Tag: Amazon
Amazon fires three critics of warehouse conditions in pandemic
(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday it had fired three critics of the company’s pandemic response for workplace violations, dismissals that drew sharp words from U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and a labor coalition.
The company on Friday fired two user experience designers, Maren Costa and Emily Cunningham, for what it called repeated violations of internal policies, without specifying which ones.
The two workers, who gained prominence for pushing the company to do more on climate change, had recently made public statements questioning Amazon’s pandemic safety measures and pledging to match donations of up to $500 to support staff at risk of getting the virus.
The e-commerce giant also said it dismissed Bashir Mohamed, a warehouse worker in Minnesota, for inappropriate language and behavior. Mohamed told Reuters he had been warning colleagues about the virus and calling on management to increase cleaning; Amazon has been “tripling down on deep cleaning,” it has said in recent statements.
Their dismissals follow Amazon’s termination on March 30 of warehouse protest leader Christian Smalls on the grounds that he put others at risk by violating his paid quarantine when he joined a demonstration at Amazon’s Staten Island, New York, fulfillment center.
In statements shared with Reuters, Cunningham said she believed Amazon could play a powerful role during the crisis, but to do so, “we have to really listen to the workers who are on the front line, who don’t feel adequately protected.”
Costa said in her statement, “No company should punish their employees for showing concern for one another, especially during a pandemic!”
The world’s largest online retailer is facing intensifying scrutiny by lawmakers and unions over whether it is doing enough to protect staff from the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 1.9 million people, including workers at more than 50 of Amazon’s U.S. warehouses, according to the New York Times.
The company has been racing to update safety protocols, distribute protective gear and keep warehouses functional as it works to ship essentials to shoppers under widespread government stay-at-home orders. Small groups of employees have staged high-profile protests at several Amazon warehouses.
Mohamed, a 28-year-old Somali-American, said his boss told him not to organize other workers at the Minneapolis-area warehouse. Once he began informing colleagues of the risks they faced from the virus, he said, Amazon started targeting him.
“They didn’t like the way I was talking,” he said.
In a statement, Amazon said, “We respect the rights of employees to protest and recognize their legal right to do so; however, these rights do not provide blanket immunity against bad actions, particularly those that endanger the health, well-being or safety of their colleagues.”
Amazon said Mohamed had also violated social distancing guidelines.
A dismissal letter Mohamed shared with Reuters did not specify social distancing but focused on his declining to talk to certain team leaders starting in early March; Mohamed alleged that before that period his manager had discriminated against him.
Public pressure on Amazon mounted on Tuesday, following five Democratic U.S. Senators who wrote to Amazon’s Chief Executive Jeff Bezos last week to request an explanation about what happened with the other fired warehouse worker, Smalls.
Sanders tweeted: “Instead of firing employees who want justice, maybe Jeff Bezos – the richest man in the world – can focus on providing his workers with paid sick leave, a safe workplace, and a livable planet.”
Athena, a labor and activist coalition, called the latest dismissals “outrageous.”
Read original article here ————————————————————————–?? https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-amazon-com-warehou/amazon-fires-three-critics-of-warehouse-conditions-in-pandemic-idUSKCN21W0UI
Amazon’s new Nazi-hunting series is slammed for fictitious Holocaust scenes
Auschwitz Memorial blasts ‘Hunters,’ which stars Al Pacino, saying: “Inventing a fake game of human chess for [“Hunters] @huntersonprime is not only dangerous foolishness & caricature. It also welcomes future deniers.” Subscribe: http://smarturl.it/reuterssubscribe Reuters brings you the latest business, finance and breaking news video from around the globe. Our reputation for accuracy and impartiality is unparalleled.
Whole Foods looks like a ghost town after supplier shutters
Whole Foods? More like, um, only some of the food. Thank you, thank you, and for the love of God, please keep reading. Shoppers have reported that the Amazon-owned grocery giant has been woefully understocked of late, leaving huge gaps in the inventory at stores in D.C., New York, Richmond, and more. Check out the photos on Business Insider—it’s so out of stock you’d think there’s a pre-hurricane panic.
Business Insider visited a store in Richmond, Virginia and found empty shelves where all kinds of groceries should’ve been: prepared foods, dairy, produce, juices, and soup broths. I had a similar experience in Los Angeles in early January, where my nearby Whole Foods 365 was weirdly understocked; I was frustrated to find totally empty shelves in the coffee aisle. (But since I’m a Midwestern woman I just found some way to blame the inconvenience on myself.) Whole Foods says that its supplier of beans, grains, lentils, and rice has suddenly shuttered, and it might take the store months to find a new supplier. And due to unusual weather, its lettuce supply from California has been temporarily affected, too. But those two explanations don’t account for the many other understocked departments encountered by reporters and social media users alike.
