Amazon has issued an apology for a pair of tweets from its corporate news account attacking Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Calif.) for criticizing the company\u2019s workplace environment amid a big unionization push at a fulfillment center in Alabama.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was an own-goal, we\u2019re unhappy about it, and we owe an apology to Representative Pocan,\u201d Amazon said in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n
Pocan responded Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cSigh. This is not about me, this is about your workers \u2015 who you don\u2019t treat with enough respect or dignity,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amazon has been fighting a union drive at a Bessemer, Alabama, facility that threatens to give unionization efforts a boost elsewhere across the country. The company raised eyebrows last week for a series of uncharacteristically snotty responses to politicians who were tweeting about its workers and business practices. <\/span><\/p>\n It was a strategy that reportedly came from the very top \u2015 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wanted his corporate communications team to respond more aggressively against charges of unfair labor practices, according to Recode.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), among others,\u00a0<\/span>has voiced strong support for Amazon workers\u2019 push for better conditions.\u00a0<\/span>Last Wednesday, Amazon executive Dave Clark snarkily welcomed the senator to the Alabama facility in a tweet sarcastically thanking him for his work on behalf of American workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI often say we are the Bernie Sanders of employers, but that\u2019s not quite right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace,\u201d Clark said.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was Pocan who jumped in to respond to Clark. \u201cPaying workers $15\/hr doesn\u2019t make you a \u2018progressive workplace\u2019 when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles,\u201d he tweeted.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amazon News, a corporate Amazon Twitter account, responded to Pocan in a tone similar to Clark\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us,\u201d the tweet read.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is, in fact, well-documented that Amazon workers are subject to strict and physically demanding protocols. Some workers say they sometimes take extreme measures to avoid stopping their work, because too much \u201ctime off task,\u201d as Amazon calls breaks, can result in discipline.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is less common for Amazon\u2019s warehouse workers to take bathroom shortcuts, however, than it is for delivery drivers, who have difficulty finding public restrooms \u2015 especially during the coronavirus pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n In its Friday statement, Amazon acknowledged that the tweet was wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt did not contemplate our large driver population and instead wrongly focused only on our fulfillment centers,\u201d the company explained, saying it is aware that delivery drivers struggle to find restrooms and pledging to help find a solution to the \u201cindustry-wide\u201d problem.<\/p>\n Amazon then differentiated its drivers from its fulfillment center workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA typical Amazon fulfillment center has dozens of restrooms, and employees are able to step away from their work station at any time. If any employee in a fulfillment center has a different experience, we encourage them to speak to their manager and we\u2019ll work to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s apology to Pocan was published late on Friday, which could be interpreted as an effort to put it out quietly.\u00a0The company also remained mum on Amazon News\u2019 other tweets\u00a0targeting Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who has also proven herself one of Amazon\u2019s loudest critics in Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amazon workers have already voted on the unionization question, but their ballots are still being counted, according to AL.com. Nearly 6,000 ballots were sent out. Results are expected in the next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n