WEBVTT - 01: Ground Floor at the Amazon Warehouse 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:05.640 I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:10.719 customer because you guys paid progress. You guys paid problems. 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:16.360 This is Megacal, an investigative podcast exposing some of the 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:22.880 world's most unethical corporations. This series is about Amazon. I'm 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:29.960 Jake Hanrahan, journalists and documentary filmmaker. Mega Corp is produced 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:43.200 by H eleven for Cool Zone Media. So right now 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:47.160 I'm outside one of the Amazon warehouses in the UK. 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:49.920 They look pretty similar anywhere you go, really, I just 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.279 kind of wanted to get an idea of the scale 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:57.120 of one of these places. I mean that absolutely massive, big, 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.560 ugly corrugated metal looking thing. It's got the Amazon with 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:04.679 its little smile symbol logo on the front. In this area, 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:06.600 it used to be a kind of woodland and then 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:09.360 they just obviously tarmact it and turned it into an 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.560 industrial estate and built warehouses. Um, it is what it is. 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:14.760 But I just wanted to get an idea of the 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:17.600 scale of the place, and I sort of wanted to 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.800 start this series here at ground level, if you like. 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.319 Right now here outside of this warehouse where I am, 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:28.480 there are workers in their working twenty four hours obviously 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.760 different shifts, but they're constantly working and getting treated horribly 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:35.440 very often. So why don't we start here. Let's start 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.600 at the ground level, where the workers are inside the warehouse. 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:44.040 Jeff Bezos made eleven and a half million dollars every 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:47.120 hour of the pandemic. He shared almost none of it 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:51.080 with the warehouse workers. Amazon's working conditions hundreds of points 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.520 on zero as contracts are subjected to a regime described 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.360 as horrendous and exhausting. They're monitored at all times, Toilet 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.560 visits are regulated. Amazon On, which has over one hundred 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:05.200 seventy five fulfillment centers around the world and more than 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.400 half a million employees, was ranked one of the twelve 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.360 worst companies to work for. On average, Amazon warehouse workers 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:14.960 are paid around seventeen dollars an hour in the US 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.639 and around fourteen pounds an hour in the UK. These wages, 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.400 employers will often work ten to twelve hour shifts, constantly 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:26.040 on their feet, where they're expected to hit never ending targets. 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.880 A package must be dealt with every thirty seconds. If 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.560 you work in as a picker, you're expected to process 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.800 three hundred items per hour. You've given nine seconds to 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.120 take each item from a robot that delivers shelf upon 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.280 shelf of Amazon packages. Staff are constantly filmed in the 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:44.440 warehouse as they work and their toilet breaks at even time. 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.200 Workers get two fifteen minute breaks, much of which can 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:50.720 be taken up by just walking to the toilet through 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:54.520 the vast expanse of the warehouse. People often fall asleep 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:58.080 standing up will become injured at work, As reported by 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:02.959 a journalist Brian Monegus, Leaked documents revealed in that New 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:07.480 York Staten Island Amazon warehouse reported injuries over three times 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.040 the industry average. To put that into context, the injury 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:15.079 percentages at the Amazon warehouse were worse than that steel 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:20.040 refineries and sawmills all over the world. Workers have voiced 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:28.520 anger at these horrific working conditions. I'm not talking about 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.480 some kind of modern day gulag here. This is the 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.920 ground floor of Amazon, a company that's made its founder 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:39.240 Jeff Bezos the richest man on Earth. Bezos is worth 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:44.240 an estimated one hundred and seventies seven billion dollars. On 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:49.280 working conditions that we've just mentioned at Amazon, Bezos has said, quote, 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:53.640 I'm very proud of our working conditions. For context, here's 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.840 what that quote is from It's a twenty eighteen Business 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:03.720 Insider interview. Today was um it's employing five hundreds sixty 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.600 six thousand people. You're probably the biggest drop crid of 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:12.000 recent times. At the same time, you're aggressively criticized by 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:18.720 unions and by media for being low wages, for inappropriate 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.920 working conditions. How do you deal with these accusations? Well, 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:27.159 first of all, any criticism, My approach to criticism and 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:32.240 what I teach and preach inside Amazon is when you're criticized, 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:36.760 first look in a mirror and decide are your critics right. 