Amazon denies exploiting employees, gets slapped in the face! Did it use trolls to whitewash itself?

Over the past two months, nearly 6,000 Amazon warehouse workers have been voting by mail to decide whether to form a union. Voting closed last week, and the counting of votes for the Amazon union has begun. This is a major test for Amazon since its founding 27 years ago .

Judging from the current situation, the establishment of a union has become a high probability event. The Amazon union storm has not yet subsided, and Amazon has caused trouble again. The National Labor Relations Board of the United States revealed to the outside world that Amazon may have violated the National Labor Relations Act and may face huge claims .

Two former Amazon employees were told by the National Labor Relations Board that Amazon may have violated the National Labor Relations Act and that they could file unfair labor claims against Amazon if it did not settle.

It was learned that Amazon fired them in April last year because they publicly condemned the lax management and safety loopholes of Amazon warehouses during the COVID-19 pandemic on social media . After their remarks were made, Amazon quickly locked them out and warned them that they would be fired for violating Amazon's communication policy.

An Amazon spokesperson responded publicly, "Amazon supports every employee's right to criticize Amazon's working conditions, but this does not mean that Amazon's internal policies enjoy complete immunity . All of Amazon's internal policies are legal. These employees were fired not because they spoke publicly about the safety of their working conditions, but because they repeatedly violated Amazon's internal regulations."

Many sellers have complaints about Amazon's response.

Amazon has just been involved in a labor dispute, and now it is caught up in public opinion of exploiting its employees.

Denying exploitation of employees was slapped in the face

U.S. Congressman Mark Pocan accused Amazon employees of being forced to use plastic bottles to meet their physiological needs on Twitter . Amazon responded to the congressman: "You don't really believe in peeing in bottles? If that were true, no one would work for us."

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

British journalist James Bloodworth came out to testify for the MPs: "I am the one who discovered that Amazon employees were using plastic bottles to relieve themselves. This is true, please believe me."

A driver who worked for Amazon for eight months revealed to the media, "Amazon tracks the drivers' driving behavior. The speed of the truck and the number of times it stops are recorded. Sometimes, going to the toilet in the delivery truck is the only option for drivers."

Faced with accusations from all sides, Amazon apologized to the lawmakers and said: "Because sometimes the transportation routes of goods need to pass through rural areas, it is indeed difficult for drivers to find toilets in these places. Especially after the outbreak of the epidemic, many public toilets have been closed."

Because Amazon's attitude towards this matter has disgusted American netizens, there has been a wave of "criticizing" Amazon on Twitter. Under the hot topic of Amazon denying that it exploited its employees, some netizens found that there were actually several accounts that were madly supporting Amazon.

Amazon's troll army is back?

When netizens were denouncing Amazon, some people jumped out and claimed to be Amazon employees. They questioned how many people needed to go to the bathroom frequently. They also promoted that working full-time at Amazon did not require going to the bathroom frequently because Amazon provided comprehensive health benefits.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

When some angry netizens wanted to confront this employee, they found that there was something wrong with the employee's profile picture .

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

At first glance, she is a pretty girl with delicate makeup, but when netizens enlarged the portrait, they found that her hair was not normal and it seemed that the picture was cut out using AI technology .

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

Netizens exclaimed: Nowadays, even the Internet trolls use AI, this is too advanced. In addition, there are more than one account with the same situation, such as this account called Darla, who also claims to be an Amazon employee, and his tweet style is similar to the one above.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

Foreign media tested this photo on the Generated Photos face generation website. When selecting labels such as "white adult female", "brown hair", and "brown eyes", the face photo on the right side of the picture below was generated. If bangs and glasses are added to the right picture, the two pictures are almost the same .

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

After the foreign media's test was announced, Amazon immediately denied that these accounts were related to Amazon . However, because Amazon previously had a "water army plan", it was inevitable that netizens would speculate about Amazon.

It is learned that Amazon launched the "Water Army Plan" in 2018, aiming to make the public believe that Amazon treats warehouse workers well. The plan involved setting up a computer room in the warehouse and opening Twitter accounts for some employees. However, the plan was abandoned due to too many counterfeit accounts.

It seems that Amazon still cares about its corporate image. However, there is no smoke without fire. If Amazon wants to clarify the incident and improve its image, it needs to take concrete actions to reduce the groundless speculation of others.

What do sellers think about Amazon's employee exploitation and the "troll army" incident? Feel free to leave a comment and share with us~