, and you can't have any overtime hours, but we don't let people work off the clock.....it says so in the manual........ You're really missing the customer satisfaction goals in your department with people having to wait to be helped.....but we have no intention of hiring for the 3 vacant positions in your department because it's not a Chernobyl meltdown yet, and management gets a nice bonus if we can run under capacity! God I'm glad to be rid of that place.

[quinnox]

6. people in olden times would laugh at this, they worked 16 hour days as routine

in appalling conditions in many industries. Amazon is a fine company and one of my favorite places to buy from.

[jtuck004]

11. People also used to keep their dead children on a cool shelf until they could afford to bury them.

So I am not sure that "how things used to be" is always the best way to support an argument to
lower costs by providing substandard worker conditions and keeping employee pay low.

And when people worked in "olden times" (1960? 1860? 60?) at least in this country there weren't so many people trying to profit
from their labor. Food cost more, so they could adjust their expenses by eating less, housing was relatively low. Elizabeth Warren's work tells us that much of that has been reversed so that the fixed expenses (housing, medical care, etc) are now the higher costs with much less flexibility in lowering them.

On the other hand, they have to be competitive, and that is how they have chosen to do it. So maybe a little competition, say from cooperatives, who can get close to that price, get some customer loyalty by being local and offering people another path for spending their money.

They may not beat Amazon, but they might make enough for themselves.

On the other hand as we continue to refuse to invest in our country and people and automation and digital readers improve, those jobs at that warehouse may fade like our buying power as the United States sinks in a cesspool of low-difficulty, low wage jobs.

Then what? Back to sticking the dead ones on a shelf, perhaps...

[raouldukelives]

7. This is pretty much everyone's future.

The final result of Wall St and corporate domination of our political system. The funniest thing is we did it to ourselves. Or that is to say, most people did. Selling out their ideals & ethics for little piece of the investment dream. Really helps to pacify all those free thinkers. Who can complain about abuses of human rights, environmental destruction or war when they are owners of the companies profiting from it? Our hard earned dollar is well respected and the corporations will be performing to the fullest the fiduciary responsibility they have to your confidence in them in.
So here we are. All thanks to us.

[cherokeeprogressive]

9. "If a pallet falls on you, you won't be working with us anymore." No shit?

"Watch your fingers around the conveyor belts that run waist-high throughout the entire facility. People lose fingers. Or parts of fingers. And about once a year, they tell us, someone in an Amalgamated warehouse gets caught by the hair, and when a conveyor belt catches you by the hair, it doesn't just take your hair with it. It rips out a piece of scalp as well."

I started my working career in manufacturing. These things are nothing more than common sense.

As far as "Brian" goes, did he TELL someone he'd need to miss a day during his first week? I don't remember reading that he did. I bet somewhere along the line though he was TOLD about the process of PROBATION for new employees.

I don't have a problem dropping a dime on people who file FALSE workers' comp claims. That costs us ALL money. I'll narc on you in a heartbeat if you file a false claim. Fucking A right I will, reward or not.

Get your HAIR caught in a conveyor belt that runs WAIST-HIGH? What, your hair is so beautiful you couldn't tie it up? You fucked up, and my guess is YOU WERE WARNED.

Stop. Look. Listen. BE Aware. When did those notions get tossed out in favor of "do whatever you want"?

[WeekendWarrior]

10. Sounds to me as if

you've never worked in a warehouse. For anyone. Stuff like this happens in every warehouse in the country.

[Liquorice]

12. Amazon is about to start using robots in their

warehouses, so I guess this will soon be a thing of the past. I do shop at Amazon, and I have Amazon Prime, which I love. I hope people don't lose their jobs to robots, but if the work is that bad, maybe it should be done by robots instead of people.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/disruptions-at-amazon-the-robot-world-comes-a-little-closer/