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:42.720 If they're right, change, don't want my list, No, but 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:44.880 not in this case. But we've had critics be right 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:47.719 before and we've changed. We have we we have made mistakes, 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:49.800 and you know, I can go I can go through 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.160 a long list of probably the one of the early 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:56.680 most painful ones. Let's give this forward a bit because 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:01.120 basically he just diverts very quickly away for the criticism 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:05.920 that was leveled at him and the issue of working conditions. 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.360 I'm very proud of our working conditions and am very 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.880 proud of the wages that we pay, very proud of 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:20.200 our working As I said that clip, is from mayen 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.960 full six months since some of the most noteworthy investigations 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:29.240 into Amazon working conditions began to surface. And that's what 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:34.520 Bazos had to say. I spoke to journalist James blood 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:38.400 Worth about the conditions inside Amazon warehouses across the UK. 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.719 Blood Worth went undercover working in one of the warehouses 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:46.680 in sen for his book Hired six Months undercover in 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.120 low wage Britain. So I got a job with Amazon 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.120 through an employment agency called Transline. Um, it's very easy 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.039 to get the job, So you just essentially had to 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:58.800 fill out a pile of forms. You also had to 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.840 take a drug and alcoholture, which was slightly bizarre because 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:03.440 it's I mean, I've never had a job where I 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.680 had done had to do that before. Um, and then 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:08.039 you know, I was given a job kind of a 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.039 week later. The job itself, I mean, my first impressions 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.360 off the Amazon warehouse when I was going in, I 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:15.680 remember writing in my diary that the atmosphere of the 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:18.279 Amazon warehouse had the atmosphere of what I imagined a 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:22.039 prison might feel like. Now that seems like hyperbole and 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.560 and it is to an extent, but I I did 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:27.440 think the place there was this awful like fearful atmosphere. 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.840 In the UK, there were currently twenty one Amazon warehouses. 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:34.960 One of their largest is here. It's situated in Essex 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.160 and it ships around one point two million items a year. 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.839 Amazon employees fifty five thousand people in the UK, the 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:46.359 majority of them working long shifts on the warehouse floor 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.280 is James Bloodworth did. The one thing that struck me 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.760 as very unjust was amazon sickness policy. So when I 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.919 worker was off sick, you'd you'd essentially be punished for 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:58.599 taking a day off sick, even if you had a 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:02.440 note from the doctors. So I tested this policy out myself. 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:04.600 So I was actually ill one day I was working 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.200 at Amazon. I had a very heavy cold. I phoned up, 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:09.800 you know, the morning I was during at one o'clock 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:11.640 for my shrift one pm. I phoned up early in 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:13.320 the morning and said, I won't be able to make 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:16.560 it in today. I'm feeling ill. I said, you know, 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:18.600 I can bring a note from the doctors if if 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:20.760 you want me to, because I was, Yeah, I was 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.240 actually ill, And they said, no, that's fine. You've you know, 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:26.440 you've phoned up enough time before as as requested. So 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:28.240 so it won't be a problem. And then when I 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:30.160 returned to work the next day, I was told by 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:32.920 an Amazon supervisor who came to find me, he gave 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.760 me a disciplinary point. Um, so you had this point toys, 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.000 some six of these disciplinaries, you lose your job. But 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.280 they gave me a disciplinary point. He did before taking 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:43.560 the day are sick, and I explained my situation that, 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:45.840 you know, I offered a note from the doctor, and 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:47.880 I asked, you know, how is this even fair because 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.280 it felt profoundly unjust because I've been ill and you 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.160 can't help getting sick, you know sometimes. But they said, 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:55.960 you know, this is what Amazon have always done, and 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.440 that was one of the policies that was happening at 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:02.239 the warehouse I was working in and other warehouses Amazon warehouses, 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:04.080 because I've heard similar things from other workers. It was 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:06.520 if you were off sick, you know, however good your 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:08.680 reason you would you would be given a disciplinary for that. 