By now, you surely heard of the exceedingly rare storms and tornadoes that ripped through parts of the U.S. last week. Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky all saw horrible storms that claimed over 70 lives in Kentucky alone, and over 100 overall. The tornadoes ripped towns apart and, in at least two instances, claimed the lives of workers who couldn’t leave their post. Not because they were necessary for the community or helping people survive the storm, but because two companies seem to value profits over their employees’ lives. Amazon workers in a warehouse in Illinois were told they couldn’t leave after the tornado warning went out. A driver reports she was told to continue to make deliveries, rather than return to the warehouse for shelter, or Amazon might fire her. Employees at a candle factory in Kentucky were told they’d be fired if they tried to seek shelter elsewhere.
Many of these people died because companies forced employees to continue working. It seems like productivity, output, and profits took precedence over lives. But that’s not the whole story. In many ways, it’s worse.
In This Article:
Wrong to Hold Employees? Maybe Not
The optics here are obviously bad. Amazon and a candle factory owned by Mayfield Consumer Products forced their employees to stay through threat of repercussions. Then, an Amazon warehouse in Indiana and the candle factory in Kentucky ended up in the path of a tornado. Neither building could survive, and collapsed, killing occupants who were forced to be there. It’s hard not to see these people as sacrifices for profit.
“OSHA guidance clearly states to take shelter immediately when there’s a tornado warning. Our leaders on the ground followed their training and did just that, moving quickly to get people to take shelter immediately. ”
– Amazon Spokesperson
However, at least in the case of Amazon, you could argue that the company was following Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines. If we see Amazon’s motivations as profit over safety, it’s easy to think they made the right decision for most employees for the wrong reasons. Still, they harmed others because their objective may not have been saving lives, but continuing work. In the case of Mayfield Consumer Products, on the other hand, employees had hours to seek better shelter and weren’t allowed to do so. There, eight people died. At least at Amazon, the tornado struck roughly 20 minutes after warnings went out.
Motivated by Greed, not Safety
Unfortunately, Amazon’s idea of “shelter” wasn’t what it should be. Specifically, OSHA’s guidelines are to “seek shelter in a basement or a sturdy building,” and the Amazon warehouse was neither. Had Amazon managers made decisions on a case-by-case basis, they could have sent employees who lived nearby home. Instead, they forced them to stay, and that lead to six people dying. One, Larry Virden, a father of four, sent a text message to his girlfriend before dying in the Amazon warehouse. It simply read, “Amazon won’t let us leave.”
“We heard the tornado didn’t touch down until 8:39 so he had 20 minutes to get home … I messaged him and that was the last text message I got from him … I told him where we live, it was only lightning at the time. After that, I got nothing from him.”
– Cherie Jones, Virden’s girlfriend
It can be hard to be sure of Amazon’s exact motivation, given that it’s reasonable to believe that at least local management could have thought that it would be safer to stay in the warehouse than to leave. However, Amazon’s motive seems more clear when stories of drivers making deliveries wanted to return to the warehouse for safety, and were forced to continue delivering packages. If Amazon really did believe the warehouse was the safest place for their employees to be, why did they tell delivery drivers they could be fired if they returned?
Amazon Failed their Workers Again
Larry never got to see those last three messages before he died in an Amazon warehouse
In the Amazon warehouse, six people died. These were people who were unable to get to the “safe area.” That safe area was, reportedly, the bathrooms. The only place in the warehouse that wasn’t a large open place with little support and large shelves full of loose products. There weren’t dedicated safe areas or offices, no underground areas, just a bathroom. Of course, as we know, the bathroom is likely the least used space in an Amazon warehouse, so, to Amazon’s credit, it’s practically a dedicated tornado safe room.
“I was just getting in the building and they started screaming, ‘Shelter in place!’ We were in the bathrooms. That’s where they sent us.”
– David Kosiak Amazon employee of three months
Bathrooms aren’t a safe space. They clearly weren’t located throughout the facility so they could be quick and easy to use. That’s why many employees just pee in bottles that they empty at the end of their shifts. This means the shelters were places that employees frequently didn’t use, and were likely too far away to get to quickly. It’s clear from the fact that there were any deaths that Amazon just simply didn’t build their warehouses with safety in mind, but productivity.
Ineffective and Infrequent Training
Amazon claims they followed OSHA guidelines, but employees tell a different story. Clearly they didn’t send employees directly to any form of “shelter.” At least one of the employees, who lived less than 15 minutes away, would have lived if he had been allowed to leave. The warehouse wasn’t a safe place, and Amazon didn’t get everyone to the bathroom in the 20-30 minutes they had since receiving the alert. That implies that they had employees continue to work instead of getting to the shelter. Amazon employees confirm that they were not immediately told to seek shelter.
That comes down to an issue of training.
“I have been here six and a half years and have never once been involved in a tornado safety drill on my shift, as well as have not taken part in a fire safety drill in about two years.”
– An Amazon warehouse employee
Warehouse employees report not knowing safety protocols and not receiving training. After all, a fire drill would mean stopping production for about 15-30 minutes. That would impact Amazon’s bottom line without a quick return on investment. If we consider that Amazon likely only cares about profits, it’s clear why they wouldn’t do frequent drills or safety education. To a corporation, people are replaceable, but they always need more profits.
Keeping Employees Working
“This never would have happened if they cared about lives over productivity,”
– A sister of one of the victims on social media
We can’t say how long Amazon waited before stopping work and getting employees to shelter. However, an Amazon dispatcher kept at least one driver on the road, working when it was unsafe to do so. Amazon says this isn’t policy but, according to employees, that’s the fault on Amazon. They simply haven’t trained their employees well enough to know to do the right thing. They just know to fear possible stoppages of work.
