AHC: Amazon warehouse heat injuries become huge story Summer of 2011?

I mean, splashed all over CNN, MSNBC, and even Fox News as they cackle a little that the darling of the liberal establishment (is it?) takes a hit to its reputation.

http://www.safetynewsalert.com/amazon-warehouse-investigated-by-osha/

• June 2, 2011: An Amazon warehouse worker told OSHA the heat index inside the warehouse hit 102° and 15 workers collapsed. The worker said employees who left due to the heat received disciplinary points.









• July 25: An Amazon security guard called OSHA to report the heat indoors exceeded 110°. The guard said two pregnant women were taken to nurses and Amazon wouldn’t open dock doors to help air circulation. Employees said the doors were kept closed because of Amazon’s concerns about theft. While no one says the Amazon dock doors were locked, such situations have contributed to some of the largest workplace disasters in U.S. history.

I think journalists have largely lost their ability to develop a story in steady eddie fashion. It's either wall-to-wall saturation coverage or nothing. These folks seem to have a very hard time finding a middle road. And obviously, a high threshold for saturation coverage, and perhaps even more so for an anti-corporate story. Even if not a potential advertiser, might spook other advertisers.

Plus, as someone astutely pointed out in a discussion on Chat, this is precisely the kind of scare stories which parents use in various attempts to motivate their kids to take school more seriously. Hey, if you're not going to buckle down for 10th grade chemistry, these are kind of jobs you may end up with. So yes, a public discussion of this story would have major elements of moral desert and all that. Of course it would.

All the same, what if this had become a really major story?
 
Workers die, ON-SITE. An enterprising photographer somehow gets actual PHOTOS of the dead bodies, either in the warehouse, or, more likely, being removed.

So, it's not just "Uhh, I think I heard something about people getting sick at Amazon, but uh, what was that all about again?" It's..." I SAW PHOTOS OF PEOPLE WHO HAD BEEN KILLED BECAUSE OF AMAZON." And if the mainstream media won't publish them, the netizen mob will.

TL/DR: Pictures, Parker, I need pictures!!
 
In a roundabout way, it may help Romney. Because the way his Staples office supplies and other businesses treat their employees looks good in comparison! :cool:
 
Workers die, ON-SITE. An enterprising photographer somehow gets actual PHOTOS of the dead bodies, either in the warehouse, or, more likely, being removed.
Yes, that seems like it's the way it always has to work. Just this once, I'd like to see some reforms BEFORE someone dies.
 
What if the fire marshall is a gutsy sort? And takes the view that it's not even a particularly close call. And he or she out-and-out shuts the place down for a day.
 
Taking it a step further, the state legislature attempts to pass a law, you can't shut down a company larger than such-and-such without the approval of, yah, yah, yah.

The fire marshall appears on CNN, if we're going to hold a bar or tavern to health and safety standards, I think we should hold a large organization to the same standards. In fact, you'd think a large organization would be better able to meet the standard.

And as part of the controversy, maybe the whole situation with ALEC gets brought into it. This stands for "American Legislative Affairs Council" which is a conservative, pro-business lobbying group which has been very successful on the state legislature level. Bill Moyers did a piece on it and had a whole riff that it looks like lobbying, it sounds like lobbying, and with the cigar booth, it even smells like lobbying, and yet it's listed as educational nonprofit ? ! ?

And so, almost as an accident of history, if ALEC is pulled into this controversy, might actually change the course of American politics.
 
Well, if someone dies, the conversation inevitably focuses on what someone might have been able to do at the brink. I'd like it to stay broader. Plus, I'd really rather have a TL where no one dies. :)
 
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So, in addition to a discussion/debate over what authority the local fire marshall has, also the following:

The local Amazon managers purchased cooling bandanas for the employees and cooling vests for the dock employees. This is what they did in OTL.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ble-pace-Working-inside-Amazon-warehouse.html
The place did have 'louver doors' and they said they brought in 13 new fans since an OSHA inspection. But they didn't open the main doors . . . because then they'd have to admit that they were wrong and the employees right!

Let's say this is made fun of on the different NBC, Fox, CNN business shows. A commentor says this is just like fancy play syndrome in poker. Oh, no, we can't open the doors to get a cross breeze like the employees want. We have to do something different in order to prove that we're smarter.
 
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