'Go back to work': outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

'Go back to work': outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

Billy Foister died last month after a heart attack at work. The incident was just one in a series of recent accidents and fatalities

Michael Sainato
Fri 18 Oct 2019 18.29 BST
First published on Fri 18 Oct 2019 07.00 BST

In September, Billy Foister, a 48-year-old Amazon warehouse worker, died after a heart attack at work. According to his brother, an Amazon human resources representative informed him at the hospital that Billy had lain on the floor for 20 minutes before receiving treatment from Amazon’s internal safety responders.

“How can you not see a 6ft 3in man laying on the ground and not help him within 20 minutes? A couple of days before, he put the wrong product in the wrong bin and within two minutes management saw it on camera and came down to talk to him about it,” Edward Foister said.

Amazon said it had responded to Foister’s collapse “within minutes”.

An Amazon worker on the same shift told the Guardian: “Bill was on the floor for quite some time and nobody knew that time until cameras were reviewed, but in 20 minutes a worker in a nearby department saw him lying on the floor and then began radio callouts for 911. It really is unbelievable how Bill was laying there for 20 minutes and nobody nearby saw until an Amnesty worker with a radio came by.”

The worker, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, noted the Amnesty worker started CPR after finding Foister. Amnesty workers are Amazon floor monitors who ensure the warehouse floors are clear and reset robot units when necessary.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/17/amazon-warehouse-worker-deaths

[YOHABLO]

1. So much for Amnesty workers: What about fellow employees? They don't know about CPR?? Really??

Were they afraid of being fired for saving a man's life? This is sooooooooo frucked up.