![]() “I didn’t see one person cleaning the place. In a phone interview, the former employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said supervisors do not seem to be taking the danger seriously. And what makes it worse is that not only do they not have anybody cleaning a damn thing, there isn’t one disinfectant wipe in sight.” “There is no social distancing being practiced, I see employees touching each other and huddled up in huge groups of people,” the former employee said via email. One employee, who quit his job as a packager last weekend after the positive tests were announced, said in an email that he left an unsafe situation. Workers who reached out to this news organization claim Amazon is focused on cashing in on demand for goods and is not doing enough to keep the warehouse safe. “The truth is the vast majority of employees continue to show up and do the heroic work of delivering for customers every day,” said Timothy Carter, Amazon spokesman, in an email received on Friday, April 3. While the exact location was not identified, the date coincides with the first positive test at the Eastvale center. Roughly 60% of employees at “an Amazon Southern California fulfillment center” didn’t report to work after a colleague showed up with symptoms consistent with a coronavirus infection, the Journal reported March 19. Amazon is the largest private-sector employer in the region with about 20,000 workers in 14 facilities. In the Inland Empire, the sector makes up close to 10% of the workforce. The logistics industry employed an estimated 374,000 people in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in February, according to state data. Amazon and others are hiring thousands of workers to fill in the gaps. In the second week of March, the e-commerce giant’s website had more than 639 million visitors, up 32% from the same period in 2019 and near holiday-season levels, according to a report cited by the Wall Street Journal.ĭistribution centers also are dealing with absenteeism as employees are forced to stay at home with children now that school campuses are closed. ![]() ![]() “People were scared, and it spread like wildfire.” Pressure to deliverĪmazon is under tremendous strain to deliver goods to millions of consumers sheltering at home. “The Eastvale thing sprung out of sheer need,” Vasquez said. Mario Vasquez, a spokesperson for Teamsters Local 1932, which represents public sector workers in the Inland Empire, gave organizers some advice although he said the union had no role in the petition drive. The petition was a grassroots effort organized by current and former employees, although only current staffers signed it. In an emailed response, Amazon did not mention the Eastvale petition but said it is consulting with health authorities and medical experts on how to handle building closures for deep cleaning, should an employee test positive for COVID-19. ![]()
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