Some Twitter users have pointed out that such shortages were never an issue until Amazon bought Whole Foods, aiming their frustrations at Jeff Bezos. And while I can’t confirm whether that allegation is entirely accurate, I’m very comfortable with blaming multi-bajillionaires whenever there’s a dearth of canned beans.
Article via The Takeout
Amazon workers ‘forced to go back to work’ after fellow employee dies on shift
An Amazon worker in apparent cardiac arrest was lying on the floor of a warehouse for 20 minutes before anyone noticed, according to a report.
Billy Foister, 48, who scanned and stocked shelves for the Internet giant, collapsed at an Etna, Ohio, facility just a week after he’d visited a medical clinic complaining of chest pains and a headache. He was given two beverages to combat dehydration and sent back to work, the Guardian reported.
Foister’s brother, Edward, told the paper he was shocked his brother was on the floor dying for so long before an Amazon floor monitor spotted him.
“How can you not see a 6’3” man laying on the ground and not help him within 20 minutes? A couple of days before, he put the wrong product in the wrong bin and within two minutes management saw it on camera and came down to talk to him about it,” Edward Foister said.
According to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, which included Amazon on its 2019 “Dirty Dozen” list of the most dangerous employers in the United States, six Amazon workers died on the job between November 2018 and April 2019. At the Etna warehouse alone, 28 calls to 911 were made between January and March 2019.
An employee who worked the same shift as Foister told the Guardian that after he died, they were immediately “forced to go back to work.”
“No time to decompress. Basically watch a man pass away and then get told to go back to work, everyone, and act like it’s fine,” said the Amazon employee.
Amazon said they responded to Foister “within minutes,” but Edward blames the company for his brother’s death.
“There was no reason for my brother to have died. He went to AmCare complaining about chest pains. He should have been sent to the hospital, not just sent back to work just to put things like toothpaste in a bin so somebody can get it in an hour,” Edward told the Guardian. “It seems Amazon values money way more than life. If they did their job right, I wouldn’t have had to bury my little brother.”
In March, at the same warehouse, another worker died after going into cardiac arrest. In a 911 call, a supervisor tells another employee to “go back to work.”
In January 2019, Linda Becker, the widow of Thomas Becker, sued Amazon after her husband had a heart attack while toiling at the company’s Joliet, Illinois, warehouse.
An Amazon rep told the Guardian they “work hard to provide a safe, quality working environment for the 250,000 hourly employees across Amazon’s US facilities.
Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images
Amazon offers to help employees start delivery business
Article via Yahoo
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon, which is racing to deliver packages faster, is turning to its employees with a proposition: Quit your job and we’ll help you start a business delivering Amazon packages.
The offer, announced Monday, comes as Amazon seeks to speed up its shipping time from two days to one for its Prime members. The company sees the new incentive as a way to get more packages delivered to shoppers’ doorsteps faster.
Amazon says it will cover up to $10,000 in startup costs for employees who are accepted into the program and leave their jobs. The company says it will also pay them three months’ worth of their salary.
The offer is open to most part-time and full-time Amazon employees, including warehouse workers who pack and ship orders. Whole Foods employees are not eligible to receive the new incentives.
Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. declined to say how many employees it expects to take them up on the offer.
The new employee incentive is part of a program Amazon started a year ago that let anyone apply to launch an independent Amazon delivery business and provided $10,000 in reimbursements to military veterans.
The program’s expansion is part of the company’s plan to control more of its deliveries on its own, rather than rely on UPS, the post office and other carriers. Startup costs start at $10,000 and contractors that participate are able to lease blue vans with the Amazon smile logo stamped on the side.
Overall, more than 200 Amazon delivery businesses have been created since it launched the program last June, said John Felton, Amazon’s vice president of global delivery services.
One of them is run by Milton Collier, a freight broker who started his business in Atlanta about eight months ago. Since then, it has grown to 120 employees with a fleet of 50 vans that can handle up to 200 delivery stops in a day. It has already been preparing for the one-day shipping switch by hiring more people.
“We’re ready,” says Collier.
Amazon drops $25 free shipping minimum for all US holiday shoppers
Amazon, Target, Walmart, and others are fighting hard for your holiday dollars.
Amazon’s latest perk will be available not just for its Prime members but for all holiday shoppers this year. The online retailer announced that starting today, November 5, all US-based Amazon customers can get free shipping with no minimum purchase amount. While the perk lasts only for a “limited time,” Amazon explains that the promotion will affect orders that arrive in time for the Christmas holiday.
Typically, Amazon imposes a $25 minimum order amount for non-Prime members to get free shipping. This promotion waives that minimum for the time being and puts Amazon in step with competitor Target, which waived its $35 order minimum and now offers free two-day shipping to all customers through December 22. Walmart, arguably Amazon’s biggest competitor in the US, has kept its $35 minimum threshold for free shipping for this holiday season (so far, at least).
