Employees forced to work in brutal heat in Amazon.com warehouse

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Twenty current and former employees at an Amazon warehouse in Pennsylvania say they were forced to work in brutal heat at a breakneck pace while hired paramedics waited outside in case anyone became dangerously dehydrated.

Spencer Soper has published an exhaustive investigation into the massive online retailer's Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania operation. Soper reports that a local doctor treated employees at the facility for heat-related health problems, and wound up filing a complaint about conditions there with federal regulators. Many of the warehouse's employees were temporary and hired through a staffing company; if they did not meet packing quotas, they faced daily threats of termination, Soper writes.

He also notes that a corps of other temporary workers were poised to replace any freshly fired Amazon employee. "The safety and welfare of our employees is our No. 1 priority at Amazon, and as the general manager, I take that responsibility seriously," Amazon warehouse manager Vickie Mortimer told the paper.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/employees-faced-brutal-working-conditions-amazon-warehouse-135842747.html

[Ocean Seal]

And the saddest fucking part is that you'll still hear people complain about how the government oppresses businesses, and how terrible regulatory practices are. Fuck libertarians (the capitalist kind). Seriously, they are the scum of the Earth, protecting the liberty of fuckers like these. I mean regulations won't win the class war, but damn it we should live in a world where some basic human decency can be respected.

[xub3rn00dlex]

"The safety and welfare of our employees is our No. 1 priority at Amazon, and as the general manager, I take that responsibility seriously," Amazon warehouse manager Vickie Mortimer told the paper.

Says the manager from his armchair in his air conditioned office while he sips a cold drink...

[Thirsty Crow]

Says the manager from his armchair in his air conditioned office while he sips a cold drink...
It's quite indicative that this manager feels "safe" to produce such statements which are contradicted by the very simple facts on the ground. If anything, this signifies the total assurance capitalists feel in the face of potential penalities or forced regulation, on one hand, and on the other the total disregard for any kind of critical public opinion. It's just enough to spew platitudes and no one has to worry what people will think. Disgusting.

[Red Rebel]

Spencer Soper wrote a damn good article. It is a same more journalist can't write (or get printed) on that level of insight.

Sadly this is just an example. Many non-union warehouses face similar problems in the USA.

[W1N5T0N]

Fuck libertarians (the capitalist kind). Seriously, they are the scum of the Earth, protecting the liberty of fuckers like these. I mean regulations won't win the class war, but damn it we should live in a world where some basic human decency can be respected.

DeLeon:
While the libertarians of the right despise the state because it hinders the freedom of property, Left libertarians condemn the state because it is a bastion of property.

[Le Socialiste]

So long as these methods of subjugation are tolerated by the workers involved management has no reason to think twice about its company policies. By instilling the fear of unemployment and loss of wages, dangling the reality that there are hundreds of other people desperate to find work, the authorities believe themselves capable of keeping their employees in line. I mean for fuck’s sake—they have the audacity to have ambulances stationed outside! They, and the whole of this system, will continue this so long as the people remain unaware that there are alternatives to their current position. Workers have been beaten down to the point in which they must live in fear of drawing their employer’s ire; they’re told this is the pursuit of something greater. They’re expected to believe that despite the alienating monotony of their work, their situation in life, their class, that they’re in pursuit of something greater than themselves—that they’re striving for their own betterment. And fuck your coworkers, you’re expected to fight tooth and nail to ensure you make it to the forefront of the pack. We’re being beaten over the head with the same tired bullshit day in and day out, that it is the upper echelons of American society—the bankers, CEOs, the crème de la crème of the financial-political establishment—who are the guarantors of continued wealth and prosperity (the bringers of the bacon, if you will). They create our jobs, they create our livelihoods, to the extent that they are the lifeline of the entire working-class. Without them, we would flounder, lost in a whirlwind of social and financial ruin. Fuck them. The workers are the backbone of society, they have always been the backbone of society. Without us, the entire structural foundation of the state and capitalism would collapse. I believe what they fear most is a loss of legitimacy in the eyes of the public, without which they cannot function effectively—if at all. They lean on our support as a crippled man does a crutch. Of course, said loss has yet to manifest itself on a large enough scale to affect actual, meaningful change. And that’s what they rely on, that the working-class will remain in a state of division. The economic disparities of society can either deepen the alienation of the working-class or, if focused, provide the necessary conditions for struggle that accrues with its awareness and experience. It’s hard to figure out which way we’re heading sometimes…

…*sigh*…

Okay, rant over. Sorry for straying off-topic, I’m just tired (both concerning the situation of these workers—all workers, really—and physically).