Inside Amazon's warehouse

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By Spencer">http://bio.tribune.com/SpencerSoper">Spencer Soper, Of The Morning Call

















10:34 p.m. EDT, September 17, 2011
























Allentown, Pa.—





Elmer Goris spent a year working in Amazon.com%27s">http://www.mcall.com/topic/economy-busi ... a
Lehigh Valley warehouse, where books, CDs and various other products
are packed and shipped to customers who order from the world's largest
online retailer.

The 34-year-old Allentown resident, who has
worked in warehouses for more than 10 years, said he quit in July
because he was frustrated with the heat and demands that he work
mandatory overtime. Working conditions at the warehouse got worse
earlier this year, especially during summer heat waves when heat in the
warehouse soared above 100 degrees, he said.





He got light-headed, he said,
and his legs cramped, symptoms he never experienced in previous
warehouse jobs. One hot day, Goris said, he saw a co-worker pass out at
the water fountain. On other hot days, he saw paramedics bring people
out of the warehouse in wheelchairs and on stretchers.




















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"I never felt like passing out in a warehouse and I never felt
treated like a piece of crap in any other warehouse but this one," Goris
said. "They can do that because there aren't any jobs in the http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-alle ... full.story#" style="color:green;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:3px double" id="_GPLITA_3">area."

Goris' complaints are not unique.


Over the past two months, The Morning Call interviewed 20 current and
former warehouse workers who showed pay stubs, tax forms or other proof
of employment. They offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it's
like to work in the Amazon warehouse, where temperatures soar on hot
summer days, production rates are difficult to achieve and the permanent
jobs sought by many temporary workers hired by an outside agency are
tough to get.

Only one of the employees interviewed described it as a good place to work.


Workers said they were forced to endure brutal heat inside the
sprawling warehouse and were pushed to work at a pace many could not
sustain. Employees were frequently reprimanded regarding their
productivity and threatened with termination, workers said. The
consequences of not meeting work expectations were regularly on display,
as employees lost their jobs and got escorted out of the warehouse.
Such sights encouraged some workers to conceal pain and push through
injury lest they get fired as well, workers said.

During summer
heat waves, Amazon arranged to have paramedics parked in ambulances
outside, ready to treat any workers who dehydrated or suffered other
forms of heat stresshttp://www.mcall.com/topic/health/behav ... p#/a#ed_cl#.
Those who couldn't quickly cool off and return to work were sent home
or taken out in stretchers and wheelchairs and transported to area
hospitals. And new applicants were ready to http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-alle ... full.story#" style="color:green;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:3px double" id="_GPLITA_1">begin work at any time.


An emergency room doctor in June called federal regulators to report an
"unsafe environment" after he treated several Amazon warehouse workers
for heat-related problems. The doctor's report was echoed by warehouse
workers who also complained to regulators, including a security guard
who reported seeing pregnant employees suffering in the heat.


In a better economy, not as many people would line up for jobs that pay
$11 or $12 an hour moving inventory through a hot warehouse. But with
job openings scarce, Amazon and Integrity Staffing Solutions, the
temporary employment firm that is hiring workers for Amazon, have found
eager applicants in the swollen ranks of the unemployed.

Many
warehouse workers are hired for temporary positions by Integrity
Staffing Solutions, or ISS, and are told that if they work hard they may
be converted to permanent positions with Amazon, current and former
employees said. The temporary assignments end after a designated number
of hours, and those not hired to permanent Amazon jobs can reapply for
temporary positions again after a few months, workers said.


Temporary employees interviewed said few people in their working groups
actually made it to a permanent Amazon position. Instead, they said they
were pushed harder and harder to work faster and faster until they were
terminated, they quit or they got injured. Those interviewed say
turnover at the warehouse is high and many hires don't last more than a
few months.

The supply of temporary workers keeps Amazon's
warehouse fully staffed without the expense of a permanent workforce
that expects raises and good benefits. Using temporary employees in
general also helps reduce the prospect that employees will organize a
union that pushes for better treatment because the employees are in
constant flux, labor experts say. And Amazon limits its liability for
workers' compensation and unemployment insurance because most of the
workers don't work for Amazon, they work for the temp agency.


Amazon's priority and key competitive edge is quick delivery of products
at low prices. Its Lehigh Valley location on Route 100 near Interstate
78 puts one-third of the population of the U.S. and Canada within a
one-day haul. And the weak labor market helps keep employment costs
down.

"We strive to offer our customers the lowest prices
possible through low everyday product pricing and free shipping offers …
and to improve our operating efficiencies so that we can continue to
lower prices for our customers," Amazon says about itself in documents
filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The
situation highlights how companies like Amazon can wield their
significant leverage over workers in the bleak job market, labor experts
say. Large companies such as Amazon can minimize costs for benefits and
raises by relying on temporary workers rather than having a larger
permanent workforce, those experts say.

