

Amazon workers left out in the cold - jamesbritt
http://articles.mcall.com/2011-11-05/news/mc-allentown-amazon-cold-20111105_1_warehouse-workers-amazon-s-lehigh-valley-warehouse-managers

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Natsu
Sounds about right, unfortunately. The usual policy is to have you evacuate to
the designated area (or the backup thereof) and to remain there until an okay
is given.

I'm surprised the managers were even allowed inside, really. They wouldn't do
anything because they didn't want to lose track of their workers and they
never planned for this. They're usually too afraid of legal problems to take
any initiative at all. The only good thing is that a lawsuit like this might
make them and others plan for such things in the future.

I doubt this is the place where people have been stuck outside in inclement
weather during an evacuation.

~~~
Natsu
Upon reflection, I'm guessing that the managers _weren't_ technically allowed
back inside per the policy, but were the only people there safely able to
ignore that policy and stay warm....

Though I guess they could've been helping the fire department locate the fire
or something; I'm sure it'd take quite a while to check for fires before
giving an all clear.

~~~
FireBeyond
"Though I guess they could've been helping the fire department locate the fire
or something; I'm sure it'd take quite a while to check for fires before
giving an all clear."

As a firefighter, I can -guarantee- that would never be the case. Depending on
the severity of the alarm, we have our own tools for a) finding the fire -
thermal cameras, etc, and b) getting to them - there's a reason forcible entry
is taught in Fire Academy. :)

No, they were just putting themselves above their employees.

------
veyron
What exactly happened with regards to the claims of excessive temperatures in
the Amazon warehouse (which seems to have led to this recent episode)

FTA, OSHA claimed the heat issues were resolved December 14 2010, but I'm
pretty sure there were more complaints this year ...

~~~
Natsu
I don't know, but my guess would be that they did whatever OSHA told them to
and called it a day. Factories aren't the kind of environment where people
take the initiative to improve things, generally. And I bet they told the
workers that they comply with all OSHA guidelines (no matter how inadequate
they might have been in this instance...) and had a meeting with anyone who
had been grumbling.

At least, that was about my experience in very similar circumstances, though I
took a bit more initiative to prevent heat-related injuries in the first
place. Then we had some slightly uncomfortable meetings where I was told to
keep up the good work.

Legal fears largely dominate both common sense and initiative, I fear. It
would be nice to be able to just do the right thing without so much worry, but
I doubt that will happen any time soon.

~~~
veyron
If you are not bound by a gag order, could you go into more detail about your
situation? I'm curious about how OSHA responds to worker complaints ...

~~~
Natsu
I've never had to deal with OSHA. I managed to get them to consult some of our
former safety guy's recommendations that they had apparently forgotten about
and find some stuff that addressed the heat issues. So they spent a few grand
or so on swamp cooler fans to cover areas they should have a long time ago and
they got some of those cheap necklaces that absorb water. Those work much
better than fans, BTW, though it can be hard to get people to wear them
(ironically, I had to badger the one guy who needed one the most and he
benefited more than anyone).

A lot of things were forgotten, I guess, because the guy responsible for
safety was laid off back in 2008 or something like that, which is probably
what made them seem so nervous.

Anyhow, no one got sick from the heat, and this was a downright miserable
summer, even by Arizona standards, and we did pretty good from the look of
things. Nobody has anything to sue over that I know about. I'm not the type
who'd sit back and watch someone get hurt if I could prevent it.

