Amazon workers describe the heat and sound at the Portland warehouse. New

Amazon launches the two-day show titled Prime Day Monday. Amazon Prime members can expect significant discounts. Amazon executives can look forward to protests across the country about working conditions in their warehouses, including in Portland.

Some employees at the Northwest Portland Delivery Station expressed concerns about the physical hardship of working in a non-air conditioning facility. Workers also claim that they are constantly exposed to audible alarms to warn them when delivery trucks enter the warehouse to pick up their parcels.

"They literally pierced their ears," said former worker Joyce Nance. "I had the impression that my hearing had been damaged during my stay."

"We are breathing exhaustion and we need to hear these audible alarms," ​​said a current employee who asked that his name not be used. "I do not like to breathe exhaust gases and I do not like the headaches caused by the noise."

Kelly Cheeseman, spokeswoman for Amazon, said in a statement that the temperature conditions are not unusual.

"Our delivery stations are typical of the logistics industry where, because of the loading of vehicles, employees often work inside and outside as part of their team," he said. she writes. "We closely monitor the temperatures in the stations to ensure a safe working environment. We also have industrial grade fans, cooling mists, plenty of water and other measures to ensure the safety of those on the site. "

The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration has repeatedly inspected facilities at 3610 NW St. Helens Road in response to complaints. He had cited Amazon in 2018 for breaking health and safety rules by not having an effective safety committee in the warehouse. Aaron Corvin, a spokesman for Oregon OSHA, said that a safety committee might not seem significant on paper. But at a workplace, he said, this is a front-line defense that gives workers the floor to report safety issues directly to supervisors.

Across the country, criticisms of working conditions in Amazon warehouses are on the rise, with employees pointing to what some see as the grueling pace needed for online customers to buy their parcels as quickly as possible.

At least one community group plans to gather in front of the Amazon warehouses in Hillsboro and Portland on Tuesday and Wednesday. Workers at an Amazonian distribution center in Minnesota plan to strike on Monday. Warehouse employees in New York also spoke about working conditions. Even comedian John Oliver did his own satirical shakedown.

Amazon was not amused.

OPB spoke to two current employees and two former employees about their experience of heat and noise at the Amazon delivery station located northwest of St. Helens Road. The two current employees answered the questions as long as their names were retained for fear of jeopardizing their jobs.

All said that there was no air conditioning in the main warehouse nor when they were hired.

"There was no air conditioning. They had fans blowing. So in winter it would be cold and in the summer it would be hot, "said Todd Hinchliffe, who left the warehouse at the end of 2018.

One current employee stated that a separate break room was air conditioned. This is backed up by state registers.

Portland has had a mild summer so far this year. But in general, temperatures are rising. In 2018, Portland broke its record for the number of days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The previous record was set in 2015.

The warehouse located northwest of St. Helens Road is the last stop for Amazon packages before delivery. Large trucks deposit huge quantities of boxes that workers unload, scan and sort into bags that the warehouse crews then load into vans or private cars for delivery.

It's physically demanding. A laborer at an Amazon warehouse in Troutdale compared this job to a salary. Former Portland employee Todd Hinchliffe had a different word:

"Exhausting," he said. "It was a continuous progression of packages from one point to another. We were essentially machines that moved parcels.

"They were constantly on our will to go faster, in everything we did," said Joyce Nance, whose work at the Portland warehouse ended in March 2018, before the summer temperatures . "So, I sorted, in the aisles or on the conveyor belt, and the perspiration flowed just because I worked very hard and there was no air conditioning."

Nance stated that she was injured on the job in January 2019 and had a further aggravation of her injury when she tried to work. After missing several shifts, Amazon returned it in March, according to an email provided by Nance. She explained that she had tried to communicate her medical needs to a supervisor and that she had then informed the human resources that she needed to quit.

The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration has conducted three complaint-based Amazon warehouse inspections since 2017. The complaints focused on workers' concerns about dust, vehicle emissions and heat. Only one resulted in a quote, classified as "non-serious", for the absence of an effective safety committee. Since 2014, the agency has conducted four other complaints-based inspections at Amazon's facilities in Hillsboro, Portland and Troutdale. No quote has been issued.

An inspector who responded to a heat-related complaint in the summer of 2018 found that the warehouse located on St. Helens Road was "very hot and muddy". However, the inspector noted the presence of industrial fog fans provide additional breaks in hot weather.

An Amazon spokeswoman said that it was typical of the delivery stations, where the wharf doors are open, not to have climate control. They said it would look like having AC in your house with all the windows and doors open.

The OSHA Oregon inspection reports also note something that the average Amazon customer may not know: the large number of delivery vehicles that circulate in some Amazon warehouses.

Current and former employees at the North West Portland Delivery Station describe a long building with traffic lanes running along each side. Delivery vans and private "Flex" cars under contract with Amazon go through the warehouse itself, where workers load them with packing bags for delivery. This is where alarms come into play.

For safety reasons, employees are not allowed to cross the traffic lanes in the presence of vans. As the vans arrive, the noise begins.

"If you're in the wrong place, if you're near the source of the sound, it's like a police car or an ambulance," said a current employee.

"I would say it's like a foghorn is triggering," Hinchliffe said. "You know, just random: beep, beep, beep." He said that the audible warning made communication difficult.

Hinchliffe added that the noise did not bother him as much as other people, but that "it was noisy and long".

None of Amazon's current employees remembered the offer of hearing protection, although some have worn ear plugs.

Amazon has clarified that earplugs are readily available at the warehouse, but the suggestion that workers might prefer an alternative to the alarm has been forwarded to the site.