An Amazon driver was told she would be fired if she stopped delivering packages during tornado warni

[Eugene]

Original reporting: ‘Keep Driving’: Amazon Dispatcher Texts Show Chaos Amid Twisters (Bloomberg)

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Source: Insider

An Amazon driver was told she would be fired if she stopped delivering packages during tornado warnings: report

Kate Duffy 22 hours ago

An Amazon driver in Illinois was told by her supervisor on December 10 that she would lose her job if she stopped delivering packages, despite warnings of tornadoes in the area, according to a Bloomberg report.

The delivery driver told Bloomberg that her base was located in Edwardsville, Illinois — the same location where six Amazon employees died after a tornado struck a warehouse last week.

About 80 minutes before the tornado struck the warehouse, the driver sent a message — screenshots of which were viewed by Bloomberg — to the supervisor saying, "radios been going off."

The supervisor told her to "just keep driving," adding that "we can't just call people back for a warning unless Amazon tells us to," according to the text messages cited by Bloomberg. A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to Bloomberg the authenticity of the messages between the driver and the supervisor.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-driver-illinois-tornado-keep-delivering-lose-job-return-warehouse-2021-12

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Source: Bloomberg

‘Keep Driving’: Amazon Dispatcher Texts Show Chaos Amid Twisters

Company has pledged to investigate incident and improve policies and safety guidance.

By Spencer Soper, Michael Tobin, and Michael Smith
December 16, 2021, 10:06 PM EST

The messages between an Amazon.com Inc. delivery driver and her boss began about 80 minutes before a tornado struck one of the company’s warehouses in Edwardsville, Illinois, on Dec. 10, killing six workers. The dramatic exchange cast in sharp relief the chaos that can ensue when disaster hits and disagreements erupt about when it’s time to heed warnings and cease working.

“Radio’s been going off,” the driver wrote in a text obtained by Bloomberg News.

“Keep delivering,” came the response from her supervisor. “We can’t just call people back for a warning unless Amazon tells us to.”

The driver suggested she return to base. But her boss warned that doing so could get her fired for failing to complete her deliveries. She fretted that her van would wind up becoming her casket.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-12-17/amazon-tornado-aftermath-workers-say-they-lacked-emergency-training

[secondwind]

1. Capitalism at its finest...... *cough*

[Sherman A1]

2. Amazon workers desperately need to be Unionized

Hopefully this kind of management disregard for the safety of their employees will be a push in that direction.

[OldBaldy1701E]

7. Well yes

But I would prefer that we simply go after businesses that treat their employees in this manner. Why create more bureaucracy when we could just put a stop to the exploitation? Oh... capitalism... never mind...

[Sherman A1]

8. I would prefer that the employees have the protection of a Union

And while not perfect as it is a human institution neither is it another layer of bureaucracy but a leveling of the playing field.

[Gore1FL]

10. They are kind of like guard rails on the highway; they are a necessary expense.

It would be nice if Corporate America would stay in the lanes, but sadly many don't.

[OldBaldy1701E]

13. Then we are not doing enough to make them.

I am tired of bowing to corporate malfeasance just because we have to 'consider the economy'. The economy is allowing certain evil to thrive and because it is happening 'in' the economy, we suddenly become wet noodles when it comes to making these arrogant pricks toe the line. (Which is why we need unions. I do not deny this. What I am saying is that we are still stuck in the 'pound of cure' scenario and we need to be in the 'ounce of prevention' scenario. These cheaters do not need to be coddled and they should not be allowed to hang out in Club Fed for a year or sit in their mansions under house arrest for six months or BE ABLE TO COP A PLEA THAT ALLOWS THEM TO BUY THEIR WAY OUT OF TROUBLE WTHOUT ADMITING TO ANYTHING WRONG when their actions have destroyed families and locales. Just sayin'.)

[Please forgive the caps, but that shiat pisses me off to no end, especially when I damn well know that neither you nor I could do such a thing. Two-tiered justice system... gotta love it!)

[oldsoftie]

3. Yet another reason to NOT use Amazon. I never do. Never will.

I do use them as a search engine for things i cant find locally. Then i buy it directly from the company selling it

[multigraincracker]

4. To stop working in the face of danger

would not be the Free Market Way.

[Farmer-Rick]

5. If you fear for your life and safety, do not continue working

No matter what your boss threatens you with. You can always get another job but you can't get another life. Trust your instincts for physical safety.

As a teenager I worked at a restaurant with this dangerous chopper that had a big rotating blade in the back of it. One day while showing me how to use the thing, my boss told me to put my hand in there to get the last bits of chopped vegetables out. I said no. He told me again. I said no again and walked away. As I was leaving he swore at me and told me I was fired. Then as I got to the dinning room I hear a very loud screech. He had put his hand into the chopper and got his fingers chopped off. We rushed him to the hospital which luckily was only minutes away.

They sewed his fingers back on. When he returned to work, his hand all wrapped up, he asked what I was doing there since I was still fired. I filed a complaint but nothing came of it.

I wonder how many others lost their fingers on that piece of equipment.

[wnylib]

6. Whatever happened to the claim

that Amazon also refused to allow employees at their warehouse to take shelter during the tornado warnings? A lot has been said about people at the candle factory in Kentucky, but after Amazon denied that it forced people at the warehouse to work through the warnings, no more has been said about it. Are media catering to Amazon by dropping coverage of the event?

The candle factory and Amazon should be investigated for their actions. I hope that civil suits will give huge compensations to the people who file them on behalf of the deceased. It won't bring them back, but it will hold the murderers accountable. They should be charged with negligent homicide.

[Eugene]

11. OSHA is investigating. Per the Bloomberg article, Amazon says one thing,

anonymous workers dispute it.

Federal regulations require disaster plans. Amazon says it had plans for the warehouse and drivers. Workers say nobody told them, and nobody knew what to do, as disaster drills were never conducted.

In this case, Bloomberg got the texts, and Amazon is now trying to blame this incident on the dispatcher.

The were unprepared, and supervisors wouldn't act without word from above.

[wnylib]

12. How awful.

Wonder if any of the Amazon or Mayfield supervisors were among the dead.

[2naSalit]

9. I never order anything from...

amazon. Like walmart and fb they are things that hasten us to our ruin.