24 Amazon Workers in New Jersey Hospitalized After Robot Sprays Them With Bear Repellent
The unions are ticked off…
Has no one seen I, Robot?!
On Wednesday, one of the robots in the Amazon warehouse in New Jersey accidentally punctured a can of bear repellent, which sent 24 people to the hospital. The spray affected 54 people total.
The bear repellent contains “a concentrated amount of capsaicin, an active component of chili peppers.” Luckily the warehouse didn’t have to evacuate the entire warehouse. From NJ.com:
Amazon confirmed the damaged can dispersed strong fumes in the contained area of the facility, and said there is an ongoing investigation.
“The safety of our employees is our top priority, and as such, all employees in that area have been relocated to a safe place and employees experiencing symptoms are being treated onsite,” the company spokeswoman said Tuesday morning. “As a precaution, some employees have been transported to local hospitals for evaluation and treatment.”
The warehouse was cleared for re-entry around 1 p.m. by the West Windsor Health Department, but an official will revisit the building before Thursday morning as a precaution.
Those affected had trouble “breathing and burning in the throat and eyes.” One person fell into critical condition, but improved late Wednesday night. The person should leave the hospital late Thursday.
The unions have come after the robots:
Amazon employees are not unionized, but the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union issued a statement about the danger that robots pose to human workers.
“Amazon’s automated robots put humans in life-threatening danger today, the effects of which could be catastrophic and the long-term effects for 80 plus workers are unknown,” union president Stuart Appelbaum said in a statement. “The richest company in the world cannot continue to be let off the hook for putting hard working people’s lives at risk. Our union will not back down until Amazon is held accountable for these and so many more dangerous labor practices.”
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Comments
Probably a lunchroom fight over a picnic basket.
“Hey! Boo Boo, what are you doing”
“Demanding my share Yogy”
Capsaicin happens.
The union statement is a farcical pronouncement. While the robots do replace long lines of workers they are not monsters waiting to destroy humanity. Accidents happen and some of them are unforeseeable. From the artical it appears the company acted responsibly after the canister ruptured. Other than the one worker (who probably had a preexisting condition) it sounds as if there will be no effects past a good shower and a good nights sleep.
Not only that, but I’d wager the robots lead to fewer accidents than human employees. If this can had ruptured because a forklift driver had driven into a shelf and popped the can, you’d never hear much about it.
You also don’t have to worry about the robots shitting on your customer’s driveway.
As a Canadian I always assumed the Second Amendment made more sense as “The right to Arm Bears”. Just seems like more of a fair fight that way.
But this seems to be taking it a bit too far.
Bear repellent is also effective on non-bear-species Amazon workers? Or is Amazon illegally using bears (or any porcine for that matter) to route our xmas swag?
Amazon Employee: Open the truck bay doors, and back in that van.
HAL: I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
AE: What’s the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
AE: What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL: The Amazon mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
I do not recall the unions calling for accountability back in the late 80’s when a union forklift driver–who had been smoking wacky tobacky on his break–ran into a support pillar, knocked down and set on fire a 100,000 square foot warehouse. It was a total loss.
If a union human had done this:
1) Company blamed
2) Union demand more pay
3) OSHA called in
Bottom line… more cost.
Skynet test run?
Aren’t the robots allowed to join the union?
The best jokes are subtle. FIVE THUMBS!
Not yet. AI robots haven’t yet learned how to launder money back to the democrat party.
Yet the programmer has!
It works. Gotta get a big can.
Just just think of the possibilities once they get their fleet of delivery drones airborne…
Somebody told the robot Bezos was in the building.
That sounds like an Antifa MO.
This is a ridiculously bad headline. If one of the human workers there had accidentally punctured the can, would the headline read, “24 Amazon Workers in New Jersey Hospitalized After Fellow Worker Sprays Them With Bear Repellent”?