AmazonFresh Worker Reveals: Amazon Illegally Keeps Workers In A Freezer

Looks like Amazon is getting more "cold hearted" as some employees claim they are left inside very cold work environments for hours on end !

Are these complaints and claims really "Valid" ?

Where's the Unions when you need 'em.

A mazonFresh Worker Reveals: Amazon Illegally Keeps Workers In A Freezer For Over Two Hours At A Time

The International Amazon Workers Voice (IAWV) recently spoke with a young AmazonFresh worker in Virginia. Launched in 2007, AmazonFresh, the company’s online grocery business, delivers groceries to its Prime members in select cities. AmazonFresh represents an effort to directly challenge brick-and-mortar stores in the $800 billion grocery market. According to Business Insider, Amazon plans to open 20 physical AmazonFresh locations over the next two years.

Food and other perishable items in AmazonFresh facilities are stored in refrigerators and freezers with temperatures ranging from 30 to -22 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 to -30 degrees Celsius). “You have no idea where you will be placed that day or what you should wear. I have one co-worker that wears three different layers of clothes that he takes on and off throughout the day,” the worker said.

Even though employees are only legally allowed to stay in the freezer for one hour, the worker says management frequently breaks the law. “There are no clocks in the freezer. There is no way you can track time in there. No manager comes to let you know you can get out of the freezer at the end of the hour. You can set an alarm on your phone, but then you have to take off your freezer equipment in -22 degree weather to turn off the alarm. Stopping to check for the time also slows you down—they never stop monitoring your pick rate. If you are assigned to freezer duty after lunch, you’ll be in the freezer from 12:25 pm to 3pm.”

awww.

Dang snowflakes . They have never worked in a convenience store and stocked the coolers , huh ? Probably never worked anywhere before in their lives.

a reply to: Gothmog

Yeah Amazon! big companies for total control!

a reply to: Gothmog

First can I point out the irony of you calling people complaining about staying too long in a freezer a snowflake? Second, if the employees are accurate, Amazon is breaking the law. I bet your the first one to say fry the bastard when an individual is charged with some crime, for instance an Anti-Fa protester. You're so brained washed by the corporate mentality that its humorous.

The original labor unions in this country risked their lives against the government and private police forces, like the evil Pinkertons, to fight for the rights of the working men. They were the furthest thing from snowflakes. The fact that we still have to fight these battles is absurd.

originally posted by: TobyFlenderson
a reply to: Gothmog

First can I point out the irony of you calling people complaining about staying too long in a freezer a snowflake? Second, if the employees are accurate, Amazon is breaking the law. I bet your the first one to say fry the bastard when an individual is charged with some crime, for instance an Anti-Fa protester. You're so brained washed by the corporate mentality that its humorous.

The original labor unions in this country risked their lives against the government and private police forces, like the evil Pinkertons, to fight for the rights of the working men. They were the furthest thing from snowflakes. The fact that we still have to fight these battles is absurd.

You ever stocked a coolers in a large convenience store ?
No
Done
Next

a reply to: Gothmog

I actually never worked in a convenience store. Have worked in restaurants and had to stock walk-ins, but never for an hour or more. I also had a temp job an ice-cream manufacturer and we were only allowed in the freezer for brief moments at a time. Even though we weren't union, the union workers watched out for us.

You presume that anyone who is anti-corporate greed has never done real work? That's laughable. Unless you were born into a wealthy family, your standard of living is due directly to the labor movement in this country. Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it.

That is some of the silliest sh*t I have heard.
I live in Michigan and in the winter, temps are regularly in the single digits or teens.
I recall as a kid playing outside for hours in the cold....for FREE!
What about the people in Minnesota or North Dakota? They have it worse in the winter and I am sure they spend plenty of time outside.
Plain and simple, we have become a country of complete sissies.
If they don't like the job, get another one.

Obviously, many of you haven't worked in a freezer. It's the chits! Staying in a freezer too long can damage your lungs. When I have had to work in a freezer, the fan was required to stay on and it was almost unbearable to stay in longer than a couple of minutes without the proper clothing. If you wear eye glasses or contacts, you vision can be affected.

I can't imagine working for an hour in a -22F setting if there is air movement. I live in the cold north about 300 miles from the Canadian border and our winters are damn cold, I've experienced -36F. No matter how I dress, my fingers usually start to get numb by the time I get to the barn IF the wind is blowing and it's below 15F. So the wind is the biggest 'cold' factor. I have stayed out on a sunny day at 0F with no wind and the weather is nice, I could easily stay out for an hour or so.

But as TobyFlenderson posted, Amazon is breaking the rules and should be called out on it.

originally posted by: Gothmog
Dang snowflakes . They have never worked in a convenience store and stocked the coolers , huh ? Probably never worked anywhere before in their lives.

I always preferred stocking frozen. Never break a sweat in there! Our store supplied heavy coats and gloves for freezer work.

If you have adequate clothing, who cares how long you're in there?

a reply to: TobyFlenderson

I agree. I have stocked tons of different coolers and freezers over my career.

