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Amazon apologized to Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan of California for its snarky remark it made the week prior. The E-commerce company made its apology on April 2, 2021. However, the tweet did not apologize to its workers. In the tweet the company stated its remark “was an own-goal, we’re unhappy about it, and we owe an apology to Representative Pocan.”
Amazon continued on saying they “did not contemplate our large driver population.” They instead had focused on their “fulfillment centers” with their comment. These facilities have “dozens of restrooms that employees can use at “any time.”
They continued with the fact that their drivers have a rough time finding bathrooms due to rural routes and traffic. Amazon further acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many public restrooms to close their facilities. This creates even more trouble for their drivers to find places to use the bathroom.
On March 24th, Pocan tweeted that Amazon’s $15 an hour pay rate did not make them “a “progressive workplace” when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles.” To which the company asked if the representative believed “the peeing in bottles thing.” Further commenting:
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.
In 2018, a reporter for Insider, Hayley Peterson, reported that many Amazon drivers peed in bottles. Former and current employees told Peterson that it was part of the job. This due to the fact they “really didn’t have time to go to the” restroom.
Amazon’s apology to Pocan also stated that they are not the only company whose drivers face the issue of urinating in bottles. The company will look into ways to solve this issue. The apologetic tweet from Amazon also stated they “will continue to speak out when misrepresented, but we will also work hard to always be accurate.”
Written by Sheena Robertson
Source:
MSN: Amazon apologized for a snarky tweet and acknowledged its delivery drivers do pee in bottles; by Kelsey Vlamis
Featured Image Courtesy Mike Mozart’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License