Amazon’s decision to publicly fire back at a Wisconsin congressman’s tweet about working conditions at the company has turned into a bit of a PR mess, complete with pictures of bottles full of urine.
The ordeal started Wednesday evening when Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO Dave Clark got fired up on Twitter over Sen. Bernie Sanders’ plans to meet with Amazon workers who want to unionize at a fulfillment center in Bessemer, Ala.
Clark’s claim that Amazon delivers a more “progressive workplace” than the senator ever has in Vermont captured the attention of Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) who accused Amazon in his own tweet of union busting and making workers urinate in bottles.
Paying workers $15/hr doesn't make you a "progressive workplace" when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles. https://t.co/CnFTtTKA9q
— Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) March 25, 2021
The official Amazon Twitter account @AmazonNews was paying attention and waded into the pee bottle controversy, shooting back at Pocan, “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us.”
Pocan replied that he believed Amazon’s workers.
And thousands of other users on Twitter joined in the debate.
1/2 You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us. The truth is that we have over a million incredible employees around the world who are proud of what they do, and have great wages and health care from day one.
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 25, 2021
And yes, I do believe your workers.
You don't?
— Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) March 25, 2021
And Thursday morning, the Vice site Motherboard offered up plenty of commentary from those workers in a report quoting delivery drivers who regularly take bathroom breaks in their vans to avoid finding a proper restroom and delaying the timely delivery of packages.
The story included an image, supplied by an Amazon employee, of water and juice bottles filled with urine, and linked to more images on Reddit.
“We’re pressured to get these routes done before night time and having to find a restroom would mean driving an extra 10 minutes off path to find one,” an Amazon delivery driver told Motherboard. “Ten to 15 minutes to find a bathroom can add up, meaning 20 to 30 minutes there and back all together.”
“All the guys do it,” another Amazon driver in Florida who pees in coffee cups told Motherboard. “The best drivers get overtime so there’s incentive to cut corners. The most productive drivers get rewarded the most hours.”
Motherboard pointed out in a previous report that having nowhere to pee is not a problem unique to Amazon drivers and is an issue for workers across the gig economy.
Amazon is in a heated public relations war over working conditions, not just for its delivery drivers but predominantly in its vast fulfillment centers around the country. It all comes at a time when the tech giant is facing a unionization vote in Alabama, which it is trying to fend off by repeatedly touting the $15 minimum wage and health benefits it offers to workers.
As more than 5,800 workers in Alabama vote on whether to organize under the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the outcome could set the tone, if not a precedent, for hundreds of thousands of Amazon workers.
The defensive tweets by Clark and Amazon are in line with a previous report on how Amazon was encouraging the use of Twitter by some employees, known as “FC ambassadors” or fulfillment center ambassadors, to defend Amazon’s warehouse conditions and treatment of workers.
