Amazon workers are slamming the company\u2019s ban on cellphones in work areas after a deadly tornado flattened an Illinois warehouse and killed at least six \u2026<\/b>
\nAmazon workers are slamming the company\u2019s ban on cellphones in work areas after a deadly tornado flattened an Illinois warehouse and killed at least six employees. The Jeff Bezos-owned company currently bans workers from using their phones on warehouse floors except during emergencies. The company, which had previously required warehouse workers to leave their phones in lockers or cars, temporarily loosened this rule during the pandemic and is now gradually re-introducing phone bans, according to Bloomberg. Now, Amazon workers argue that employees need phones to access alerts about tornadoes and other emergencies \u2014 and some are threatening to quit if the company goes back to its strict no-phone policy. \u201cI\u2019m not working without my phone,\u201d one user wrote on a Reddit forum for Amazon workers. \u201cI\u2019m not going to quit, I\u2019m going to either work with my phone or make them fire me for that reason.\u201d \u201cIf people who survived can prove that they got warnings via phone before managers told them to shelter in place, and that their phones saved lives, I\u2019d say that\u2019s a pretty good argument for keeping them,\u201d another said. \u201cThey\u2019ll ban phones again,\u201d a third predicted. \u201cThey don\u2019t give a s\u2014t about the workers.\u201d As deadly tornadoes swept the midwest on Friday night, Amazon\u2019s Edwardsville, Illinois warehouse was struck by a tornado that caused both sides the building to cave inward. The collapse killed at least six people, including a Navy veteran and a 34-year-old delivery driver named Etheria S. Hebb who was the mother of a 1-year-old son. \u201cShe was a wonderful mother,\u201d Hebb\u2019s sister told The Post on Sunday. \u201cShe was such a beautiful soul.\u201d Amazon, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, is far from the only company to restrict phones on warehouse floors. After a mass shooter killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis this April, some employees said they had difficulty communicating with their families during and after the shooting because of the logistics company\u2019s cell phone ban. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly been a night of frustration and uncertainty for those families,\u201d McCartt, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department\u2019s deputy chief of criminal investigations, said at the time. \u201cI think that frustration was exacerbated by the fact that many of the employees did not have cellphones on them in the facility.\u201d<\/p>\n