So in the last few weeks, news articles have been sprouting up about harsh working conditions in Amazon warehouse facilities (fulfillment centers). This past summer, the whole country witnessed more than usual high temperatures. Now let me give you a picture of a warehouse. They are around a million square feet with ceilings heights of I'm guessing a 100 feet at least. The whole building made of concrete and steel and machinery, storage racks and bins everywhere. packing stations, receiving and shipping docks, and 60 - 70 miles of conveyor belts everywhere all in a chaotic organized way. Yes in the summer the temperatures does get sometimes above 110 degrees and yes the pay is $4 - $5 per hour more than fast food or Wal-Mart. When getting hired. one would work for a local temp agency then after meeting certain guidelines then may be converted to become an Amazon.Com associate that are blessed with benefits I've not seen or heard of any other company for entry warehouse workers. The main guideline to become an Amazon associate is attendance and being at work on time. That is the top reason an temp worker does not get converted. 2nd reason is not able to meet required times on tasks.( which are I feel minimum standards to meet if one wants a job.)
I am coming up on my 2nd year as an associate. Amazon.com in ALL their work places provided ice cold water bottles in ice chests @ 1 every 75-100 feet in the facilities. 20 minute breaks in air conditioned break rooms @ every 2 hours. gatorade, fresh fruit and popsicles were provided starting June 1st. Clear water bottles are allowed on the work floor with associates. Work out stretching was enforced before the shift and after returning from lunch. Heat weather tips and education were distributed daily from the corporate safety department on how to treat your body during the heat. Safety associates were on hand in all departments. The work consists of many different tasks performed to get the packages to the customers. The beginning is stowing or stocking the items in 10 - 20 million "bin locations" throughout the warehouse. The other would be Picking the items through miles and miles of bins (sort of like walking down library isles of shelving and bins) to send items to the packaging department. This job is compared to shopping at like Wal-Mart in a brisk - not quite a speed walking walk, filling your cart with items that appear on your order scanner. A "quota" time is required to pick and that equals out to 1 1/2 items per minute. Next time you go shopping see how many items you pick up in a minute. And yes, you may be putting in to sometimes 6-8 miles of walking per shift and during holiday season can go up to 10-12 miles per shift. The other jobs include putting an item in a box, sealing it and placing on a conveyor belt.
I am 48 years old, 250+ lbs male and had no heat issues. Uncomfortable at times? yes but bearable. We soon had a "portable "air condition system installed in July to cut down the humidity. We have always had fans at least every 20-30 feet in each facility where possible. I am a proud employee of Amazon.com and plan on being there forever. I received bonuses in 2010 and receiving them this year because of production and keeping operational costs minimum where many companies did not issue bonuses.
The reports and news articles I have been seeing on this issue were reporters interviewing temp workers that would rather stay home, collect their unemployment and play video games. Toughen up America.
No comments:
Post a Comment