The people in question should not have to work in conditions that put them in peril. And at -22 degrees it is not the usual freezers. That can cause damage, and if Amazon is breaking the law, hit'em in the pocket book (law suit).

originally posted by: Gothmog
Dang snowflakes . They have never worked in a convenience store and stocked the coolers , huh ? Probably never worked anywhere before in their lives.

I understand your mentality here, but some companies actually do treat employees very poorly. I got hired at this one place one time where they actually prevented employees from going to the bathroom for the entire shift. The way it worked was you get put at a conveyor belt type thing where you have to be constantly taking care of the items coming along, and if you miss any of them, you get in trouble. Now... The belt doesn't stop moving. If you leave your position, you miss ALOT of items. If you miss items, you get fired. I asked the supervisor if I could go to the bathroom and he told me
something like "Well, we can't tell you you can't go, but you're not allowed to miss the items on the belt, and if you do you'll probably be fired".
To make matters worse, it was in an extremely hot warehouse with no air conditioning or real air flow. After being there for just 1 hour, I stopped sweating, started becoming confused and delirious and physically stumbling around, and realized I was at risk of having heat stroke. I left and never went back.
This was a major US company.
And don't even say I'm a snowflake, I worked for years with a major health problem, including both physically demanding jobs and jobs requiring me to work in all weather extremes.

a reply to: trollz

I understand your mentality here, but some companies actually do treat employees very poorly. I got hired at this one place one time where they actually prevented employees from going to the bathroom for the entire shift.

And what should you do ?
" I freakin resign , this is bullsh**"
Or , file a complaint with OSHA
Or , if they are Union , file a complaint with the Shop Steward
So dont tell me , cause I really dont give a rat's a**
There are channels to follow with grievances...

Workers at one Arkansas poultry plant were denied restroom breaks to the point some "had to wear Pampers," according to an explosive new report on working conditions

Industry employees also have been forced to cut down on drinking fluids "to a dangerous degree," and some reported having urinated or defecated on themselves while working because they can't hold it in any longer

"Supervisors mock [the workers'] needs and ignore
their requests; they threaten punishment or firing,"
Source

Here's one article about employees having to actually wear diapers due to being threatened with termination for needing to use the bathroom. The job I got was in a completely different place, but this sort of employer behavior actually does happen.

According to Oxfam, a worker at a Pilgrim's plant in Alabama said supervisors regularly threatened people: "Go to the bathroom, and from there, go to Human Resources."
Source

Amazon Keeps Workers In A Freezer

I wonder if they have Prince Albert in a can...

I love that Amazon is thinking about me with the products that I want to order and pre-freezing the help so I don't have to do it when they show up at my house.

a reply to: trollz

If you're peeing yourself during work, I'd say it's time to find a new job.

1) Tell manager to go %$#@ themselves

2) Move on to better things

originally posted by: Gothmog
a reply to: trollz

I understand your mentality here, but some companies actually do treat employees very poorly. I got hired at this one place one time where they actually prevented employees from going to the bathroom for the entire shift.

And what should you do ?
" I freakin resign , this is bullsh**"
Or , file a complaint with OSHA
Or , if they are Union , file a complaint with the Shop Steward
So dont tell me , cause I really dont give a rat's a**
There are channels to follow with grievances...

I decided to not return, because I almost had heat stroke from being there for just one hour. To give you an idea of how ridiculously hot it was inside, I went from that job to one where I'd spend hours unloading boxes from inside tractor trailers sitting in the sun in the middle of the summer heat with no issue whatsoever. I'd take a gallon of water and drink it throughout, and if I started getting overheated I could hop out for a few minutes and then get back in. My clothing would be 100% soaked through and through with sweat by the time I was done. I never had any problem working in the heat like I did in that sh*tty warehouse.

originally posted by: StoutBroux
Obviously, many of you haven't worked in a freezer. It's the chits! Staying in a freezer too long can damage your lungs. When I have had to work in a freezer, the fan was required to stay on and it was almost unbearable to stay in longer than a couple of minutes without the proper clothing. If you wear eye glasses or contacts, you vision can be affected.

I can't imagine working for an hour in a -22F setting if there is air movement. I live in the cold north about 300 miles from the Canadian border and our winters are damn cold, I've experienced -36F. No matter how I dress, my fingers usually start to get numb by the time I get to the barn IF the wind is blowing and it's below 15F. So the wind is the biggest 'cold' factor. I have stayed out on a sunny day at 0F with no wind and the weather is nice, I could easily stay out for an hour or so.

But as TobyFlenderson posted, Amazon is breaking the rules and should be called out on it.

I hate Bezos, I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Yet if we have laws that prevent this kind of treatment to workers, isn't self defeating to blame the corporation that is guilty versus the corrupt elected officials who are allowing these laws to be violated?????

Same with the cop haters. Why don't you attack those who create the laws?

Any of you seeing the pattern here?

a reply to: seeker1963

Ahhh the Gig economy.

Where we have kings of the greatest wealth and the serfs. Anti trust laws need not apply.