Amazon apologises for falsely denying that its drivers urinate in plastic bottles

Amazon has issued an apology to US politician Mark Pocan for falsely denying that its drivers are, at occasions, pressured to urinate in bottles.
After the politician referenced Amazon in his Tweet for making “workers urinate in water bottles”, a response from the official Amazon Twitter deal with learn: “You don’t really believe the peeing bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us.”
Shortly after, proof emerged of drivers being compelled to urinate in bottles. Several information shops quoted Amazon workers who confirmed that they’d been left with no possibility however to urinate in plastic bottles. The workers additionally spoke about Amazon’s harsh work practices at their fulfilment centres. It has been reported that Amazon executives have been conscious of those practices.
Amazon later retracted its assertion and apologised. In a press release, Amazon stated, “We owe an apology to Representative Pocan,” including additional, “The tweet was incorrect. It did not contemplate our large driver population and instead focused only on our fulfilment centres.” Amazon stated that each one of its fulfilment centres have bathrooms accessible to workers “at any time”.
Amazon additionally stated that they wish to discover options for the long-standing situation.
“We know that drivers can and do have trouble finding restrooms because of traffic or sometimes rural routes, and this has been especially the case during Covid when many public restrooms have been closed.”
However, Pocan rejected the apology and tweeted, “Sigh. this is not about me, this is about your workers – who you don’t treat with enough respect or dignity. Start by acknowledging the inadequate working conditions you’ve created for ALL your workers, then fix that for everyone and finally, let them unionise without interference.”
Representative Pocan had beforehand tweeted: “Paying workers $15/hr doesn’t make you a ‘progressive workplace’ when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles.”
Pocan is among the many many US politicians who’ve criticised Amazon within the current previous for blocking its employees from unionising, and for his or her anti-union methods focusing on warehouse employees in Alabama, who’re at present within the strategy of forming a union.
(With inputs from the BBC)