╌>

Op/Ed Amazon Prime Day deals aren't worth the moral cost of exploiting their workers

  

Category:  Op/Ed

Via:  perrie-halpern  •  5 years ago  •  20 comments

Op/Ed Amazon Prime Day deals aren't worth the moral cost of exploiting their workers
Fulfilling orders turns out to be a rather unfulfilling livelihood, according to striking workers at a Minnesota Amazon facility.

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T


By   Michelle Chen


The promise of Amazon Prime Day — to be an all-encompassing one-stop shop for all our material desires at the lowest possible prices — increasingly rings hollow both for the people who fill the boxes and for the consumers who unpack them. Amazon might offer shoppers infinite choice, but there are often vanishing few alternatives for those who want to escape its grip. Whenever we “proceed to checkout,” our wish becomes the command of a distant anonymous warehouse worker, but the transaction comes at the cost of our civic soul.

Prime Day 2019 offers twice the shopping euphoria this year — a full 48 hours of scrolling endlessly and stuffing our bottomless virtual shopping carts. But this year’s Prime Days are double the pain for workers at Amazon fulfillment centers — the industrial caverns where humans and robots pack orders at a frenzied pace — to ensure that our next coffee grinder arrives with the company’s hallmark seamless efficiency.

Fulfilling orders turns out to be a rather unfulfilling livelihood, according to the workers who   engaged in a six-hour strike   at the Amazon facility in Shakopee, Minnesota, on Monday. The targeted work stoppage during the Prime Day bonanza was a strategic escalation; a hundred or so workers striking, out of hundreds of thousands of workers toiling nationwide, was not going to dent Amazon’s overall production rate. Nonetheless, the largely East African immigrant workers   coupled their workplace action with a public campaign   for fair working conditions.

They were joined by labor unions who   hope to organize   the massive warehouse workforce across the country, as well as   thousands of protesting workers in Europe   who are also   mobilizing for fair working conditions   across Amazon's global e-commerce hegemonic presence.

The workers at Shakopee and elsewhere have   long complained of being worked to exhaustion   under strict production quotas — typically requiring workers to package hundreds of items per hour on long shifts. They say Amazon is a uniquely brutal boss: Their performance is constantly monitored and managers issue warnings to ensure that workers don’t stray from their regimen. Workers complain that the hourly production quotas haunt them even during meal and rest breaks, leaving many with chronic stress.

Last year at Shakopee, they campaigned for religious accommodations, such as a dedicated prayer space for Muslims and a reduction of their bone-crunching workload during their Ramadan fast. Amazon agreed to talk with workers about reforming some of their labor practices, but the workers still say they face unbearable pressure on the job.

Their campaign has   been boosted by politicians   — including   Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar , D-Minn., a Somali American and the first Muslim woman in Congress, as well as Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. — who see Amazon’s empire as emblematic of the country’s abysmal inequality. But the Shakopee workers draw most of their support from the grassroots, organizing with the   immigrant advocacy group Awood Center   with support from the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Service Employees International Union.

Amazon   dismissed this year’s Prime Day protests , though claiming that unions — by advocating for fair working conditions — are “conjuring misinformation to work in their favor.” Just as it cultivates consumer fidelity by becoming the shopping destination for all of their needs and wants, Amazon insists that it already offers what workers are demanding — they boast of giving workers a $15 minimum wage and various benefits.

But even with “competitive” wages, Amazon’s front-line workers just want to be   free of the daily terror   of being arbitrarily fired because they took an extra bathroom break. As Shakopee worker Mohamed Hassan told me, “Whether you work 10 years or one year, it's the same. Whether you are temporary or permanent, nothing different, they can fire you any time.”