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:10.960 But the hell is a disciplinary point. There's a point 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:12.880 that they would just call them a point, but each 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.680 point is that it is a disciplinary So you Amazon 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.120 management would give you points for breaking their rules in 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.440 some way or not breaking their rules just because they felt, 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:26.760 you know, particularly capricious on that day. So I remember 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.960 people would were threatened with disciplinary points, for example for 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:32.920 spending too much time in the bathroom. So we were 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.079 in this warehouse that was seven hundred thousand square feet. 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:40.800 This warehousing rusually in Staffordshire and there would be signs 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.079 boasting that it was the size of ten football pitchures. 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:47.400 So it's a huge, huge warehouse with four floors, and 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.360 we only had access in the in the warehouse to 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.480 two bathrooms which was situated at one side of this 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.280 big warehouse. And to reach the bathrooms you had to 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:59.760 go through airport starts security anytime you left the anytime 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.640 you of the warehouse, because there was always this this 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:04.800 fear that we were somehow trying to steal things, that 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.280 workers were trying to steal it from the Amazon has 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.040 Now I'm sure it did happen sometimes, but but it 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.319 also meant that every time you wanted to go to 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.360 the toilet, every time you wanted to go on your 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:17.920 lunch break, you would have to pass through the airport 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:20.800 style security. So or so curiousy you know, in a 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:22.679 in a high end nightclub where you have to take 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.080 your belt off, they go through your wallet and stuff. 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:27.719 You put it on this like tray you know that 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.360 slides slides next to the slides, they slide it across 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:33.560 next to the you know this kind of frame you 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.480 walk through to scan you and all of this, you 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:38.719 know take it takes time. So like anytime you wanted 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.360 to use the bathroom, all of this time is not 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.560 accounted for. You don't get time for toilet breaks. This 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.640 is called idle time. And then if you clock up 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.079 too much quote quote idle time, as they call it, 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:51.959 you would be given a disciplinary point. So you had 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.079 effectively work as being given disciplinary points for going to 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.640 the bathroom. So just imagine that for a second. You 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.080 work in twelve hours shifts in a huge warehouse where 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:07.480 productivity is literally monitored constantly via video cameras, and you're 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:10.880 timed on how quickly you work. You're earning a low wage, 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.840 and then every time you need to go to the toilet, 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:17.480 you're searched as if you're boarding a flight somewhere. To 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.160 add insult to injury, you're also highly likely to incur 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.400 a disciplinary point if you're laid back due to all 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:29.280 the time spent going through security. Imagine that every day, 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.319 all day for five days a week just to earn 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.560 barely enough to get by it. That's how the richest 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.720 man on earth treats what are, in my opinion, his 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:42.600 most important workers. Without the warehouse staff moving out all 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.679 the products on time, his whole business collapses. Now due 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.600 to the ridiculous time restrictions and the constant monitoring of 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:54.360 all staff productivity, even when they go to the toilet, 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:58.960 many Amazon workers are forced to literally piss in a 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:03.160 bottle to avoid stopping their work. So during one of 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.559 my shifts at Amazon at the warehouse, um, I was 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.440 the one who found the bottle of urine in a 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.440 coke bottle. It was very obvious by the color of 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.520 the liquor. What's what's happened. And it was also obvious 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.080 because people were afraid to take bathroom breaks in the 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:21.439 warehouse because they were being given, uh given and threatened 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:26.400 with disciplinary points for what was called idle time by Amazon. 