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If You Think Conditions in an Amazon Warehouse Are Bad, Bezos' Personal Housekeeper Says Things at His Home Are Much Worse

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Think things are bad working in one of Amazon’s warehouses? Allegedly, it has nothing on working in the home of the company’s arch-liberal founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos.

According to a lawsuit by Mercedes Wedaa, a former housekeeper for Bezos, she and other helpers were made to work 14-hour days in unsafe conditions without access to a bathroom.

According to Sky News, Wedaa alleged in a lawsuit filed in Seattle earlier this month that she was hired in 2019 to “work around a family without being seen.”

This, the suit claims, led to shifts that lasted longer than half a day with no breaks.

This included, she said, “no reasonably accessible bathroom for the housekeepers.”

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“When the Bezos family was at home, the housekeepers were only allowed to enter the house to clean, meaning they could not use the laundry door to access a bathroom directly, as it led only to the residence,” Sky News reported.

So, what was the solution? Wedaa said it involved climbing out the laundry room window and taking a path that led to a bathroom elsewhere on the property.

That situation persisted for roughly 18 months, the former housekeeper claimed in her suit.

Members of the staff suffered from urinary tract infections after being kept from the bathrooms, the suit said. There was also no room for them to rest at the house.

Does Bezos keep his workers in poor and unsafe conditions?

In addition, Wedaa is suing for discrimination, claiming that Hispanic members of the staff faced racial bias.

Wedaa said that after she complained about the working conditions, in addition to illegal immigrant workers being brought in as contractors, she faced demotion despite never having faced any disciplinary action for poor performance.

She was eventually dismissed, reportedly because she was “unhappy” and was bringing the housekeeping team down. She’s suing for wrongful termination, too.

Now, it’s worth noting there are two sides to every story; Bezos’ lawyer, Harry Korrell, called the claims ridiculous and equated the suit to blackmail, saying Wedaa only filed after being denied a $9 million payout demand.

“Miss Wedaa made over six figures annually and was the lead housekeeper,” Korrell claimed.

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“She was responsible for her own break and meal times, and there were several bathrooms and breakrooms available to her and other staff.

“The evidence will show that Ms Wedaa was terminated for performance reasons,” he added.

Celebrity gossip mill TMZ also reported that “[a] source close to the couple tells us Wedaa had access to multiple restrooms and 2 breakrooms that were not only stocked with food — but included air fryers and coffee machines. We’re told when Jeff and Lauren were not home, staffers also had access to the family kitchen.

“The source tells us Wedaa was well compensated, and worked largely unsupervised, though we’re told at least one of her supervisors was also Hispanic,” TMZ noted.

Patrick McGuigan, Wedaa’s lawyer, responded by saying she had “worked hard all her life. She is a very credible person, and compelling evidence supports her claims.”

Whatever the case, it’s worth noting that anything that shines a light on the perpetual hypocrisy of one Jeff Bezos is a good thing.

There was no better display of the hypocrisy than early this August. On Aug. 3, Fox News reported that “[a] A Bill Gates-led energy organization backed by fellow billionaires, such as Jeff Bezos, Reid Hoffman and George Soros, ramped up its lobbying activity in the months leading up to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin’s surprise climate deal announcement.”

Just a day before Bezos’ climate-deal lobbying was reported, however, German outlet Der Spiegel reported that shipbuilders was forced to tow Bezoss’ 417-foot-long, three-masted mega-yacht — Y721 — miles outside of Rotterdam, Netherlands due to local backlash.

Not because of the fact that mega-yachts don’t tend to be good for the environment, mind you: The billionaire had proposed dismantling a historic local bridge to facilitate it.

Never change, Jeff Bezos — the quintessential liberal billionaire that loves living like the leftist stereotype of a conservative plutocrat. Hypocrisy is thy name.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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