By Vega
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos visited one of his company’s warehouses as well as a Whole Foods grocery store on Wednesday, making rare public appearances as employees have raised complaints about working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Bezos, donning skinny jeans, a slim-fit button down shirt and a face mask, toured an unspecified Amazon warehouse and a Whole Foods supermarket in a video posted to Twitter by the company’s PR account.
In the 47-second video, the richest man in the world — who currently holds a net worth just shy of $125 billion, according to Forbes — greets employees and thanks them for their hard work.
“I like your mask,” the billionaire told a Whole Foods clerk working an aisle. “I can’t shake your hand — it’s a hard habit to break,” he told another.
The video immediately drew barbs from Twitter users. “Does Amazon ease up on the nearly impossible work rates & quotas when Jeff stops by?” one user replied. “Aww that’s nice,” replied another. “How about giving these hard workers a raise or a bonus?”
Amazon on Thursday also vowed to start testing warehouse workers for the coronavirus amid complaints that it hasn’t been doing enough to protect those workers.
“To date, we’ve made over 150 significant process changes at sites around the world to ensure the health and safety of our teams,” Amazon said in a blog post, referring to its distributing masks to employees and conducting employee temperature checks.
“A next step might be regular testing of all employees, including those showing no symptoms,” the company said while acknowledging a shortage of tests.
The company said its seeking to start by “building incremental testing capacity,” using a team of “research scientists and program managers to procurement specialists and software engineers” who have moved off their normal jobs to work on this initiative.
The company said it hopes to “start testing small numbers of our front line employees soon.”
Amazon’s warehouse workers have become emboldened in recent days to publicly protest the notoriously demanding company. The situation has drawn the attention of the UNI global labor union, which published an open letter to Amazon employees on Thursday.
“Amazon’s focus is on making money for its shareholders, and not the least, for Jeff Bezos himself,” the letter said. “As workers, our responsibility is for the safety and livelihood of our families and colleagues.”
Amazon’s warehouse workers publicly protested the notoriously demanding company in the wake of the virus. And the conflict has drawn the attention of the UNI Global Union, which published an open letter to Amazon employees on Thursday.
“Amazon’s focus is on making money for its shareholders, and not the least, for Jeff Bezos himself,” the letter said. “As workers, our responsibility is for the safety and livelihood of our families and colleagues.”
Last week, workers at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse, called JFK8, protested the company’s handling of the virus amid complaints that 25 people there have tested positive for the deadly illness.
That rally came exactly a week after dozens of employees held a protest spearheaded by management assistant Christopher Smalls — who was later fired by Amazon.
Amazon warehouses in Detroit and Chicago — two hotbeds of the coronavirus pandemic in the US — have also seen labor protests.
The company last month said that it would hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in the United States to deal with a surge in online orders, and pledged to add $2 to its minimum $15 per hour to US workers’ wages through April.
