- (man screams)
- (laughs) That's almost happened to me.
- Did they have someone inside the building?
Because it looks exactly like that.
♪ (industrial intro) ♪
- (FBE) So, are you familiar with the company Amazon?
- Yes. I work for Amazon as a warehouse associate.
- I've worked there for two and a half years now.
- Back in 2014, I worked in their warehouse
as an associate. All you're doing is
just scanning and punching in numbers.
And you do that for approximately 10 hours.
- I actually worked for Amazon back in Illinois for a little bit.
I did a lot of boxes stacking and putting things on pallets
in a warehouse. Fun. (laughs)
- (FBE) Well, today's a special episode,
because we've brought in past and present Amazon employees
to react to a specific episode of the show South Park.
- Oh, really? - (FBE) So, we'll be showing you
clips of the season 22, two-part finale,
where an Amazon warehouse opens in the town of South Park...
- Oh! - (FBE) ...but after an accident
in the facility, the employees decide to go on strike.
- Nice. Love it. - There is plenty of material there.
Some of it is funny. Some of it is horrific.
It'll be interesting to see how they take that and display it.
- (Stephen) Goodbye, Linda. - (Linda) Don't let that place
work you to death. - It will. (chuckles)
- You give your life away. - Car pooling? Of course! (laughs)
- ♪ ...out of muscle and blood ♪ - Yup, everyone arriving to work
at the exact same time. - I work at a smaller warehouse.
I don't have to go through all that security.
- ♪ ...and a back that's strong ♪ ♪ You load 16 tons ♪
- That's exactly how it looks. (chuckles)
- That's exactly what it is. You walk in, you punch your clock,
and you go to your position, and that's it.
- ♪ St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go ♪
- Did they have someone inside the building?
Because it looks exactly like that.
- That brings back memories. - And the silent carpool back home.
- (Stephen) Everything's automated and timed to precision to get
people's orders out to them as soon as possible.
- It's making me nauseous to be thinking about going back
to that whole world again. - (Stephen) These warehouses,
there are over one million items, from toothpaste to go-karts.
And it's the work of both humans and machines
that make the work possible. - (man screams)
- Wow... (chuckles) - (laughs)
That's almost happened to me!
(alarm ringing) ♪ (ominous music) ♪
- (worker) We've got another one! - (Stephen) Josh!
- See? They even have my name. - (Josh screaming)
- (giggles) - Oh my god.
- (Stephen) Hang on, Josh! - Everybody's looking
after everybody else, so I never saw anybody
get hurt at all. - I was a person that drove
one of those things. So, one side of the warehouse
would be drivers and the other side would be actual people walking around,
but if you had to pass through there, you had
to be very careful. And it's times that I almost hit someone.
- (worker) What the [bleep] are we doing anyway?
Breaking our backs, loading up forklifts,
getting paper cuts from boxes! - Paper cuts from boxes for sure.
- (worker) And for what?! A measly paycheck that just
barely covers our online purchases. - It's true.
You do. You work like a slave there.
- (Stuart) Everyone! Everyone, listen!
Amazon just posted a statement about Josh's accident.
They're calling it human error. - They love to put an emphasis
on safety, and then when it happens, they're like, "Well,
you shouldn't have been doing this," but it's a warehouse.
[Bleep] is gonna happen. - Blaming the workers
is definitely exaggerated. But anybody who works in any kind
of warehouse, anybody who works for a giant corporation
can relate to this. - (Stuart) We are the backbone
that makes the fulfillment center work!
Maybe they should see what it would be like if we didn't show up to work!
- Yup, yup. That's exactly it. We make this work.
- (reporter) The Amazon fulfillment center has been shut down
as hundreds of employees refuse to work.
Customers all over the state are wondering...
- Amazon needs people. They need people,
so they don't want that at all. That would be bad. (laughs)
- Our Amazon fulfillment center did go on strike.
What ended up happening was nothing. They had all these lines
of people ready to work there that just were ready to go in
that they just hired and had on the floor in a day.
- (reporter) Joining me now is the victim
of the accident, Josh Carter.
And Josh, how does it feel to have your accident spark
so much upheaval?
- (Josh) You know, Tom, I think something like...
- I didn't expect the box to talk. (chuckles)
- (Josh) ...at the top who control the means of production,
and then there's the working class that enables those means by selling
their labor power for wages. When there's conflict,
the ruling class tries to blame the working class.
- Absolutely. They're kind of just stuck in these positions,
you know, that they just can't get out of.
