Did you see this? Amazon warehouse workers in the UK are so closely monitored and so intensely pressured on their "efficiency" that they often don’t have time to use the bathroom when they need to. The result, according to author James Bloodworth:
"People just peed in bottles because they lived in fear of being disciplined over 'idle time' and losing their jobs just because they needed the loo.”
High-tech workplace monitoring so intense that there’s no time for basic human needs may sound like a sci-fi reboot of a lesser-known Dickens novel. But it’s a reality at one of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations, based here in Washington state.
Amazon's recommendation for a portable pee bottle sells for $13.28 on their site. I guess I could be asking you to sponsor a bottle for an Amazon worker in need. But that doesn’t quite address the root of the problem here. So instead I’m asking supporters like you to make a $13.28 contribution to Working Washington so we can reach more people with info about their rights at work — and what they can do to turn those rights into realities.
We all know that Amazon and other corporate giants can afford to do better than flushing workers’ rights down the toilet. But we also know they’re not going to clean up their act on their own.
That's where you come in.
Your $13.28 contribution will help us us reach more than 1000 workers across the state with info about Know-Your-Rights trainings. Workers who attend these trainings will learn about their rights on the job — and what to do if those rights aren't being respected.
And that's what Working Washington is all about: turning our rights as human beings into on-the-job realities in every workplace in our state.