Amazon’s Official Twitter Hits Back at Congressman: ‘You Don’t Really Believe the Peeing in Bottles Thing, Do You?’
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Amid an ongoing outcry over work conditions at its warehouses, Amazon is bristling at some of the blowback they’ve being receiving on social media — and firing back at some of their critics.
Amazon’s official Twitter account, late Wednesday, sniped at Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) for calling out the company.
“Paying workers $15/hr doesn’t make you a ‘progressive workplace’ when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles,” Pocan wrote.
Paying workers $15/hr doesn’t make you a “progressive workplace” when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles. https://t.co/CnFTtTKA9q
— Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) March 25, 2021
The company took exception to the claim that their workers are not given adequate bathroom access.
“You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?” The Amazon News Twitter account shot back at Pocan. “If that were true, nobody would work for us.”
1/2 You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us. The truth is that we have over a million incredible employees around the world who are proud of what they do, and have great wages and health care from day one.
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 25, 2021
2/2 We hope you can enact policies that get other employers to offer what we already do.
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 25, 2021
The replies to Amazon’s tweet showed that many do indeed have questions about the working conditions provided by the global behemoth:
Yes, I do. And I’ll believe workers over a corporate social media post trying to gaslight them any day. https://t.co/FcGBxgCMSP
— Liz Shuler (@lizshuler) March 25, 2021
this isn’t exactly a denial https://t.co/4j3wwEquI6
— mike shoro (@mike_shoro) March 25, 2021
Last month, Amazon delivery drivers with routes in Queens, NY told me they were, in fact, forced to pee in cups & bottles that spilled all over the truck cabin and left a smell for days. https://t.co/r1NtxchIgL
— ???? ???????? (@Jose_Pagliery) March 25, 2021
No idea whether this is true, but if you’re in PR and you’re using the subjunctive voice followed by a hypothetical question, you’re losing https://t.co/yUmbeYsFkc
— Brendan Greeley (@bhgreeley) March 25, 2021
When urine a fight about labor practices, it’s prolly better here to hold it in when responding to folks with valid concerns like @repmarkpocan whom you don’t want to piss off. (Yeah, I went there.) https://t.co/PQTWnsmiI9
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) March 25, 2021
Pocan himself fired back as well.
But you do union-bust? https://t.co/s0Kjuc4ZIz
— Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) March 25, 2021
Debate on this issue is front and center ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) trip to Alabama Friday in support of a unionization effort by workers.
