Warehouses: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Walmart Exec: "This guy saved us at least $30 million!" Boss at yearly review: "Best I can do is a 25 cent raise"

"We aren't anti-unions, we just value our shareholders and top earners more than everyone else."

I wish there was a “Get it here whenever just don’t rush your staff” option when you check out. I’d feel better about that then paying for shipping

THANK YOU JON OLIVER!!!! I spent 8 years in warehouse jobs and the ironic part is after all those years I was interested in working for Amazon because they would pay me more than a company then a company that I worked with for 8 years driving trucks. Bottom line is we're grunts, the help, no one cares about us warehouse workers and it's disgusting we're the reason anything gets done for these companies. What I've learned is know your rights and don't ever be afraid to express them, take pride in yourself. They threaten to replace you when you put yourself first and that as well is disgusting I say warehouse workers and truckers need to band together and stand up for our rights as humans. Literally I could give a fuck less if that means stuff moves slower. I as well am in my early 20s and I feel like I'm 80 when I get home I can barely move,sleep, or eat because of the body pain I experience. Again thank you Jon Oliver, it feels good to finally hear some recognition from someone.

"It's back-breaking labor, and thank God I went to college." Meanwhile, a vast chunk of their warehouse employees are likely breaking their backs to pay off their massive student loan debt.

This is why people once fought so hard for labor unions that they were willing to risk everything.

I worked for zappos an amazon company. They had a warehouse in Kentucky with no air-conditioning. They would "allow" employees to work in their underwear or bathing suits because of the sweltering conditions. They realized it was cheaper to hire 2 to 3 ambulances to hang outside the facility for when someone fell to heat exhaustion. Not IF, but WHEN. it was cheaper to pay to take a heat stroke employee off campus, dismiss them for failure to perform duties, and move on than to install appropriate chillers or reasonable breaks.

"There's no requirements that we provide air conditioning" is possibly the most chilling way to both avoid and answer the question at the same time.

In orientation, we watched an interview about Bezos, in which he said he quit his job on Wall Street because "Why am I working so hard to make someone else money?" My station's nearest bathroom was 6 minutes away, had to pick items every 12 seconds, and had knee problems before age 30. You didn't even joke about unionizing because they'd use the slightest infraction to fire you. We had someone die on his drive home during peak (60 hour weeks for 3 months) because of exhaustion and our managers took that opportunity to lecture us on getting enough rest. I'd drown that man in a clogged toilet given half a chance.

Those two Walmart employees saved the company $30 million that year... and I guarantee you they didn't seem a dime of it.

This makes me VERY happy with my job. I am Dutch and work in a food warehouse - but a NORMAL one. We don't have rates/targets, we don't clock out for the bathroom, I walk around 10 kilometers so around 6-7 miles MAX a day, the working rate is relaxed, there is free food every day for lunch, I work 4 days a week monday-thursday 9-18, and after work I go home, cook myself, chill and do fun things for like 3 hours, and then sleep... ON A WORKDAY. I ENJOY my job. Of course, I can get off for anime conventions and such if I only get back on Monday I can get that day off. If I am sick I don't work and am paid. Warehouses CAN be great places to work like mine - if the company is a good one! And yes, my boss HATES amazon etc. We don't compete with them, but he just absolutely hates these kind of working conditions. We do order there in our private lives, because amazon working conditions are A LOT better in the Netherlands, but even then not as our first choice.

"Look, Amazon isn't the worst" That didn't age well lmao

Also, Amazon didn't just up and raise the minimum wage out of the kindness of their hearts. They were forced to do so, and they fought to tooth and nail to avoid it.

Amazon has a promoted Tweet right now offering guided tours of the warehouses. Someone snarkily replied that North Korea offers guided tours too. ;)

"Thank God I went to college!" BA and MA here. All I managed to do in the US was customer service. I managed to start my own business by... leaving the US. And yes, I'm aware of how very lucky I am to be able to do that.

“I’m glad I went to college.” 🤣🤣🤣😂😅know someone who just got their second masters degree and even more recently accepted a position in an Amazon warehouse for $18.50 an hour. She’s moving to nowhere in the midwest to do it.

As a former Amazon employee I can confirm the accuracy of this. Although I do get a bit annoyed when the media praises Amazon for their $15 minimum wage without acknowledging the fact that Amazon used to give their employees stock in the company and had a monthly bonus program. Both of which were ended when the $15 minimum wage was announced. I remember the GM at my location struggling to explain why one had to replace the other and we couldn’t have both.

Amazon didn't increase minimum wage out of the kindness of their hearts.. people had to organize.

As someone who's worked in warehousing for almost three decades Amazon is absolutely the worst place to work. Yeah they pay $15/hour now, but they also work people hard enough to cripple them permanently then they dump them. They don't care because as far as they're concerned there will always be more bodies to feed into the grinder.

Hi everyone 👋🏻 I’d like to point out that this is the same atmosphere at usps sorting centers. While not as bad, we do regularly walk 15 miles/day, often work mandatory overtime, the turnover rate is incredible. Most of the jobs are working with machines and robots. We even have some of the automated vehicles that Amazon didn’t end up using.