"They can get away with
it because most workers will take whatever they can get with jobs few
and far between," said Catherine Ruckelshaus, legal co-director of the
National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for low-wage workers.
"The temp worker is less likely to complain about it and less likely to
push for their labor rights because they feel like they don't have much
pull or sway with the worksite employer."

Amazon warehouse
workers interviewed come from a variety of backgrounds, including
construction, small business owners and some with years of experience at
other warehouse and shipping operations. Several of them said it was
their worst work experience ever.

Their accounts stand in sharp
contrast to the "fun, fast-paced" atmosphere described in online help
wanted ads for the Amazon warehouse. Amazon and ISS both said they take
the safety of workers seriously, but declined to discuss specific
concerns current and former employees voiced to The Morning Call. Both
companies had three weeks to respond to multiple Morning Call inquiries
for this story.

Of the workers voicing concerns, 13 were employed by ISS and seven directly by Amazon.

'I couldn't breathe'

Amazon has two warehouses at the end of Boulder Drive in Breinigsvillehttp://www.mcall.com/topic/us/pennsylva ... p#/a#ed_cl#,
where work is done that few customers ever see. Workers on the
receiving side unload trucks and unpack boxes of incoming inventory,
which they store in bins throughout the warehouses. On the outbound
side, pickers scurry through the aisles gathering products from storage
bins and bringing them to packers, who box them and ship them to
customers.

Both permanent and temporary employees are subject
to a point-based disciplinary system. Employees accumulate points for
such infractions as missing work, not working fast enough or breaking a
safety rule such as keeping two hands on an inventory cart. If they get
too many points, they can be fired. In the event of illness, employees
have to bring in a doctor's note and request a medical waiver to have
their disciplinary points removed, those interviewed said.

Not
working fast enough, or failing to "make rate," is a common reason
employees get disciplinary points, those interviewed said. Workers are
expected to maintain a rate, measured in units per hour, which varies
depending on the job and the size of inventory being handled. Products
moving through the warehouse range broadly in size, from compact discs
and iPods to chain saws. Workers use hand-held scanners to track
inventory as it moves through the warehouse, which enables managers to
monitor productivity minute by minute, employees said.

Goris,
the Allentown resident who worked as a permanent Amazon employee, said
high temperatures were handled differently at other warehouses in which
he worked. For instance, loading dock doors on opposite sides of those
warehouses were left open to let fresh air circulate and reduce the
temperature when it got too hot, he said. When Amazon workers asked in
meetings why this wasn't done at the Amazon warehouse, managers said the
company was worried about theft, Goris said.

"Imagine if it's 98 degrees outside and you're in a warehouse with every single dock door closed," Goris said.

Computers monitored the heat index in the building and Amazon employees received notification about the heat index by http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-alle ... full.story#" style="color:green;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:3px double" id="_GPLITA_4">email. Goris said one day the heat index, a measure that considers humidity, exceeded 110 degrees on the third floor.


"I remember going up there to check the location of an item," Goris
said. "I lasted two minutes, because I could not breathe up there."


Allentown resident Robert Rivas, 38, said he left his permanent Amazon
warehouse job after about 13 months to take another job. He said he
intensified his job search in May after the warehouse started getting
very hot.

"We got emails about the heat, and the heat index got
to really outrageous numbers," he said, recalling that the index during
one of his shifts hit 114 degrees on the ground floor in the receiving
area.

Rivas said he received Amazon email notifications at his
work station when employees needed assistance due to heat-related
symptoms. He estimated he received between 20 and 30 such emails within a
two-hour period one day. Some people pushed themselves to work in the
heat because they did not want to get disciplinary points, he said.


"When the heat index exceeded 110, they'd give you voluntary time off,"
Rivas said. "If you wanted to go home, they'd send you home. But if you
didn't have a doctor's note saying you couldn't work in the heat, you'd
get points."

Some workers interviewed said that policy has changed.


During a July heat wave, Rivas said he felt he was going to faint. He
went to an air-conditioned room for about half an hour and got drinks
from safety workers in the warehouse.

"Then they said if you
feel better you should go back to work," Rivas said. "I was surprised
that it happened to me because I heard the horror stories, but I never
was a part of one. It was surprising to me. I thought they would treat
their employees better."

Federal inspection


Heat prompted complaints about working conditions at Amazon to federal
regulators who monitor workplace safety. The Morning Call obtained
documents regarding the Occupational">http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics/reg ... cupational Safety and Health Administration's inspection through the Freedom of Information Act.


