Amazon apologises for

mocking claim staff

urinate in plastic bottles
Online retailer admits to ‘own-goal’
when it ridiculed a US
congressman’s criticism of its
union-busting efforts
April 3 2021

A protester calls for the unionisation of Amazon

workers in Birmingham, Alabama © AFP via Getty
Images

Amazon has apologised to a US

congressman after mocking claims that
its employees sometimes resorted to
urinating in plastic bottles, saying its
reaction had been an “own-goal” and
“incorrect”.

In a tweet posted last month, Mark Pocan,

a Wisconsin Democrat, criticised Amazon
for its union-busting efforts and record on
working conditions, drawing particular
attention to staff who did not have time to
find and use a bathroom.

In response, Amazon tweeted: “You don’t

really believe the peeing in bottles thing,
do you? If that were true, nobody would
work for us.”

It sparked a flurry of negative reaction,

and several articles refuting Amazon’s
position.

Most notably, The Intercept published a

story detailing internal correspondence
from Amazon managers concerned about
workers urinating, and in some cases
defecating, while out on delivery.

In a blog post Amazon said its response

“did not contemplate our large driver
population and instead wrongly focused
only on our fulfilment centers”, indicating
it believed the issue was confined to its
network of delivery drivers.

“This was an own-goal,” Amazon wrote.

“We’re unhappy about it, and we owe an
apology to Representative Pocan.”

It said the tweet did not receive “proper

scrutiny” internally, but maintained that
drivers’ bathroom issues were due to
“traffic or sometimes rural routes”, an
issue it said had grown due to Covid-19-
related closures of public restrooms.

Amazon then went on to list a number of

tweets and news articles referencing the
same issue involving companies such as
Uber and UPS. Uber declined to
comment. A UPS spokesperson could not
be reached.

Amazon added: “Regardless of the fact

that this is industry-wide, we would like to
solve it. We don’t yet know how, but will
look for solutions.”

The apology comes as almost 6,000

Amazon workers at a warehouse in
Bessemer, Alabama, await the results of a
vote on unionisation. Counting is
expected to begin early next week. If the
union succeeds, it will be the first time
Amazon workers in the country have
achieved collective bargaining power.

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Supporters see the union drive, which has

drawn considerable political backing, as a
potential starting point for action across
the ecommerce giant’s US-based
workforce, which has grown rapidly during
the pandemic and now numbers more
than 950,000.

That figure does not include its delivery

drivers, who are hired through third-party
contractors. This weekend, a number of
drivers have pledged to walk off the job in
protest at what they see as unacceptable
workloads as Amazon continues to deal
with heightened pandemic demand.

“197 stops, this is ridiculous,” said one

driver in a video posted to Reddit on
Friday. “It’s not realistic to get this done in
a reasonable amount of time. How is this
safe?”

He added: “This needs to stop, we need

to unionise. And by the way, yes we all
pee in bottles — we have to.”

Pocan on Saturday responded to

Amazon’s apology with another tweet:
“This is not about me, this is about your
workers — who you don't treat with
enough respect or dignity. Start by
acknowledging the inadequate working
conditions you've created for ALL your
workers, then fix that for everyone &
finally, let them unionise without
interference.”