i worked in the distribution center in Manasota Park in Bradenton and the layout of the inside of the building was not design for safety and maximum efficiency for the volume of pallets of merchandise circulating inside. The firm who design the convoyer area mess it up and that building has supporting poles that are at the wrong place for a distribution center (before it was a Tropicana building i read).
There was only one man working on maintenance on duty per shift and was already overload doing machines & convoyer repairs all the time, leaving other safety issues unfixed. The concrete was in poor condition where the steel carts roll in the spur department and hard to push when loaded and was driving the employees exhausted everyday, more than it should have been normally on flat or patched concrete. The old IBM computer system was good for salvage because often down, the workload was immence especially in the last hour of the shift.
The supervisor was making meeting almost everyday blaming employees and announcing new rules or policies and saying "if you don't want to do it the door is there" ! In the other building on 38th Street the Human Ressources department was not aware of what was said or going on there exactly.
Their firing policies are among the most severe in Florida if caught at anything even minor and they have a tendency for blaming the employees for anything like safety, minor injuries, toilet cleaness, red light flashing on the alley you work because need help during a rush time, pallets that are defective and often break down or simply no more room avaible to keep going. The forklifts pass at full speed within 1 or 2 feets of each workers 50 or more times per shift because the main alley was too narrowly design, if you need to drink you have to walk 100 ft to get to the water fountain that most of the time need a bottle replacement because they are not smart enough to buy a permanent filter fountain dispencer and waste lot of money buying bottle water...and for every pallet you complete you must shrink wrap it manually almost a hundred per shift, very hard on the back and if you hurt yourself like a hernia they will fight your case fiercly i have been told ! And they underestimate this recession because now they are in financial trouble i read, i would not be surprise they come with some announcements in the coming year...