On June 2, a warehouse employee contacted OSHA to report the heat index
hit 102 degrees in the warehouse and 15 workers collapsed. The employee
also complained that workers who had to go home due to heat symptoms
received disciplinary points.

"The 102-degree heat index only
applied to the first floor and not in regards to the second or third
floor … I just believe that it is gross negligence for a company of this
capacity to abuse and enslave their workers," the complaint states.


On June 3, OSHA told Amazon warehouse managers that the agency received
a complaint about heat. OSHA officials said they did not plan to
inspect the warehouse at that time, but wanted Amazon to investigate the
situation, make any modifications needed to increase worker safety and
report back to OSHA about its findings no later than June 13.

OSHA later decided to inspect the warehouse, which it did on June 9.

On June 10, an OSHA worker heard the following message on the agency's complaint hotline from an emergency room doctor at Lehigh">http://www.mcall.com/topic/health/hospi ... _cl#Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest: "I'd like to report an unsafe environment with a[n] Amazon facility in Fogelsvillehttp://www.mcall.com/topic/us/pennsylva ... p#/a#ed_cl# … Several patients have come in the last couple days with heat-related injuries."

On June 13, OSHA received a letter from Allen Forney, Amazon's site safety manager.


"On June 3, 2011, the Lehigh Valley area experienced unusual, extremely
high temperatures which caused the heat index inside our building to
reach a temperature above 95 degrees in a few areas of the building,"
Forney wrote. "As a result of these high temperatures, 15 out of 1,600
employees experienced heat-related symptoms. Six of these employees were
treated at a local hospital ER for non-work related medical conditions
triggered by the heat. None of those employees was admitted to the
hospital; each employee was treated and released the same day. The other
employees received water and ice treatment … by our facility's
first-aid department. All employees returned to work the same day."


Forney wrote the warehouse had measures in place to manage heat risk
prior to OSHA's inspection. Those measures included heat index sensors
installed throughout the building in March that notify warehouse
managers when the index exceeds 90 degrees, he wrote. Fans are installed
throughout the building and louver doors provide ventilation, he wrote.


Amazon purchased 2,000 cooling bandannas, which were given to every
employee, and those in the dock/trailer yard received cooling vests,
Forney said. Managers walk the building to make sure employees get
enough water and to watch for heat-related symptoms, he said.


Workers "typically" get breaks extended by five minutes when
temperatures range between 90 and 99 degrees, Forney wrote. When the
heat index ranges from 100 to 114 degrees, Amazon "typically" gives
hourly breaks of at least five minutes and shifts heavier work to cooler
times of the day, Forney said.

Amazon workers interviewed for
this story said they typically had one 15-minute break before lunch and
another 15-minute break after lunch each 10-hour shift.

Forney
wrote in a letter to OSHA that if the index hits 115 degrees, "the
senior manager on duty will decide whether to close down the entire
shift."

Since the OSHA inspection, Amazon installed 13
additional fans in the warehouse, planned to install a cooling system
and temporarily hired emergency medical personnel to work on-site,
Forney wrote.

No employees were penalized for leaving work
early due to heat-related symptoms, Forney wrote. Amazon has an
automatic record-keeping system that gives employees demerits if they
leave early, he wrote.

"We went in and manually changed each
employee's time, so we did not have any employee receive demerit points
for leaving the site for a heat-related illness," Forney wrote.


Amazon and ISS workers said that policy changed earlier this year about
the same time OSHA began asking questions, though precisely when the
policy changed is not clear. When heat is excessive, workers can now go
home early without pay and it won't jeopardize their jobs. Previously,
workers who left early due to heat-related symptoms faced demerits that
could ultimately result in termination if they didn't provide doctor's
notes saying they can't work in excessive heat, workers said.

OSHA said it had no jurisdiction over the complaint about workers getting disciplinary points for leaving on hot days.


On July 21, Forney called OSHA to report that the heat index in the
warehouse ranged between 108 and 112 degrees. Amazon initiated voluntary
time off, allowing employees to go home if they wished and ice cream
was available. On July 22, Forney told OSHA that Amazon again instituted
voluntary time off and most workers left. They didn't have enough
people to run the warehouse, so they may shut down until the temperature
drops, Forney told OSHA.

On July 25, a security guard at the
Amazon warehouse called OSHA and said the temperature exceeded 110
degrees. The guard reported seeing two pregnant women taken to nurseshttp://www.mcall.com/topic/health/medic ... p#/a#ed_cl# and that Amazon would not open garage doors to help air circulation.

"They do have ice pops going around and water everywhere," the guard reported to OSHA.


