Documents obtained by the tech website The Verge earlier this year shed light on the immense pressure Amazon places on its workers, firing as much as 10 percent of its warehouse staff annually for failing to meet productivity goals. Some workers at Amazon warehouses in the United Kingdom claim they’re forced to pee in bottles rather than lose precious minutes heading to the bathroom, and in her book On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane, reporter Emily Guendelsberger described Amazon providing free pain-killers via vending machines in the Kentucky warehouse where she worked.
Stallone reportedly felt pressure from higher-ups to placate Amazon as soon as he began his investigation, and was so troubled that he began recording his boss, Indiana OSHA Director Julie Alexander, when she instructed Amazon on what to do to lessen possible fines. “It’s like being at a card table and having a dealer teach you how to count cards,” Stallone told Reveal.
One recording from November 2017 shows Alexander openly colluding with Amazon officials, as she describes to them exactly what she needs from the company in order to shift blame for the accident to “employee misconduct.” After hanging up, she told Stallone, “They’re wanting to probably take this offer and go back and look and say, ‘Hey, we’re partnering with Indiana. We’re going to be the leader.'” She added, “I hope you don’t take it personally if we have to manipulate your citations.”
Just days after that call, Stallone said the state Labor Commissioner Rick Ruble pulled him into his office, where Stallone found Governor Holcombe standing by Ruble’s desk. The governor reportedly told him how much it would mean to Indiana if Amazon chose the state for its new headquarters. And Ruble then told Stallone to either back off or resign. Stallone quit days later.
In the end, of course, Amazon didn’t choose to open a new headquarters in Indiana. All the state accomplished was handing $28,000 back to one of the biggest companies in the world.
