Amazon warehouse worker savages working conditions in Guardian op-ed

Amazon warehouse
workers.
Getty

• An Amazon worker has begun writing a column in The
  Guardian about the working conditions and corporate culture at
  Amazon’s warehouses.
• The worker is a “fulfilment associate,” and said that
  while management pays lipservice to staff welfare, workers are
  treated like “disposable parts.”
• Working conditions at Amazon’s fulfilment centres have
  increasingly come under fire following reports of staff being
  put under immense pressure to hit targets.
• Amazon has always insisted it provides a safe and
  positive workplace for workers, while a top executive said last
  month that warehouse horror stories are a “myth.”

An anonymous Amazon worker has begun writing
a column for The Guardian about the working conditions at
Amazon’s warehouses, or fulfilment centres.

The column, titled “Amazon Diaries,” will publish every other
week. In its first instalment, the writer described their first
day as an Amazon fulfilment associate.

They were shown an inverted pyramid chart, which signified how
important different people are to the company. They were told at
the top were customers, just underneath were warehouse workers,
and right at the bottom was Amazon CEO and the world’s richest
man, Jeff Bezos.

The anonymous worker went on to destroy this image of worker
care. “After a few months at the company, it becomes clear to
most of us that management doesn’t regard us a [sic] crucial
contributors to its success. In reality, they treat us like
disposable parts,” they wrote.

The insider described various worker injuries — listing things
including “blown backs” and “balky knees” — that go ignored by
management, discrimination, and an “emotionally toxic culture.”

It is far from the first time reports have emerged of poor
working conditions at Amazon.

British journalist James Bloodworth went undercover at a
fulfilment center, and
told Business Insider that the atmosphere was like a
“prison.” He said he came across a bottle of urine because
workers were under such pressure to meet targets, they would pee
in bottles to save time.

Read more:

The undercover author who discovered Amazon warehouse workers
were peeing in bottles tells us the culture was like a
“prison”

At the time, Amazon said it “provides a safe and positive
workplace for thousands of people across the UK with competitive
pay and benefits from day one. We are committed to treating every
one of our associates with dignity and respect. We don’t
recognise these allegations as an accurate portrayal of
activities in our buildings.”

Similar reports also drew the ire of Senator Bernie Sanders, who
said in August that he would call for
an investigation into “unsafe working conditions” at Amazon’s
warehouses. This was before Sanders helped convince Bezos to
raise Amazon’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

A top Amazon executive subsequently
refuted horror stories about working conditions at Amazon,
calling them “myths.”

Business Insider contacted Amazon for comment.