OSHA issued recommendations to Amazon Aug. 18 about how it could
improve its heat-stress management plan and closed its inspection.


"Several conditions and practices were observed which have the
potential to adversely impact on employee safety and health," OSHA's
area director Jean Kulp said in a letter to Amazon.

The agency
recommended that Amazon reduce temperatures and humidity in the
warehouse, but did not give a target temperature. The agency also
recommended that Amazon provide employees hourly breaks in a cool area,
inform workers and supervisors of the actual heat index or temperature
so that they can increase monitoring as it gets hotter, and provide
personal fans at each work station.

OSHA does not mandate that
work cease when temperatures exceed a specific degree. Instead, the
agency gives employers guidelines about what they should do in specific
ranges of the heat index.

There is a moderate risk of worker
heat stress when the heat index ranges between 93 and 101 degrees,
according to OSHA. At such times, employers should take precautionary
measures that include reminding workers to drink water, giving frequent
breaks in cool areas and ensuring that adequate medical services are
available.

When the heat index ranges from 103 to 115 degrees,
there is a high risk of worker heat stress, according to OSHA. The
agency recommends employers adjust work activities to reduce the risk of
heat stress. The recommendations include reducing the pace of work or,
if that isn't possible, increasing the amount of break time.


Workers said Amazon has installed cooling units and fans since the
inspection, but the equipment doesn't keep upper warehouse levels cool
on hot summer days. One employee said it's now like "working in a
convection oven while blow-drying your hair." They said they received
extra break time when it was hot, but production rates were not reduced.

Ambulances responded to multiple medical assistance calls at the Amazon warehouse during hot days in May. So Amazon paid Cetroniahttp://www.mcall.com/topic/us/pennsylva ... p#/a#ed_cl#
Ambulance Corps to have ambulances and paramedics stationed at its two
adjacent warehouses during five days of excessive heat in June and July.

Cetronia provides ambulance service in Upper Macungiehttp://www.mcall.com/topic/us/pennsylva ... p#/a#ed_cl#
Township, where a large number of warehouses are concentrated. Cetronia
did not have ambulances stationed outside any other warehouses during
summer heat waves, said Chris Peischl, the nonprofit's director of
operations. However, he noted that Amazon has a large number of
employees compared with other warehouses.

"The majority of
people we saw were heat-related," Peischl said. "We saw 20 to 30 people
who cooled down, we helped hydrate them and they went back to work."


Another 15 people were transported from the Amazon warehouse to
hospitals for further treatment, according to Cetronia, but none was in
critical condition.

The Morning Call forwarded concerns of
workers to Amazon. The company didn't answer specific questions about
the number of people working in the warehouse, the turnover rate or the
working conditions. Instead, Amazon spokeswoman Michele Glisson emailed a
statement, which she attributed to Vickie Mortimer, general manager at
the Upper Macungie warehouse.

"The safety and welfare of our
employees is our No. 1 priority at Amazon, and as the general manager, I
take that responsibility seriously," Mortimer said. "We go to great
lengths to ensure a safe work environment, with activities that include
free water, snacks, extra fans and cooled air during the summer. I am
grateful to work with such a fantastic group of employees from our
community, and we partner with them every day to make sure our facility
is a great place to work."

Warehouse workers said Amazon and
ISS both emphasized safety measures and passed out fruit and water on
hot summer days when the warehouse got warm.

Allentown resident
Ron Heckman, 60, said he started working at the Amazon warehouse in
June 2010. He was glad to get the job, he said, because he had been out
of work for more than a year after the package-delivery company DHL
closed its Lehigh Valley distribution center in early 2009.


When he saw an advertisement that Amazon was recruiting workers, he
tailored his resume to emphasize that he was a motivated worker who
understood the fast-pace demands of the shipping industry, and got a
job.

"I like it," he said. "It's a job."

Heckman works mostly as a picker. But he's also worked packing boxes and trained new employees during peak season.


He works the overnight shift when the warehouse isn't as hot as during
the day shift. He said he's seen co-workers get dizzy and leave during
heat waves, but they would return to work the following day, he said.

Heckman said he never had any heat-related problems and he drank a lot of water, which managers advised.


"A lot of people say it's hot and you feel aggravated at times and you
wish it wasn't as hot as it was, but it's the nature of the job,"
Heckman said. "Not many people felt it was unbearable."

Heckman
said there is a lot of turnover at the warehouse, but Amazon has been
hiring more permanent employees since the summer began. Previously, a
majority of the warehouse workers were temporary employees and many grew
frustrated waiting to learn whether they would get permanent positions,
he said. Now the ratio is closer to half permanent employees and half
temporary workers, he said.

