Amazon isn’t normally the type to apologize for its behavior, but it just made one notable exception – more or less. GeekWire reports this company has excuse to representative Mark Pocan for Twitter posts blow up the Wisconsin politician when he critical working conditions that included drivers peeing into bottles as they faced pressure to meet quotas. The tweets were “incorrect” focusing on warehouse workers rather than drivers facing these issues, according to Amazon. A flawed process also meant that tweets were not given “proper review”.
The company partly downplayed the driver’s experience, arguing that bottle pee was a “long-standing, industry-wide” problem, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he also admitted that this was not acceptable and that he would “seek solutions”.
There was no explanation why Amazon launched a rare attack on social media. Recode sources Recently, outgoing CEO Jeff Bezos was frustrated by his company’s lack of resistance to accusations he deemed inaccurate or misleading. In addition to its response to Pocan, Amazon recently defended his practices against the criticisms of senators Bernie sanders and Elizabeth warren.
It’s unclear why Amazon took more than a week to apologize to Pocan, although it comes as warehouse staff in Alabama are voting to unionize. The internet shopping giant has also faced increasing scrutiny anti-union tactics and general working conditions. Amazon doesn’t necessarily try to gain attention with an apology (this move arguably underscores those concerns), but it does recognize that the tech firm’s work environment is a hot issue.
