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Indiana manipulated report on Amazon worker’s death, investigation says
- jtmarl1n 7y agoThe Indiana Governor disputes the allegation: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/investigations/2019/11/25/indiana-gov-eric-holcomb-disputes-interference-allegations-amazon-death-investigation/4302895002/ https://www.indystar.com/story/news/investigations/2019/11/2.... I find it interesting the whistle blower claims the governor attended a meeting where pressure was applied to back off the investigation. The Governor claims he never attended a meeting. Wouldn't this be an easy item to fact check by getting records of meeting attendees?
- qsymmachus 7y agoYou could think of this as a simple "he said she said", but what possible benefit does the whistleblower stand to gain from making this story up? Whereas the governor has a very obvious incentive to deny the whole thing happened.
- jdsully 7y agoThe whistle-blower may prefer another candidate for governor. Both entities can be politically motivated.
- zentiggr 7y agoShould be almost irrelevant if the mentioned recording with the director is still around. Just play that on the evening news every day until Amazon pays full death benefits and punitive fines to the Terry family. Oh yeah, and arraign the director on criminal conspiracy charges. And the governor too.
- jessaustin 7y agoThey played an excerpt on the "Reveal" podcast the other day, so it's probably still around...
- zentiggr 7y agoI heard this morning one of the Reveal team staff interviewing on NPR. Hope this stays in the news.
- vanusa 7y agoThe Indiana Governor disputes the allegation. What he disputed (according to the article) was his personal involvement in the case, and his attendance at a particular meeting. He did not dispute allegations of interference by state agencies, per se.
- throwaway_se099 7y ago> The Governor claims he never attended a meeting. Wouldn't this be an easy item to fact check by getting records of meeting attendees? That meeting was probably never on the official schedule. There are numerous ways to arrange such things off the books. The Gov's office can certainly provide the schedule which will give him plausible deniability, after which it's he said she said, unless another witness comes forward. (If the above strikes you as too underhanded and sleazy, well, the whole affair is such. The lure of Amazon HQ2 was in play, remember.)
- ActorNightly 7y agoI highly doubt Amazon cares about $28000
- qsymmachus 7y agoThey probably care more about bad publicity than fines, especially since they're already under public scrutiny for their treatment of warehouse workers.
- ab71e5 7y agoThat's what I thought. Maybe it is about the state showing what it could do for Amazon in the future, should they build their HQ there? Or maybe it is more about saving the image of the company then the actual fine?
- stevenwoo 7y agoIt's mentioned in the Reveal (investigative radio news source) coverage that Indiana had an active bid for HQ2 at the time the coverup happened.
- jessaustin 7y agoThat whole "new HQ" operation was a brilliant hoax. I hope the people who pulled that off see at least some of their options vest before they get laid off.
- nashashmi 7y agoThe warehouse business is a loss or low on profit. $28000 is a lot for one warehouse.
- erentz 7y agoA really clear case of corruption both at Amazon and within the state labor departments. The fines are so small I’m not sure why Amazon didn’t just reject corruption like this and do things right. Really just speaks to a company culture completely lacking any morals.
- criley2 7y agoWhy would small fines mean they should behave correctly? Small fines make it easy to justify as "cost of doing business". It's the large onerous fines which incentivize them to do it the less-profitable and more-moral way, because the fines cost more than doing it right. Hate to be cliche, but reminds me of the opening scene in Fight Club where Edward Norton's character describes how insurance adjusters(?) determine if a recall is cheaper than the lawsuits from dead/injured people, they do it, otherwise... they don't. Why would Amazon behave less profitably? Simply because we perceive it to be more moral?
- drharby 7y agoAnd the kicker I'd like to add to the conversation is, 'who's morals are more moral than the others?'
- normalnorm 7y agoJoke's on you Immanuel Kant, we have a real philosopher in here!
- drharby 7y agoI don't understand, are you mocking me or do we have a bonafide and well respected PhD of Philosophy with a track record in this comment thread? If the former, I'm super disappointed but not surprised. It is no secret that anyone who remotely questions the criticism of Amazon is downvoted on this forum. And I say that as someone who avoids spending a dollar out of protest against that company. I really find their practices terrible.