"A lot of people got disappointed,"
Heckman said. "Earlier this year it was for good reason, because a lot
of people left. But that definitely has changed. … It's a good company.
They're sincere in what they do."

'End slavery at Amazon'


Karen Salasky, 44, was out of work for two years after getting laid off
from a secretary job with a home builder. The Bethlehem resident got a
postcard from ISS saying it was hiring people to work at the Amazon
warehouse, so she applied.

"At first, I loved it," she said. "I
started in November. We worked 11-hour days because of Christmas. It
was hard, but I pushed myself and I got used to it."

Salasky
had worked as a waitress, so she didn't mind being on her feet all day.
And she enjoyed the walking, which she considered good exercise. But she
said she grew frustrated when she received a warning letter in March
from a manager stating she had been unproductive during several minutes
of her shift. Salasky said she was working as hard as she could, and she
declined to sign the warning letter.

She wrote a letter to
Amazon's human resources manager at the Breinigsville warehouse about
the working conditions, saying sometimes minutes go unaccounted for in
the system because workers use the restroom, their scanners stop working
and they have to log back into the system, aisles get crowded requiring
workers to take longer routes to retrieve inventory, or workers move at
a slower pace if they are not feeling well. Salasky invited the human
resources manager to contact her about the concerns. She said she never
received a response.

When the weather got hot in May, Salasky said, her work pace dropped, which prompted questions from supervisors.


"I just kept pushing myself," she said. "They asked me why my rates
were dropping, and I said my rates are dropping because it's hot and I
have asthma.%22http://www.mcall.com/topic/health/physi ... p#br#ed_cl#

Salasky said she would cry herself to sleep at night. She and her
colleagues lamented about the heat, often chanting sarcastically "End
slavery at Amazon."

Salasky said she informed ISS and Amazon
that she was not interested in a permanent position, but wanted to
complete her 1,200-hour temporary term.

One hot day in June,
Salasky said, she wasn't feeling well. Her fingers tingled and her body
felt numb. She went to the restroom. An ISS manager asked if she was OK,
and she said no. She was taken by wheelchair to an air-conditioned
room, where paramedics examined her while managers asked questions and
took notes.

"I was really upset and I said, 'All you people
care about is the rates, not the well-being of the people,'" she said.
"I've never worked for an employer that had paramedics waiting outside
for people to drop because of the extreme heat."

Supervisors
told Salasky to go home and rest. She reported to an ISS office the next
day to drop off medical paperwork, and she was asked to sign papers
acknowledging she got irate and used a curse word on the day she
suffered from the heat. She refused to sign the papers because she said
she didn't curse. A few days later, she called ISS and found out her
assignment had been terminated.

"I don't know how they can
treat people this way," Salasky said. "I think the faster you work, the
bigger raise they get, and they're just benefiting themselves and not
caring about people. I used to shop Amazon all the time. I will never
shop Amazon again."

'I hated this job'

Mark Zweifel, 22, of Coopersburghttp://www.mcall.com/topic/us/pennsylva ... p#/a#ed_cl#
worked in the warehouse as a permanent Amazon employee for more than a
year until he was fired Sept. 9, he said. His primary job was on the
receiving line, unloading inventory from boxes, scanning bar codes and
loading products into totes so stowers could store them in bins.


He had previous shipping industry experience and liked the job for the
first six months, but then he said the productivity rate abruptly
doubled one day from 250 units per hour for smaller items to 500 units
per hour.

"One day we came into work and they said, 'Your rate
is now 500 units per hour. Get to it.' " Zweifel said. "No warning or
nothing. I'm a young guy. I could keep up with it. But I saw the older
people working there, they were getting written up a lot. I didn't think
it was fair."

Employees were threatened with termination on a
daily basis during meetings at the beginning of their shifts, Zweifel
said. Amazon managers used tough talk to motivate workers, he said.


"They would say, 'If you don't make rate, we will walk you out of the
building and give your job to somebody who wants a job,' " Zweifel said.
"I saw a 65-year-old guy get fired for not making stow rate. I saw him
get talked to and then a manager walked him out of the building."


Zweifel said he began his job at Amazon in a group of 16 people and he
was among only two left at the start of the summer. When he was there,
new temporary workers would come in for training each week, he said, and
most of them wouldn't last more than a month or two.

Zweifel
said he had trouble earlier this month when he was temporarily
transferred to another job, stowing, which entails putting products in
bins in the warehouse. He was written up for not stowing items quickly
enough, he said. Making rate was difficult because bins were so
cluttered he couldn't find space to place things, he said.