Even after the employee stated that they want to come back to the warehouse for their safety, an Amazon dispatcher repeated that they had to keep working or could risk their job. Amazon employees report frequently being threatened like this. It’s what happens when a workplace culture treats employees as disposable. A small mistake and you’re gone.
Working Through Natural Disasters
This isn’t even the first time Amazon has chosen productivity and profits over employee safety. During Hurricane Ida, an Amazon contractor says they weren’t allowed to take time off due to the coming storm. They were told that leaving for their safety would hurt their performance quota. Performance quotas can lead to employees being fired. It’s why so many Amazon employees have to use pee bottles to keep their job. If you don’t meet those quotas, you can quickly lose your job. Amazon doesn’t pay people enough to have a safety net between jobs, and often need their job to survive. Amazon’s culture of fear runs counter to any statement they could make about prioritizing employee safety. They’re not following through on those promises, and employees aren’t buying it.
Pending Phone Ban
During COVID, Amazon paused their phone ban. Previously, employees couldn’t have their phones on the warehouse floor. However, with contact tracing apps, potential exposure alerts, and calls or texts from doctors or loved ones about possible exposure, Amazon decided to let their employees have their phones on the floor. After all, it’s not as though they could be a distraction. Employees don’t even have time to use the bathroom. Perhaps Amazon is worried employees could track how much they walk and move about the warehouse, as well as prove that they don’t have time for bathroom breaks.
Amazon’s looking to move all of their warehouses back to their phone ban. However, this storm shows just another reason it would be ill-advised. Employees raising concerns due to alerts they received on their phones may have saved a few lives. Without their devices, employees would have to rely entirely on Amazon, and the company has not proven itself to have their best interests at heart. According to the sister of one of the deceased Amazon employees, workers weren’t immediately told to find shelter after the sirens began. Relying on Amazon for safety could get more people killed.
Amazon Wasn’t Alone
This article focused on Amazon as it’s a tech company and this is, after all, a tech blog. They’re also the largest company involved and should have had plenty of appropriate measures in place to protect their employees. However, a more disgusting case happened on the same night. In Kentucky, at a candle factory owned by Mayfield Consumer Products, employees report they weren’t allowed to leave. There, eight people died, out of at least 74 in the state alone.
Five factory workers have confirmed that managers wouldn’t let employees leave or they’d be fired. They had hours of warning before the tornado hit the warehouse. Throughout the night, managers took roll call to ensure no one left. They forced these employees to stay in a location where they were pinned down, injured, and killed. Company representatives say this isn’t policy, but that doesn’t change what happened that night. Those workers had three to four hours to find shelter. Thanks to their employer, many died, and many others are out of a job anyway. Creating a culture that values profit and performance above anything else means tossing aside seemingly less important goals of safety.
A Bigger Issue of Profits Over Worker Safety
Amazon warns of “union words” in this leaked instructional video.
It’s hard not to think of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in NYC. In 1911, 146 workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory died in a fire that consumed the building. The fire was likely caused by carelessness, a lack of safety protocols, or perhaps a faulty sewing machine. However, the reason so many people died is because they couldn’t get out. The factory locked employees in to prevent theft and unauthorized breaks. 146 died and 78 received non-fatal injuries. Those who survived and were present say they couldn’t forget the sound of people hitting the pavement as they attempted to escape the flames of the fire by jumping.
Taking advantage of workers is nothing new. To those not performing the labor but profiting from it, workers are a necessary expense, like a machine. They require pay and sometimes benefits, but, to corporations focused solely on profit, they’re replaceable. Unimportant. It’s nothing new. It’s why they create quotas for performance, but not for safety training.
What is new is our connection to each other thanks to technology. We hear the stories of others from all over. We know this is happening and that it’s not right. As COVID and supply shortages put more pressure on workers than ever before, along with skyrocketing inflation driven by a gigantic and growing wage gap between the average person and the wealthy, workers are fed up. Productivity has steadily increased while wages have fallen flat. Employees are speaking out, picketing, forming unions, and walking out. Finally, companies are realizing that human lives aren’t as replaceable as they thought. With every business pursuing infinite profits at any expense, they’re finding that there’s just not enough resources and labor in the world to prop up their infinite growth.
A union could have protected these people. It would have ensured safety measures. We clapped for essential workers who put themselves on the line during the pandemic, but turn our backs on them when they ask for a living wage or healthcare. People need their jobs to survive, but their jobs are killing them.
These warehouses and the workers in them will be replaced in no time. Amazon has likely already rerouted shipments around the affected areas. They wanted to make sure that those packages got out. After all, it’s the holidays. In some households, there may be Amazon packages under the tree, but one empty seat at their dinner table. If these companies don’t change, it’s because they see that as an acceptable loss in the face of better safety standards.
Lives may not go on, but for these corporations, the profits will.
Sources and Further Reading:
- Kate Duffy, Business Insider
- Dan Evon, Snopes
- Deon J. Hampton, NBC News
- Lucy Hooker, BBC News
- Ken Klippenstein, The Intercept
- Richard Luscombe, The Guardian
- Dylan Moriarty, Bonnie Berkowitz, Zach Levitt, and Laris Karklis, The Washington Post
- Hamilton Nolan, The Guardian
- Jessica Schladebeck, NY Daily News via MSN News