Thread by @StatusCoup

EXCLUSIVE: @amazon Worker Poushawn Brown—Who Suddenly Died After Working In Virginia Warehouse's COVID Testing Area— Complained to HR Multiple Times About Unsafe Conditions, Workers Sick With COVID Still Working.

THREAD...

statuscoup.com/amazon-worker-…

In the beginning of the #COVID19 pandemic, Poushawn Brown, concerned about the lack of cleaning and sanitizing being done at her warehouse, emailed HR on April 8th, 2020 asking ...

“Is the warehouse going to be professionally cleaned and sanitized?”

11 minutes later, an @amazon HR official responded that Amazon had “implemented enhanced cleanliness and sanitation protocols across all facilities.”

The HR official then listed mostly non-enforceable measures like social distancing of “6ft/2m from others at all times” and...

Providing face masks in “limited quantities” for employees. Having not received a response to her question about whether the warehouse was going to be professionally cleaned or not, Poushawn responded back

The next day, @amazon HR responded back: “DDC3 is not closing," adding that the site was being “professionally cleaned and sanitized by our cleaning crew" and that Amazon was monitoring CDC, WHO guidelines...

Poushawn's sister Christina Brown—who worked with Poushawn at the Virginia @amazon warehouse at this time—told Status Coup Amazon's response to her sister was misleading.

She also revealed...

Christina also revealed that cleaning crews were not cleaning the equipment workers were using for the majority of the day...

Unsatisfied by HR's response, Poushawn emailed @amazon corporate headquarters in Seattle. For fear of retaliation from supervisors, she emailed anonymously as a "concerned individual."

@amazon CEO @JeffBezos had "more than enough money" to keep workers safe, Poushawn wrote.

In the email to @amazon's corporate HQ in Seattle, Poushawn said supervisors turned down workers' request to shut down the warehouse for 48-72 hours...

A month after Poushawn first complained to HR, word spread that a worker sick w/ COVID was still working.

Poushawn & her sister were concerned about contracting COVID and bringing it home to their mom, who is paralyzed from the waist down and a diabetic w/ high blood pressure...

Christina waited outside the warehouse as Poushawn went in to confront a supervisor about the sick worker inside working. But her supervisor essentially blew her off, according to Christina.

So Poushawn made a formal complaint to HR, who responded by email on May 30th:

By the fall, Poushawn had been placed in her warehouse's COVID-19 testing center. According to her sister & other sources in the warehouse, she was administering COVID-19 nasal swab tests on co-workers. She wasn't provided the PPP protective gear nurses/doctors are provided...

On January 7th, Poushawn came home and told her sister her head hurt. The next morning, on January 8th, Poushawn got her daughter ready for virtual school and laid back down in bed still not feeling well.

She never woke up...

Her family couldn't afford an autopsy to find out Poushawn's cause of death. When Christina asked @amazon if they would help pay for it, an HR official said they'd look into it. HR never followed up.

Then Christina had a horrifying exchange w/ Amazon's corporate HQ in Seattle

Ultimately, Christina and her family are left to grieve the loss of Poushawn while not knowing what caused her death. Aside from this pain, there's one thing Christina told us she can't get out of her mind.

The only help Poushawn's family has received from @amazon is 2 months of counseling for 12-year-old Gabrielle.

Christina is now raising Gabrielle while taking care of her & Poushawn's paralyzed mother. She's launched a GoFundMe & is exploring legal action gofundme.com/f/poushawn-pou…