Why Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Is More Evil Than Walmart and McDonald’s

[ND-Dem]

23. I find it curious you think amazon has no responsibility for anything. ISS, or as I prefer to call

it, ISIS, is Bezos' pet, and I have no idea what you mean by "Amazon pays comp premium insurance".



Amazon warehouse workers fight for unemployment benefits


Online retail giant's Lehigh Valley temporary-staffing agency fights aggressively to keep workers from collecting unemployment.

Months after she suffered heat exhaustion and lost her job in an Amazon.com warehouse in Breinigsville, Rosemarie Fritchman sat in a small conference room pleading for unemployment benefits of about $160 a week.

Opposing her at the hearing before a state referee, who would decide whether Fritchman was eligible for the benefit, was a human resources agent representing her employer.

This scene has become commonplace since Amazon opened a Lehigh Valley warehouse in 2010. But the human resources agent is not from Amazon. She works for Integrity Staffing Solutions, a company paid by Amazon to recruit workers who unload boxes, process orders and pack shipments for the giant online retailer.

The temporary staffing firm plays a crucial role in Amazon warehouses around the country, especially during the busy Christmas shopping season. Its relationship with Amazon has made Integrity Staffing Solutions the biggest temporary-employment firm in the Lehigh Valley and one of the fastest-growing agencies of its kind in the country.

Part of its role is fighting to keep its workers from collecting unemployment benefits after they have lost a job at Amazon.

Integrity Staffing Solutions is involved in more unemployment compensation appeal hearings — hundreds per year — than almost all other employers in Pennsylvania, according to a state source with access to the confidential records. It even surpasses Walmart, the state's largest private-sector employer that has more than 50,000 workers in Pennsylvania, the source said.

In the first nine months of 2012, Integrity Staffing Solutions was involved in more than 200 unemployment compensation appeals, the source said. No other temporary-staffing firm in Pennsylvania comes close to that number.

The practice reveals one of the ways Amazon keeps costs down and one tactic used by a temporary staffing firm to win Amazon's continued business.

http://articles.mcall.com/2012-12-17/business/mc-amazon-temporary-workers-unemployment-20121215_1_amazon-warehouse-lehigh-valley-warehouse-unemployment-benefits