- This is an issue for all corporations
as soon as you get to a certain size, and you're just looking
to mass produce and not actually look to take care of the people
who work for you. - (Mayor) Ship to address.
Order now. Usually, ships in...
four to six weeks?! I can make my own towels
in four to six weeks! - (laughs) You gotta get
Amazon Prime, man. - (Janson) Right on through here,
Mr. Bezos. - Is this the owner of Amazon?
So that means like-- - He is an alien.
I'm pretty sure that that's a known fact by now.
- (Bezos, telepathically) Please, ma'am, have a seat.
- (mayor) Oh, thank you. - They definitely made him
look like a villain. (laughs) - (Bezos, telepathically) Would you
like to know why Amazon is so successful?
Because the customer is all that matters.
- Aside from safety, that was the other one thing
that Amazon was really strict about: the customer.
- (Bezos, telepathically) Now orders are going unfulfilled all over
the state of Colorado. That makes us look very bad.
It makes you look very bad. Perhaps you should no longer
be a Prime member. - He's like the man behind the curtain
that you never see in "The Wizard of Oz."
- ♪ Unfulfilled ♪ - (laughs)
- ♪ And now tomorrow's nothing but another day ♪
- It's a hard thing to stop it, because you want things on Amazon.
- ♪ Somebody came and took my hopes and dreams away ♪
- I think that if this were to happen in real life, this is exactly
how tons of people would feel. - We depend on all this.
I just bought some shoes, too. - That looks like a pretty solid
representation of everybody I know looking at their little thing,
like, "It says it's almost here."
- (reporter) It's day five of the Amazon fulfillment center strike.
Nothing has been resolved, and there is ever-mounting tension
between the striking Amazon workers and the people who want their stuff.
- (chuckles) People are way too dependent on Amazon
and even just any shipping company. - (reporter) Meanwhile, Amazon says
it's training new workers to replace the strikers.
- Of course they would. - There's always someone
who's willing to take your job for half the money.
- However, because the workers previously worked in a mall,
they've had no human contact for quite some time.
- They'll literally hire anyone, like anyone.
- (Bezos, telepathically) And you are Josh, former Amazon employee.
- I feel like he's coming for me right now,
saying my name and looking me right in the face.
- (Josh) What are you gonna do? - (Bezos, telepathically) I'm not
gonna do anything to you. Alexa, go ahead.
Send them in. - Alexa. (laughs)
- (Bezos, telepathically) Hello, children. Uncle Jeff
has a surprise for you. Who wants a special...
- (chuckles) - (kids) Me, me, me, me!
- (Josh) Oh my god! - (Bezos, telepathically) Whoever
opens the box gets what's inside.
- (Josh) No! No! - Oh my gosh. No.
- (Josh screams) - (chuckles) Oh my gosh.
That is terrible.
♪ (ominous music) ♪
- (Bezos, telepathically) Don't you see I'm trying to help?
Before, there was war between classes, customers and workers at odds.
All I've done is create the new class: the consumer worker.
The future. - It's crazy.
I work for Amazon, and every time someone mentions Amazon,
I'm just like, "Ugh. Gross." But then I go and buy stuff
on Amazon, and I have a Prime membership,
and I'm literally just giving my money back to them,
and it's just a cycle. A really [bleep] cycle. (chuckles)
- (people yelling) Bezos! - (laughs) I like the back of his head.
It's like a butt. - (Randy) See, there's one thing
you didn't count on, and that's Tegridy!
- Mm-hmm. - (Randy) We aren't just different
classes of people anymore. We are a town.
- Awww. Needs to be some change, some kind of change.
And I'm happy to watch that. I need to tell more people
about this episode. Sometimes, I was going in there,
telling myself, like, "It's okay. It's not that bad."
And by the end of the day, after 10 hours, I'm like,
"Oh." (laughs) "I'm tired!"
- I liked it. I worked there, so I know--
I could see the process. I know what's happened.
I was like, "Oh, wow." Somebody's got to speak up
and say, "This is being done to us." And it has to stop.
- It's obviously satire. You're gonna take everything
10 steps further. But for many needs,
a place like Amazon does give a lot of jobs.
- (FBE) Putting the episode aside for a moment,
what is it like to work for Amazon? - It was okay.
I didn't have any bad experiences there.
Like I said, I worked 60-hour weeks, though.
So, it was tough. It was really tough.
But I was happy to have that opportunity,
especially coming from Delaware, where $16 an hour is a lot of money.
- I enjoy working at Amazon. I've made really good friends.
And I get to work out at work, which is what I really wanted to do.