"They kept saying I was screwing around, but the bins were so packed I
had to go from one end of the aisle to another," he said. "You could
have a tiny item like an iPodhttp://www.mcall.com/topic/services-sho ... p#/a#ed_cl#, which is easy, or a huge bowl where you have to search for adequate space."


Zweifel said on two days he had a large number of big items and his
rate dropped both days. His manager accused him of taking long breaks
and being "off task," he said. He tried to pick up the pace the next
day, he said, but he was written up again for being off task and was let
go.

Zweifel said he worked half of his shift and his manager
told him they had to go to human resources, where he waited for an hour
to speak with someone.

"They said here's your termination
letter and they wanted me to sign it, and I said absolutely not."
Zweifel said. "The manager in stow never even talked to me. They just
slapped me with a write-up. They never asked, 'Looks like you're taking
excessive breaks, is something wrong?' Never once did she talk to me. I
just got two write-ups and I was gone."

Zweifel said he felt he
was treated unfairly because he never had an opportunity to explain his
rate, but he said he was smiling when he left the warehouse.

"I hated this job so much," he said.

A business success story


Outside the warehouse, Amazon is a booming business success story.
Founded in 1994, the company is the world's largest online retailer.


Amazon had 2010 revenues exceeding $34 billion, more than triple its
sales just five years earlier. The company has become a household name
as time-strapped consumers grow more comfortable shopping online and
cash-strapped customers look for bargains. Along the way, Amazon vastly
expanded its product line. What began as an online bookstore now sells
consumer products of all kinds. You can buy CDs, DVDs, toys, lawn
mowers, electronics, kitchen items, clothes and beauty products from
Amazon.

The company has upended the retail industry, and
Amazon's competitors are no longer just bookstores. It's now considered a
key competitor to Walmart, which has seen its growth slow considerably
while Amazon's sales have skyrocketed.

Amazon's founder and CEO, Jeffrey">http://www.mcall.com/topic/economy-busi ... cl#Jeffrey Bezos,
keeps climbing the ranks of the world's wealthiest people. Forbes
magazine estimated his net worth to be $18.1 billion this year, making
him the 30th wealthiest person in the world. That wealth is tied to the
value of Amazon stock, which has grown about eightfold to nearly $240
per share over the past five years.

A main difference between
Amazon and such stores as Barnes & Noble or Walmart is that the
entire operation is invisible to customers, other than what they see on
their computer screens.

When Amazon last year announced plans
to open a new shipping hub in the Lehigh Valley and hire hundreds of
people, officials greeted the news as a sign the economy was on the mend
and good news for thousands of residents left unemployed by the Great
Recession.

It is one of the few companies regularly recruiting and hiring.

'Chart your course to Amazon'


As of December, Amazon had 33,700 employees globally. But that did not
include temporary workers it hired through staffing firms. The number of
temporary employees who do Amazon's work is not clear. The company
issues press releases about employment opportunities but gives no
specifics and hasn't responded to The Morning Call's inquiries.


When it announced its new Lehigh Valley shipping hub in May 2010, the
company said it would be hiring "several hundred" workers. The company
announced another hiring binge in July, but would not clarify if it was
expanding its operation or replacing people.

Some interviewed
for this story requested anonymity because, they said, Amazon employees
are instructed that speaking with the media can result in termination.
They say employment at the warehouse ranges from about 900 to 2,000
during peak season. And, they say, many in the workforce aren't employed
by Amazon at all. Instead, Amazon leases the workers from ISS, which is
based in Wilmington, Del.

But one worker said Amazon has begun hiring more people as permanent employees in recent months.


ISS also declined to answer specific questions from The Morning Call
regarding employee concerns about working conditions and the rate of
employee turnover at the Amazon warehouse. It also issued a statement:


"ISS respects the privacy of our employees and laws regarding employee
privacy, therefore we cannot address the specific situations you have
mentioned," company spokeswoman Megan Couch said in an email. "With all
of our temporary assignments, we explain the requirements for the
position, as well as the criteria for becoming a full-time Amazon
employee. Our employees' safety is a top priority for us, and the focus
on employee safety from Amazon leadership is impressive. We support our
employees with a variety of programs to ensure their well-being,
including light duty and leaves of absence."

ISS recruits
temporary workers for positions at Amazon warehouses throughout the
country. Recent job postings on the company's website include positions
in Hazleton, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Phoenixhttp://www.mcall.com/topic/us/arizona/m ... p#/a#ed_cl#, Ariz.,Las Vegas and Reno, Nev.


Integrity Staffing Solutions Chief Executive Officer Todd Bavol writes a
blog called "HR Ninja," which includes items about navigating
employment laws and recognizing when employees are burning out.


