back to article Amazon warehouse workers sue over safety concerns as several contract COVID-19

Amazon.com employees have sued the e-commerce giant for failing to protect them against the coronavirus, after they contracted COVID-19 and infected their relatives or partners. The action has been brought by workers at a New York One warehouse called "JFK8" after one staffer tested positive for the disease in March and spread …

  1. skeptical i
    Thumb Down

    "Nobody saw it coming"

    Except that whistleblower guy who got fired. Except for employees who've gone on strike over workplace safety. Sue the bastards to hell and back, I hope they win big.

    1. sabroni Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: "Nobody saw it coming"

      And stop fucking buying shit from them!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "Nobody saw it coming"

        "stop fucking buying shit from them"

        I've honestly tried due to ethical concerns, and have reduced my Amazon purchases to the minimum. Unfortunately, for some things, other companies just seem to be sufficiently problematic with returns that they are the best option (e.g. DVD/Blu Ray/CDs where some companies only accept returns of faulty goods if they're still sealed - yes, that's in violation of consumer law, yet they still have excellent reviews everywhere - at least with Amazon's "advance replacement" system you can frankenstein a good set of discs out of the two sets and before you return them, if need be)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I've honestly tried due to ethical concerns....

          ...but it's just so convenient.

          Stop making bad choices just because they're easy.

      2. Cynical user

        Re: "Nobody saw it coming"

        Many years ago (10+) we had a problem with a pair of branded hair straighteners from Amazon, which turned out to be fake. Amazon couldn't have cared less, and only woke up when we got Trading Standards involved.

        To this day, we've not bought anything else from Amazon. They must have lost the cost of the straighteners hundreds of times over in lost sales. It's sometimes quite hard to find alternative sellers for items, but we've not failed yet - sometimes it may cost a few ££ more, but I'm quite happy to do that as long as the extra cost isn't excessive.

  2. macjules

    Strict rules are enforced to ensure they’re productive.

    I suppose that when you hit 40m unemployed then labour protection laws are the first thing to go. I am surprised that Bezos doesn't just announce the reintroduction of Indentured servitude.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Strict rules are enforced to ensure they’re productive.

      New sign over the door: “Work creates freedom”

  3. silent_count

    You ungrateful sods!

    It's not like Jeff has a solid gold toilet in each of his mansions and luxury yachts! The poor bloke, through his own, individual hard work and perseverance makes his first billion or so and you make it seem like he should waste his precious time by giving a stuff about the whiny, coughy people in the whatever place they're whining from. It's almost enough to put down your absolutely not solid gold chalice* of extraordinarily rare and expensive wine.

    Seriously for a minute, I wonder about the people who spent their time in lock-down complaining on Facebook or instagram about how hard their life is while ordering garbage off Amazon. I wonder if they took even one moment to consider those warehouse workers. It's awfully easy to blame the billionaire when it means you don't have to look in the mirror.

    * I know how you people think. It's encrusted with a combination of diamonds, rubies and sapphires so no, it is not solid gold. So there!

  4. Mike 137 Silver badge

    Is Amazon alone?

    Once you're dealing with any behemoth corporation that can exhaust the resources of complainants at law and can negotiate their own penalties, this is an inevitable kind of outcome. It's identical to the position in the UK cotton industry of the 19th century. So things go full circle as they always do. It's only when something exceptional like COVID occurs that our attention is drawn to the problem.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is Amazon alone?

      The problem is only temporary: once Bezos has figured out how to get robots to do the entire pick and pack process, and handle returns, there won't be any human employees anyway.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Is Amazon alone?

        There's a Black Mirror episode about that.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    110,179 dead

    Trump's killed 110,179, so far, and that's just the official figure.

    Look at their new cases, it hasn't been falling since May 12th.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

    The Republicans have won, they've managed to keep the virus going, they've even managed to sustain a 1000 deaths a day.

    They're holding up the 'mail-in' ballots bill till its too late, and the RNC is trying to block mail-in ballots in States where its already allowed:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/24/politics/republican-national-committee-california-vote-by-mail-lawsuit/index.html

    So no election would be possible, and lots of dead Americans would be inevitable.

    Bunker Boy is fortifying his Wendy house.

    Barr preparing a quasi legal basis for the military to invade the US States. Tanks planned for the 4th July parade.

    150,000 dead, 200,000 dead, 300,000 dead.... zero Republican fucks given over their own voters dead from their misdeeds.

    Republican voters, can you breathe?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Another little ray of hope

      Republican voters, do you want to stand in line and vote, catch Corona Virus and die for your party?

      Republicans tend to be elderly and hence more likely to die. So you'd think RNC would want you to be able to vote by mail. Yet it's trying to force you to vote at the polling station by blocking mail-in ballots everywhere.

      To close the polling stations, they need your death, not your vote. Your sacrifice in keeping this virus going is what lets them cancel the vote and keep power.

      "Go to church, pack the pews, don't wear your mask, instead put your faith only in God" say the Republicans. Yet you see the Republican Senators all wearing their masks to the Senate!:

      https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/most-gop-senators-avoid-commenting-on-trump-s-church-visit-84245061843

      They need *your* death, not *their* death!

      So a little ray of hope.

      "Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled that the state's limits on absentee voting during the pandemic constitute "an unreasonable burden on the fundamental right to vote guaranteed by the Tennessee Constitution.""

      https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/jun/05/judge-rules-tennessee-must-let-all-vote/?elections

      "The decision upends a determination by Republican Secretary of State Tre Hargett's office that fear of catching or unwittingly spreading the virus at the polls wouldn't qualify someone to vote by mail. The state argued that such an expansion wouldn't be feasible for the 2020 elections, claiming lack of money, personnel and equipment for increased voting by mail, among other concerns."

      Of course Republicans will oppose it. Fox News will oppose it. They want your death, not your vote.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Lots of downvotes

        Republicans, if you can't breathe, then you can't downvote, you need to rethink your priorities.

        You're not part of team-red when you're gasping for air in a hospital. They don't care.

        They won't even give you a 'thoughts-and-prayers' when you die.

        They didn't even bother with the 'thoughts-and-prayers' for lots of the school kids shot in mass shootings in 2019, because NRA pays them and dead kids don't.

        You will die, your political 'team' won't care. Trump will declare your death a success and it won't matter how rich and powerful you think you are.

        Rethink your choices.

        Another 77 of you died in the interval between this comment and the first comment. Thank you Republicans for killing more people in a day than *all* of the people who died from Corona Virus in Thailand. Hats off to Fox News for keeping your voters informed of the 'truth'.

      2. Boo Radley

        Republicans know very well

        That they'd never again win an election if everybody were allowed to vote. That's why they're so dead set against mail in ballots.

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