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.720 And yeah, I mean there was a survey when I 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:30.800 was working in the warehouse by a group called Organize, 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.840 which surveyed a hundred workers in the way wherehouse I 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:38.320 worked with, and it found the survey found that of 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:42.040 workers questioned said they were afraid to take bathroom breaks 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.760 because of productivity targets. Earlier this year, when U S 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:50.120 Senator Bernie Sanders went to support Amazon workers who were 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:55.760 trying to unionize, then Amazon executive and now Amazon CEO 0:11:56.120 --> 0:12:02.320 Dave Clerk taunted Sanders. As documentary by journalist Ken Klippenstein. 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:07.760 In the intercept on Twitter, Dave Clark said, quote, so, 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:09.959 if you want to hear about fifteen dollars an hour 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:14.240 and healthcare, Senator Sanders will be speaking downtown. But if 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:16.600 you would like to make at least fifteen dollars an 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:21.040 hour and have good healthcare, Amazon is hiring. End quote. 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:27.480 US Representative Mark Percan replied, saying, quote paying workers fifteen 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.800 dollars an hour doesn't make you a progressive workplace when 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:35.360 you union bust and make workers urinate in water bottles. 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:40.079 End quote. To this, the official Amazon News Twitter account, 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:45.280 which has two hundred thousand followers, replied saying, quote, you 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.760 don't really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.920 If that were true, nobody would work for us. The 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:54.400 truth is that we have over a million incredible employees 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.800 around the world who are proud of what they do 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:02.240 and have great wages. And healthcare from day one. End quote, 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:07.240 as we've just heard from James Bloodworth. Actually it is 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:10.680 true people do piss in bottles whilst working for Amazon 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.400 because they're worried that simply going to the toilet will 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.200 earn them a disciplinary point if they don't do it 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:22.720 quick enough. Now, James Bloodworth saw this in six and 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:27.959 in one it is still going on. This practice is 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:32.440 actually more common Amazon warehouses than the Amazon used Twitter 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:36.280 account would like you to believe. In the same article 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:40.319 by Ken Clippenstein that I just mentioned, he provides evidence 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:44.520 showing that pissing in bottles at Amazon warehouses is so 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:49.280 widespread due to pressure to meet quotas that managers frequently 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:55.400 referenced it during meetings and in formal policy documents and emails. 0:13:56.000 --> 0:14:00.880 Clippenstein obtained some of these Amazon documents and eight quote. 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.440 The practice these documents show was known to management, which 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.920 identified it as a recurring infraction, but did nothing to 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:12.840 ease the pressure that caused it. In some cases, employees 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:18.600 even defecated in bags end quote. It's grim, it's brutal, 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:22.960 but it's the reality. A confidential Amazon email is also 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:28.840 provided in Clippenstein's article. It's from May twenty just last year, 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.320 and it was sent by an on road area manager 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:36.040 in Pittsburgh in America. I'll read the whole thing out 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.600 as I think it's yet another item of interest here 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:44.760 that seriously undermines Amazon's claims that the peeing in water 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:50.920 bottles thing is untrue. Quote Hello. This evening, an associate 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:55.040 discovered human feces in an Amazon bag that was returned 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:58.479 to station by a driver. This is the third occasion 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:01.720 in the last two months when bags have been returned 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:06.120 to station with poop inside. We understand that the d 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:10.680 as may have emergencies while on road, and especially during 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:16.440 COVID d as have struggled to find bathrooms while delivering. Regardless, 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:21.320 das cannot must not return bags to station with poop inside. 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:26.520 We've noticed an uptic recently of all kinds of unsanitary 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:31.720 garbage being left inside backs, used masks, gloves, bottles of urine. 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:34.840 By scanning the QR code on the bag, we can 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.960 easily identify the d A who was in possession of 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:43.280 the bag last These behaviors are unacceptable and will result 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:47.760 in Tier one infractions going forward. Please communicate this message 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:50.680 to your driver's I know it may seem obvious or 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:53.520 like something you shouldn't need to coach, But please be 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.680 explicit when communicating the message that they cannot poop all 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.800 eave bottles of urine inside bags. The health and safety 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.240 of all the as and Amazon associates will always be 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.560 our top priority. None of us should have to deal 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.320 with these kinds of messes. Please respond and confirm that 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:17.080 you have received this email. Thanks for your support. End quote. 