- 7y ago
- alexithym 7y agoI'd like to believe that this was a culture failure isolated to a single fulfillment center, but that seems like a convenient way to absolve Amazon of guilt. At the end of the day, it's Amazon's responsibility to enforce a safety culture in each and every fulfillment center, and failing to do so is inexcusable.
- ksml 7y agoThis article feels a little fishy to me. The title says an "investigation says" "Indiana manipulated a report," but there's no evidence to suggest this besides one person's claims and it doesn't seem there was any official investigation into whether the report was manipulated. Also, all the figures appear to be an order of magnitude off... All this fuss over only $28,000? And a single $1,000 donation? That's a drop in the pond. I wouldn't be surprised if there was indeed a lot of corruption in bidding for Amazon's HQ, but something doesn't add up here for me.
- jessaustin 7y agoThe original article [0], which for some reason "indystar" doesn't care to link, has links to source material. [0] https://www.revealnews.org/article/behind-the-smiles/ https://www.revealnews.org/article/behind-the-smiles/
- macintux 7y agoA long, compelling piece by The Atlantic covered this and other Amazon horror stories this month. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/amazon-warehouse-reports-show-worker-injuries/602530/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/amazo...
- 0xmohit 7y agoAnother Amazon horror story: https://qz.com/482080/dear-jeff-bezos-i-wish-you-had-asked-for-my-feedback-sooner/ https://qz.com/482080/dear-jeff-bezos-i-wish-you-had-asked-f...
- ertemplin 7y agoI don't understand why people in these situations don't quit or internal transfer. Everyone else on the team left except for him but he thought things would get better? He should have left long before the bad performance review.
- nanoscopic 7y agoAdditional story: https://amazonandmykid.com https://amazonandmykid.com ( my own ) Suffice it to say Amazon does not care about employees, neither at the warehouses nor at their corporate headquarters. When I was there a guy jumped off a building because they wouldn't let him switch off a toxic team. They also similarly tried to prevent me from switching teams when I was there. A week ago I was at one of the Amazon retail stores and an employee there agreed that Amazon cares nothing for their employees. Obviously one should take this with a grain of salt as this is just a random statement from a random retail employee, but this is generally what I hear from Amazon workers both current and ex. The general word on the street in Seattle is "Amazon sucks" to the extent I've heard Amazon employees referred to as Amholes.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- larnmar 7y ago> When I was there a guy jumped off a building because they wouldn't let him switch off a toxic team I mean, they would have let him leave the company, right? It seems unreasonable to blame Amazon for this guy’s tragic decision, since any reasonable person would have taken a more reasonable exit.
- nottorp 7y ago<quote> Amazon’s corporate offices in Seattle gave a $1,000 campaign contribution to Indiana’s governor. It was years before Holcomb would next face reelection, and Amazon hasn’t donated to him before or since. </quote> US state governors are this cheap? :)
- darzu 7y agoLobbyist are clever. It often isn't the money directly given that matters, but the threat of giving money to the opponent.
- Crontab 7y agoThis is sad. I used to work in a warehouse and we were mandated to have training in proper forklift use. There is no excuse for Amazon not conducting proper training. The Indiana officials who tried to cover this up should have their ass put in a sling.
- frankharv 7y agoHow about Federal level OSHA refusing to get involved. That is seriously messed up. He even had the audio of the IOSHA coverup and that was not enough for OSHA? Forklift training is one thing. Forklift maintenance is not something you could easily teach. It is learned by years of on the job experience. Something that Amazon was not willing to pay for with Forklift Maintenance Mechanics. Disgusting show from all parties involved. There should be a FBI investigation and the Governors phone location data used. I bet the whistle-blower is right.
- fredgrott 7y agoespecially when Indiana mandates the training as you need the Indiana cert to drive one. I'm from Indiana, years ago we had the Indiana License Branch Director be diagnosed with narcolepsy and still had a driving license..no joke this state has no logic
- LastZactionHero 7y agoIt's embarrassing to watch proud cities (my hometown) humiliate themselves like game show contestants for this HQ.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]