Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Thursday rebuked Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos amid a push by some Amazon workers to unionize in Alabama.
Omar, a progressive Democrat and vocal critic of Amazon, blasted the billionaire by referencing a report that some workers were worked so hard they had to urinate in bottles or defecate in bags.
“Jeff Bezos is now worth $193 billion,” Omar tweeted. “He makes $152,000 per *minute* and yet his workers are forced defecate in bags, and face retaliation for trying to exercise their right to collectively bargain. Don’t pretend this is normal.”
The Intercept reported in March that some Amazon workers were forced to urinate in bottles and defecate in bags, citing employees who said they were pressured to meet quotas. Managers were reportedly aware of the practice but did not alleviate the issue.
Emails obtained by The Intercept appeared to show Amazon managers reporting an increase in such occurrences.
Another House Democrat, Rep. Mark Pocan (Wis.), criticized the company for claiming to be a “progressive workplace” after the report of unsanitary conditions for some employees.
The Amazon News Twitter account initially pushed back on Pocan’s criticism, tweeting, “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?”
Amazon later apologized for the tweet, saying it was “incorrect” and “did not contemplate our large driver population and instead wrongly focused only on our fulfillment centers.”
“If any employee in a fulfillment center has a different experience, we encourage them to speak to their manager and we’ll work to fix it,” the company added.
The unionization vote by workers in Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., fulfillment center finished at the end of March. Votes are still currently being counted and, as NPR reports, the process is being stymied by the large amount of ballots that were mailed in. The National Labor Relations Board has reportedly received 3,215 votes from the Amazon workers in Bessemer. Amazon has reportedly challenged hundreds of these votes.
The hand-counting of the “yes” and “no” votes is expected to begin soon, possibly as early as this week.