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.160 Now I get it you're gonna say, well, yeah, obviously 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:24.000 people should not ship in bags and pissing bottles. Whether 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:26.520 it worked, that is absolutely disgusting. Well, yeah, it is 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:30.400 absolutely disgusting. But ask yourself if someone could have the 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.480 time to go to the toilet and wouldn't risk losing 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:35.760 their job for it, do you think they would really 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.480 take a ship in a bag and pissing a bottle instead? 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:41.640 I doubt it very much. A lot of this is 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.440 due to pressure from the quotas put on the workers 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:52.680 by Amazon. To get a more recent firsthand account of 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:58.640 the working conditions inside Amazon warehouses, I spoke to Brian Denning. 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:02.560 Denning worked well Amazon in the p d X nine 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:07.320 warehouse in trout Dale, Oregon, in America. He was there 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:13.480 from my to December, so just last year. Flu Center 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.879 pd X nine is a little under a million square 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:22.280 feet about forty football field in size four stories and um, yeah, 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:25.679 so I worked there in inbound stow. I was doing 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.200 um stowing into the robotic cabinets and also I worked 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:31.640 as a lead water spider and water spider and that's 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.640 basically just pulling palettes of freight to the floor where 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:39.440 I'm working. I hired on on a night shift there. Um, 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.080 the hiring processes as post people are pretty aware. It 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.000 was us almost entirely hands off. The only time I 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:46.879 was interacted with the human beings when I came in 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.560 to get a photo form my uh my photo badge 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:53.879 and then got in and uh, it's ten hour shifts 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.280 is when I started there. And then they pretty much 0:17:56.359 --> 0:18:00.719 almost immediately went to mandatory extra times when they call 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.320 m E T. There's no mandatory over time, and that 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.359 was often with anywhere from a couple of hours notice 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.399 to four days notice was pretty average, so you wouldn't 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.119 know what your day's offered necessarily until you got You 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:14.920 knew which day was supposed to be your m ET day, 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.760 but it would be scheduled pretty short notice on that. 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:20.520 The other thing I noticed was we went from ten 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:24.200 hours to eleven hours almost right away as well, So um, 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:26.359 I went up to fifty five hour weeks. Most everyone 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.680 else in the in the FC was fifty five hour weeks, 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:32.200 and that during those um seven months I worked there, 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:34.920 we had four and a half months of mandatory over time. 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.080 Just just be clear. So you could literally turn up 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:39.800 for work and they're like, right, you're working an extra 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.120 four hours a day or whatever. Sorry off your god. Yeah, 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:45.240 not necessarily an extra four hours, but they could definitely 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:47.720 um end the shift with almost little or no notice, 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:49.399 and also add a shift with the little or no 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:51.920 notice a couple of hours and you find out, oh yeah, 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.080 by the way, you're working tomorrow or um yeah, it 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:57.600 would be pretty short noticed for for changes in your 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.399 schedule for sure. And what were the working of ours like, 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.000 uh so it's all concrete and steel inside with um 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.280 a ton of conveyor belts. It's relatively loud because everyone's 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.560 pulling pallette jacks. But but a couple of things that 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:12.480 I noticed right away also was there's definitely a mix 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.400 of people in the in the Villain Center, from young 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:19.159 to old, all kinds of different groupings, um, different ethnicities 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.120 and everything else that said, But I noticed the most 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.840 common thing was how many injuries there were, people limping, 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:30.000 people of bad shoulders, bad knees, bad feet. Uh. And 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:33.399 then seeing how fast the attrition rate was. So I 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:36.760 hired on there in May. The group I hired on 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:41.200 with was maybe ten people, and by like July, three 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:45.240 of them were gone. And then um, by December, I 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:47.080 think I was maybe there's one other person in my 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:50.200 hiring group that I still see the building. Um, everybody 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:54.119 else had left Amazon and six weeks it was a 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.080 pretty