Amazon is trying to capture as much of the holiday shopping market as possible as it faces growing competition from the likes of Target, Walmart, and other retailers. Amazon already offers free two-day shipping to its Prime members as a standard benefit, but those customers pay $120 annually for Prime. Amazon raised the price of a Prime membership by $20 earlier this year.
Removing the minimum order amount could convince non-Prime members to shop at Amazon more this holiday season than they might have previously. Amazon has the advantage of inventory, with millions of items eligible for free shipping, while Target and Walmart have thousands. Also, Amazon’s shipping and delivery infrastructure is much larger than that of any other US retailer (Target and Walmart have been expanding and striking up partnerships in order to better match Amazon’s delivery system).
However, Target and Walmart have many more brick-and-mortar locations than Amazon does, even with Whole Foods’ locations counting in Amazon’s favor. Both retailers use their thousands of locations to their advantage by offering services like curbside pickup for grocery orders and special in-store promotions.
Amazon instituted a number of promotions and discounts at Whole Foods after it purchased the specialty grocer for $13.7 billion last year, but most of those deals are for Prime members only. As far as other brick-and-mortar stores go, Amazon has a bookstore, top-rated items stores, and cashierless Amazon Go convenience stores across the country, but the number of physical locations pales in comparison to traditional retailers. Amazon likely hopes that offering free shipping with no strings attached to all will convince more people to do most of their holiday shopping online.
Article via Arstechnica
#MeToo-Themed College Comedy Series From Whitney Cummings & Lee Daniels In Works At Amazon
2 Broke Girls co-creator Whitney Cummings has teamed with Empire co-creator Lee Daniels for a timely half-hour comedy, which is in development at Amazon. The untitled project, co-created by Cummings and Daniels and starring Cummings, hails from Fox 21 TV Studios and Amazon Studios.
Co-written by Cummings and Daniels, the comedy revolves around the staff of the Ombudsman’s office at a college that navigates PC culture and the #metoo climate. The lead character, played by Cummings, must reconcile the dissonance between different generations of feminism, and the struggle to reconcile our primal desires, and socially constructed identities with current ethical obligations regarding race, class, and gender.
Cummings and Daniels set it up the project at Fox 21 a couple of months ago via Daniels’ overall deal at 20th Century Fox TV. After a bidding war, the comedy landed at Amazon for development. Daniels is set to direct the potential pilot.
As it marks its first year anniversary, the #MeToo movement continues to be a major force for social change, toppling powerful businessmen and politicians and, most recently factoring into the selection of the next Supreme Court Justice. With White House pick Brett Kavanaugh facing sexual assault accusations from the time he was at Georgetown Prep and Yale, the #MeToo discussion has focused on high school and college.
Lee, an Oscar nominee for Precious, is the co-creator/executive producer of the Fox/20th TV drama series Empire and Star. He also executive produces the Fox/20th TV comedy pilot Culture Clash starring 2 Broke Girl alumna Beth Behrs.
This marks the first TV staring vehicle for Cummings since her self-titled NBC comedy series, which she also created and executive produced. Cummings, who also co-created and executive produced the long-running CBS comedy series 2 Broke Girls, recently served as executive producer/.co-showrunner on ABC’s highly rated Roseanne revival. Cummings and Daniels are repped by CAA.
Article via: #MeToo-Themed College Comedy Series From Whitney Cummings & Lee Daniels In Works At Amazon
Walmart, Amazon stir controversy with Halloween Israeli soldier children’s costume
Racism; hate is thought so why would Walmart; Amazon agree to sell this RACIST Costume? I know because they support the prison industrial complex and they probably racist.
From CBS News– Some people are questioning what Walmart and Amazon were intending when they listed a child-sized Israeli Army soldier’s uniform as a Halloween costume, but it’s now inciting some strong social media controversy.
According to a report from CBS News, critics are claiming the retailers are sending the wrong message by selling the costume, which features olive-green pants and jacket with Hebrew writing, as well as red beret. Neither Walmart nor Amazon immediately returned a request for comment.
With Halloween only days away, the costume is stirring up strong feelings among critics on social media.
The retailers are selling the costume as a fun option for children just as violence between Palestinians and Israel’s government has been mounting. Despite an agreement brokered over the weekend by the U.S., violence between Israelis and Palestinians continued on Sunday and Monday, according to The Washington Post, which cited “lethal reprisals” from Israel in response to Palestinian attacks.
As of Tuesday morning, Amazon had more than 100 reviews of the costume, with most of them giving the item one star and highlighting their views of Israeli military….
Info on Prison Industrial complex https://www.popularresistance.org/12-mainstream-corps-benefiting-from-the-prison-industrial-complex/