Hill.TV host Krystal Ball on Tuesday said there is a fundamental divide between Americans on the treatment of workers amid a report on harsh working conditions at Amazon.
“[Amazon] are extremely anti-union, so these workers, they really have no recourse. If they don’t like it, they show them the door,” Ball told co-host Buck Sexton on “Rising.”
“The fundamental divide in America isn’t race or gender, or some of the other things we talk about, it’s workers who are treated fundamentally like they are humans and workers who are not,” she continued.
“You think the working conditions at Amazon are that bad?” Sexton replied.
“Yes,” Ball replied. “If you look at the record, they’ve had workers in warehouses that are over a hundred degrees, passing out from heat exhaustion, and I mean it’s really intense.”
The Seattle Times reported on severe working conditions at one of the tech giant’s U.K. warehouses, which one employee said was like a “prison and a totalitarian state.”
The employee said Amazon monitored his every move with a tracking device and said he had to urinate in a bottle because Amazon penalizes workers for not meeting productivity goals.
Amazon pushed back on the claims in a statement to the publication, specifically saying they do monitor bathroom breaks.
“As with nearly all companies, we expect a certain level of performance from our associates and we continue to set productivity targets objectively, based on previous performance levels achieved by our workforce. … We support people who are not performing to the levels expected with dedicated coaching to help them improve,” the company said.
— Julia Manchester
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