average turnover while I was there. Um. And certainly 0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:59.119 the other thing was that about it And this is 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:01.200 just kind of my own part experience, and the people 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:03.639 mentioned this in different reference as well. But I so, 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:06.280 I've done five years in prison in the United States 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.520 and worked in prison furniture factories and prison kitchens. I've 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.800 worked on my feet in jobs, including my first baker 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.280 jobs like a twelve hours shifts, like a twenty minute 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.240 break in the middle. Um. And so I'm used to 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:21.600 like hard work. I'm used to heavy labor. I'm used 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.200 to like shitting conditions. Um. This job in Amazon was 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:27.920 the most humanizing job I've ever worked in my life. So, 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.800 just in case you were wondering there, I did ask 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.640 Brian Denning why was he in prison? And it turns out, 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.680 as a much younger man, he went in with a 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:40.040 gun into a bank and did one man armed bank robbery. 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.399 Didn't work out, obviously, he ended up in prison. You know, 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:46.399 that's life. But I think the most interesting thing about 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:48.520 this is that this guy is literally saying he's done 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:53.040 five years in serious prisons in America and he found 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:57.119 the working conditions in Amazon more oppressive than the work 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:00.199 he had to do in prison, and he was zing 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:03.120 in a sense of like just um, I didn't know 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:05.119 my manager was for the first three months. There was 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:07.000 a picture like on my on the app of someone 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:09.200 who's mostly my manager that I never met. The only 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:10.919 time you interact with another person is whether they're coming 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:13.600 to tell you that either you're not sewing fast enough, 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.919 or you're making errors or something along those lines. Mostly 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.960 so it's really isolating, really dehumanizing. In a lot of ways. 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.479 Everything is through apps. Everything's like a computer screen that's 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:26.520 constantly counting down what you're doing. This is another negative 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:29.679 aspect of the work conditions I've been seeing in reports 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:33.320 from people who have worked at the Amazon warehouses the 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:38.000 creeping dystopia of only communicating with managers through apps, having 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:41.639 your productivity timed by robots in the warehouse, and being 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:47.199 constantly monitored right now during COVID especially, it's not conducive 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:51.000 to mental health if you're isolated at work, watched over 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:55.280 by robots, and only spoken to by your managers through 0:21:55.359 --> 0:22:00.080 a phone screen. However, Amazon insists in productive. It's the 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:03.879 above all. The other thing I noticed almost right away was, um, 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:05.879 this is a trillion dollar company, right, Like, they have 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:08.640 unlimited money to spend on whatever they want. Six times 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:11.760 the injury rate of the national average for the industry 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:15.520 that they're in, you know in Washington State. Uh, Amazon 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:18.160 is now ranked is more dangerous a job to work 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:21.560 at one of their fcs than mechanized logging or law enforcement. 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:25.000 Because it's just like, their injury rate is so high. Um, 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:28.040 and that's because there's no incentives in there to actually 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:31.919 um like, for safety, it's all about speed so everything 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:35.520 also than all this material. Basically, they don't have enough 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:39.280 tools through the job consistently, so never enough hand scanners, 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:43.000 never enough radio is never enough palette jacks. Never enough, 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:45.560 gay lord, it's never enough of like the basic materials 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:48.000 you need to do your jobs. You're scrambling from Florida 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:51.600 FLOORA trying to hunt down the basic equipment. UM. Also, 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:53.920 every time you open up a hand scanner, every time 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:56.560 you to interact with the computer screen, not every single time, 0:22:56.560 --> 0:22:59.040 but like at least three or four times during your shift, 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:03.480 your UM to go to actually access or use that material, 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:07.040 you have to answer a survey. So surveys like tell 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:09.160 me about your manager, tell me about your co workers, 0:23:09.440 --> 0:23:12.040 how are the bathrooms are they open? Um? How would 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:15.159 you you know? How is everybody maintaining social distancing? That 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:16.920 kind of stuff, And so it was really just kind 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:21.720 of a very dystopian, um funked up place to work 0:23:21.720 --> 0:23:23.440 in a lot of ways. But this is like, yeah, 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:29.320