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Dear Jeff Bezos, instead of firing me, protect your workers from coronavirus

(www.theguardian.com)
174 points jbegley | 1 comments | 03 Apr 20 15:20 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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SQueeeeeL[dead post] ◴[03 Apr 20 15:52 UTC] No.22770495[source]▶
We're so fucked, we can't even distribute supplies to people who can't leave their homes without giving them massive exposure risk. Not sure why it's so hard to buy some fucking masks and gloves for the warehouse
Cpoll ◴[03 Apr 20 15:55 UTC] No.22770532[source]▶
Are there any masks to buy? A lot of news articles are about governments seizing mask shipments. Furthermore, I think most masks are being allocated to hospitals.
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1. j-c-hewitt ◴[03 Apr 20 16:21 UTC] No.22770839[source]▶
There are masks to buy. The FDA also lifted the import restrictions on KN95, but those would not even necessarily be needed by a warehouse work force. If you can get the freight to the US and you are willing to pay for it, you can buy masks that would be good enough to equip a warehouse workforce.

Other small warehouses I have personal knowledge of have been equipping their workers with masks and gloves daily in addition to hazard pay. It is just lack of attention to the issue that has caused the problem at Amazon. 99 out of 100 times I would support Amazon in any labor dispute. However, in this case, Amazon has not acted intelligently and the demands were very reasonable. The cost of equipping employees is much lower than the cost of more warehouse shutdowns due to illness and the comparison is so ridiculously in favor of "equip the employees" that even the hardest-hearted, self-interested Scrooge of a manager should be able to see the utility in equipping employees appropriately. As other even larger employers like Walmart have moved to make protective equipment available to all employees, Amazon is left looking stupid/evil/self-destructive in its approach here.