'I'm worried that I have infected 1000 people in the last three days': Amazon workers reveal all the reasons why they're afraid to go to work

pcachero@businessinsider.com (Paulina Cachero) Business Insider•April 5, 2020 Reuters

As thousands of businesses across the country close their doors to help slow the spread of the coronavirus across the country, Amazon, deemed an "essential business," is one of a few major multinational corporations that have continued to operate.

While the company's operations have largely carried on business as usual, the fear of catching the coronavirus at Amazon warehouses is now palpable, employees told Business Insider. A quiet cough or small sneeze would usually pass without much notice — but now they boom across the facility, flaring anxieties and prompting some employees to walk out in the middle of a shift.

While some Amazon workers can afford not to go to work, others feel that they are forced to choose between their health and their livelihood.

Business Insider spoke with eight Amazon workers in Pennsylvania, Texas, Kentucky, Arizona, and California who say they're afraid to go to work — and they claim that Amazon is not doing enough to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading within their own facilities and to the larger communities they serve.

Kristen Kish, a spokesperson for Amazon told Business Insider told that the company is monitoring the situation in its facilities and are taking "proactive measures to protect employees and associates who have been in contact with anyone who has been diagnosed or becomes ill."

"Like most global companies, we've had employees affected by this, and we're doing all that we can to protect our employees and take the proper precautions as stated in WHO guidelines," Kish told Business Insider.

With hundreds or even thousands of workers packed into a warehouse at a time — rendering social distancing measures "impossible" — and a scarce supply of hand sanitizers and cleaning products, employees called Amazon facilities a "breeding ground" for coronavirus infection.

And, despite having confirmed COVID-19 cases at several warehouses, they claim that management refused to temporarily close down their locations to clean the entire facility despite employee requests.

"It's leaving us to choose our health or our finances," one Amazon worker from Houston who wished to remain anonymous told Business Insider. "Everybody looks scared, but we can't afford not to go to work."

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https://news.yahoo.com/im-worried-infected-1000-people-170652809.html