- Growing up in Kentucky, being there, it was like,
"Oh, it's Amazon. Oh, I bet I get really good benefits
and really good perks." You do not.
- The hours are crazy, 'cause you can work from 10 to 12 hours.
People are a little bit more careful, 'cause you don't wanna hurt yourself.
But there's that possibility of hurting yourself.
And then I love the way they twisted it,
where they made it like it's your fault.
They don't wanna take any responsibility in anything
that happens. - When I first started working,
I didn't know what I was getting myself into.
Hours after hours, you had to work overtime.
They knock you for any wrong thing that you do.
I think someone that used to work at Amazon fulfillment center
helped create that episode. - (FBE) So, watching this
and having firsthand experience with working at of fulfillment center,
did you, as an Amazon employee, feel similar to how the workers
on the show felt? - Yeah.
I think it's definitely the hours. I work nights.
I'm literally gonna go work tonight for 11 hours after this.
- No. It does look-- for somebody, it looks bad, boring.
- You literally work a job where you're told every single time
that you're not doing well enough, because they make the goals impossible
to try to make people overachieve. So, you're literally working a job,
where you can't be successful. - You're just doing the same thing
over and over. You're just scanning and putting in numbers,
scanning and putting in numbers. And then, carrying stuff that's heavy.
I did feel like a worker, like an ant. - I will say that I have seen
situations like that, where people are mistreated
or overlooked, but I personally have never felt that.
- (FBE) It seems like the townspeople cared more about their packages
not being delivered versus being worried
about a person's livelihood or an employee's working conditions.
As a former employee of Amazon, do you feel like this is
a fair criticism of Amazon's culture?
- Well, Amazon's culture always says safety above everything.
That's the culture. But then they're like,
"Oh, well, where's our numbers?" It's hard to make numbers
when you're worried about being safe.
So, I feel like they accurately described it.
- It's a little bit, I guess, you could say fluffed up
for extra laughs. You know, they they have to
get their ratings, too. - That is a pretty accurate depiction.
The culture at Amazon within a warehouse
can be very supportive. But I think the company as a whole
is still gonna see us as numbers. People are going to the website,
so they can avoid people. They don't want to go talk to somebody
at the store. For whatever reason, that's become exhausting to them.
- The entire episode put a light on a lot of things,
and it helped in my perspective due to the fact that, yes,
there are people being mistreated and being underpaid and overworked,
but there are also all of us who are supporting this.
If you tell me that I have two-day shipping,
and it comes in three, I'm furious.
Not that I needed it a day earlier. - (FBE) As someone
who's experienced it, do you feel there's any
potential= negative impact this episode could have
if people take the show at face value
versus researching what it's like or no?
- I think people need to do their research.
There's definitely truth to what's being said.
There's a lot more to the story. This is a part of a story,
and it's shedding light on the story, but there's more.
- Well, everyone should always make up their own mind.
The topics that are discussed in this episode have merit.
And there are facts attached to these. But is it the whole story? No.
- Some people are gonna believe that episode,
because they don't like Jeff Bezos. So, they're gonna be like, "Yeah,
he did that." (laughs) They're gonna believe
everything in the video, and they know nothing about
the fulfillment center. - There's no way that an episode
or two episodes as this is or an article could possibly
cover the whole story. So, it is up to an individual
to see something and say, "Hey, maybe that bothers me,"
or "I don't know if that's everything"
and continue to do the research from there.
If you care about something, then you need more than one
point of view to make an informed decision.
- (FBE) So finally, what would you want people to know,
whether they watch this episode of South Park or not,
about those employees like yourself or working in these
fulfillment centers? - That these are people
supporting their families and that it's tough work
and that if you ever have an opportunity to rate somebody
five stars or leave a nice comment, that could really help
somebody's family. - There are a lot of people
working to get your package to you on your doorstep.
It's not just click and get the package next day and stuff.
No, there's a long process of people to make that work.
- Say, you don't get like exactly what you ordered, please don't be mad.
I'm putting barcodes on a lot of different things,
and then sometimes the computer's wrong.
It's not all our fault. - This is not magic.
You are not living in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Every time you do something or interact with something on Amazon,
it is a person doing that for you. I think that's the most
important thing for people to realize.
- Thank you for watching this episode of Amazon Employees React.
- Make sure to subscribe and hit the bell,
so you don't miss an episode. - Thanks for watching. Bye!
- Hi, guys. JC here, producer at FBE.
This episode was a little bit different,
but we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
What other ideas like this do you have for future episodes?
We'd love to hear your thoughts down in the comments.
We'll see you there. Bye, guys!