ISS has supervisors stationed in the Amazon warehouse to manage
temporary workers, so contact between temporary employees and Amazon
managers is minimal.

In its recruiting efforts, ISS accents the
prominent Amazon name to lure applicants. One of its online help-wanted
ads says: "Chart your course to Amazon with ISS Warehouse positions in
Allentown, PA."

The ad continues: "Looking for a new direction?
Are you interested in working in a fun, fast-paced atmosphere earning
up to $12.25 per hour? Let Integrity be your guide to a rewarding career
with Amazon, the Internet superstore."

The ads say applicants
should be able to lift and move up to 49 pounds. They also say warehouse
temperatures range between 60 and 95 degrees and "occasionally exceed
95 degrees."

'It just got harder and harder'


The 13 ISS employees interviewed said at first, they were excited to
get jobs. But their hopes turned to disappointment when they experienced
what they considered harsh conditions and saw how few temporary
employees were hired to permanent positions. Of the seven Amazon
employees interviewed by The Morning Call, none started as temporary
workers.

Several workers said the longer a person worked in the
warehouse, the stricter the rules became, and the pace at which they
were expected to work increased. Employees were written up for breaking
safety rules, such as keeping two hands on a cart. Such infractions
could impede their getting hired as permanent Amazon employees until
they improved their work records.

Often, their temporary assignments ended before their work records were clear.

Kutztownhttp://www.mcall.com/topic/us/pennsylva ... p#/a#ed_cl#
resident Stephen Dallal said he worked at the warehouse for about six
months as a picker before he lost his job for not meeting productivity
requirements. He left a job as a meat cutter to get full-time hours with
Amazon, hoping the temporary assignment would lead to a permanent
position.

"It just got harder and harder," Dallal said. "It
started with 75 pieces an hour. Then 100 pieces an hour. Then 125 pieces
an hour. They just got faster and faster and faster."


Temporary workers were told by ISS their jobs could lead to permanent
positions, which helped motivate them to meet production expectations,
Dallal said.

"They make a lot of promises that they're going to
keep everyone here," he said. "If you're here five months, you'll have a
job here. Then it was half of the people would be hired. Then it was
'You'll all have interviews.' The story kept changing."

The
longer he worked there, the less promising the job was, Dallal said. He
started getting written up for not meeting production rates.

"I
told the manager I was doing the best I can, but they kept writing me
up," Dallal said. "After the third one, I got fired. It was getting
hotter and hotter, so it was hard for me to keep up."

Dallal said he felt relieved when he lost the job.

"I didn't want to quit," he said. "I tried the best I could. But that job was really getting to me."

Sharon Faust said she took a temporary job with ISS, hoping it would lead to a permanent position with Amazon.

Then in June, the 57-year-old Breinigsville resident was diagnosed with breast">http://www.mcall.com/topic/health/disea ... _cl#breast cancer. She notified ISS that she needed surgery. They told her she would need a note from her doctor saying when she could return.


Faust had surgery July 20 and reported to the Amazon warehouse with a
doctor's note saying she could return to work Aug. 17. When she arrived
to deliver the note within a week of her surgery, she found out the
doctor's note wasn't necessary.

"They said my assignment with
them is terminated. I was just flabbergasted," Faust said. "I devoted
nearly a year of my life trying to get a job and that whole time was a
waste. They kept me on and kept me on until I handed in that medical
paper, and they said, 'See ya.' "

One temporary warehouse
worker who started last year said a major selling point was that the
assignment could lead to a permanent job with Amazon. Workers had
meetings with their ISS managers at the start of each shift. During
those meetings, Amazon managers would come and deliver a pep talk,
encouraging the temporary workers who wore white badges to work hard if
they wanted to get permanent positions and wear a blue badge, she said.


"They said, 'We don't care if you've been here for two months or for
two weeks. If you work hard, we'll notice and you'll get converted to a
blue badge,' " she said.

The number of permanent positions
available was always vague, and it was difficult to get a straight
answer about hiring, she said. Managers would say Amazon would be hiring
"a significant number" of ISS employees to permanent positions.


"They said it on a semi-daily basis," she said. "They really dangled it
and made it seem like this wonderful possibility if we just worked
harder … especially when there were a bunch of new hires hungry for a
new job."

She worked in the warehouse for six months and didn't see any of her temporary colleagues converted.


ISS promoted her to ambassador, a position that trains new workers.
Still, she was terminated shortly after the holiday rush ended for
missing work during snowstorms, she said.

"It became clear that
they did not want to hire people. They wanted to let people go," she
said. "They said they wanted the best people for ambassadors. I was an
ambassador and I was not hired."

'Set up to fail'


One former temporary warehouse employee said he worked seven months
before he was terminated for not working fast enough. In his 50s, he
worked 10 hours a day, four days a week as a picker, plucking items from
bins and delivering them to packers who put them in boxes for shipment.
He would walk 13 to 15 miles daily, he estimated, and was among the
oldest pickers.

"At the beginning, I thought I was doing really
well," he said. "I never missed a day, was never sick, never came in
late. I was the model employee. But after a while, I could only achieve a
certain rate and I couldn't go any faster. It was just brutal."

He said he was expected to pick 1,200 items in a 10-hour shift, or one item every 30 seconds.


The warehouse is organized like a library. Bins labeled "A" were on the
floor. Dim lighting in the warehouse in which he worked made it
difficult for him to find items stored in the low bins, especially
novels with script titles or CDs with small writing, he said. Often, he
got on his hands and knees to find things in the low bin, and would
crawl to other bins rather than continuously stoop and stand, he said.

"The worst part was getting on my hands and knees 250 to 300 times a day," he said.


He got mixed messages from ISS managers, he said. He received gift
cards and won a laptop as rewards for being a good worker. But he also
got written up for not working fast enough. He started the temporary
position with about 100 others. When he was terminated seven months
later, he was one of five remaining. Three of the temporary workers with
whom he started got converted to permanent Amazon positions, he said.


"I don't want to say anything bad, but they almost set you up to fail,"
he said. "They always stressed safety and drinking water, but I always
thought the rate is not safe."

The man said he was relieved
when his assignment was terminated. When he arrived to pick up his final
paycheck this summer, he saw ambulances stationed outside the
warehouse. He now works in a beverage distribution job, where he said
the work pace is more reasonable.

The use of temporary workers
to minimize the costs and liabilities associated with a permanent
workforce is not unique to Amazon. And the warehouse and shipping
industry is known for its fast-pace expectations and physical demands.


But one staffing industry recruiter whose company serves the Lehigh
Valley shipping industry said he has interviewed roughly 40 job
applicants who complained of difficult working conditions at the Amazon
warehouse. Ordinarily, if someone only lasted a few months in a
warehouse job, it would raise questions about their abilities, he said.
But he has placed former Amazon warehouse workers in other warehouse
jobs and they were able to meet expectations, he said.

"A lot
of places spend time and money to make something ergonomically designed
so that the average person can do the work. They don't have to be a
professional athlete to do the work," he said.

'They just push'


One temporary worker said her vision got blurry, she had trouble
standing and couldn't concentrate one shift when heat in some parts of
the warehouse exceeded 110 degrees. She went to a nurse station in the
warehouse because she was feeling dizzy.

Within minutes of her
arrival at the nurse station, an ISS manager asked her to sign a paper
saying her symptoms were not related to work, she said.

The employee takes medication for hypertensionhttp://www.mcall.com/topic/health/physi ... p#/a#ed_cl# and signing the papers, she said, would allow her to return to work after cooling off.

People with hypertension can be more sensitive to heat.


"I think it was work-related, but I just signed the paper," said the
employee, who still works in the warehouse. "I knew if I left through
the nurse's station I'd get half a point. If you get six points within
three months you get fired. … I didn't want to start getting points."

She didn't read the paper she signed or get a copy of it.


"I need the money," she said. "I am looking for another job and as soon
as I find one, I'm leaving. But I have to stay here until I do."


Workers injured on the job are legally entitled to medical costs and
lost wages while they recover. But labor experts say temporary employees
are less likely to know and assert their rights under workers'
compensation laws.

Workplace injury lawsuits are difficult to
justify with most temporary jobs unless injuries are extreme, because
the pay is low, said Allentown labor attorney Steven Bergstein.

"The problem is at these low-level jobs, the lawsuits aren't worth it because there isn't much loss," Bergstein said.


One temporary employee who spent several months unloading boxes of
books in the Amazon warehouse said: "Everybody gets backaches, but if
you slow down, they reprimand you. They're killing people mentally and
physically. They just push, push, push."

During one shift he
hurt himself. After seeing a doctor, the worker went on "light duty."
The staffing firm didn't have any such assignments available. So every
scheduled work day he reported to the ISS office on Tilghman Street.

"You're not allowed to walk around," he said. "They put a chair in the corner and you sit there."


His job was to count the number of people coming into the office.
Another person he observed on light duty had to count how many trains
passed by outside the office window.

Another had to count how many people went to the restroom.

"A lot of people said [forget] this, I'm going back to work," the employee said.


The employee returned to the warehouse about two weeks later. About two
weeks after returning, he got a call at home from ISS saying his work
assignment was over.

spencer.soper@mcall.com">spencer.soper@mcall.com