The dehumanizing climate at Amazon facilities is often also aggravated by the actual climate. In 2011, sweltering temperatures at a Pennsylvania warehouse led to   workers collapsing from heat stress . And today, climate intersects with the Shakopee strike in a different way: Some of Amazon’s tech employees traveled from Seattle to join the Shakopee workers to   protest the company’s climate policy , which they say is wholly inadequate in light of the company’s massive wealth and gargantuan carbon footprint.   Thousands of Amazon employees have signed a letter urging the company   to pursue not just a promise for reduced emissions and a sprinkling of solar panels on warehouses, but a real climate justice agenda. That means t ackling the racial and economic inequities   that overlay the climate crisis in poor and marginalized communities.

The convergence of office and warehouse workers on climate change issues reveals the core of the growing backlash against Amazon: Not just the struggle for a pay raise, but also for an end to corporate impunity.

The demand for corporate accountability at Amazon culminated earlier this year with the   collapse of much-hyped plans   to build its HQ2 corporate headquarters in Queens. A coalition of community and labor groups   spearheaded the resistance , criticizing the lavish tax breaks attached to the deal. They argued that Amazon   is one of many   corporate benefactors of taxpayer subsidies   that have promised to bring jobs but fail to provide unionized, family-sustaining livelihoods. The backlash also included condemnation of   Amazon's collusion with Immigration and Customs Enforcement   in the development of facial-recognition software — a nexus of Big Tech and government surveillance that outrages the communities of immigrants and people of color who are wary of Amazon’s growing power over their local economies and neighborhoods.

The movement for workplace justice at Shakopee — encapsulated in the slogan “ We’re human, not robots ” — foregrounds an often-overlooked side of Amazon’s empire: grassroots worker activists, immigrants who have struggled to put down roots in the heartland and are now fighting to restore basic humanity to the e-commerce machine.

And the demand for a more humane workplace and equitable jobs parallels Amazon’s other ethical quagmires: its monopolistic control over about half of the online retail market has   raised antitrust concerns   among federal authorities and, at the community level,   Amazon’s market power   is associated with the   strangulation of local mom-and-pop businesses , as our shopping is increasingly limited to transactions with an algorithm instead of interactions with real-life workers and neighbors.

Prime Day might offer unparalleled deals, but ultra-convenient online discounts carry a real-life cost for labor and communities. And workers around the world are fighting to stop Amazon from treating them like they are just as disposable as the boxes they fill.

Michelle Chen is a contributing writer at The Nation, a contributing editor at Dissent and a co-producer of the “Belabored” podcast and the Asia Pacific Forum podcast.


Tags

jrDiscussion - desc
[]
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
1  seeder  Perrie Halpern R.A.    5 years ago

So many questions.. to work for Amazon or not to? To buy from Amazon or not to? Are employees entitled to be treated to dignity on the job, or is just having a job dignity enough? I am sure I am only touching on a few items... 

Will you be enjoying Amazon Prime Day?

 
 
 
Enoch
Masters Quiet
1.2  Enoch  replied to  Perrie Halpern R.A. @1    5 years ago

Dear Freind Perrie H:

No.

Wal-Mart 2.0.

P&AB.

Enoch.

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
3  Sparty On    5 years ago

Forcing companies to pay a "living wage," whatever that is, is a non starter in my book but i do agree with the power of the pocketbook.

If enough people stopped ordering from Amazon over wages/working conditions, things would change.   Unfortunately most people want their cheaper shit more than they want others to have better working condition.   A couple idioms work here IMO:

Out of sight, out of mind

-Unknown

We have met the enemy and he is us.

- Pogo

 
 
 
Snuffy
Professor Participates
3.1  Snuffy  replied to  Sparty On @3    5 years ago
Forcing companies to pay a "living wage," whatever that is, is a non starter in my book but i do agree with the power of the pocketbook.

But this is not the issue the article talks about. According to the article, Amazon already pays it's workers at least $15 an hour so your comments of having people stop ordering from amazon over wages doesn't make sense. The complains in the article are around better working conditions and less stress. The complaint that they work under hourly production quota's, heavy stress and the worry that they can be fired at any time. Funny that,  I have a production quota as well in addition to heavy stress due to my professional IT job and that doesn't cause me to break out in cold sweats at the worry of it. And yes my employer can fire me at any time, but I can also quit at any time. So that's a two way street.

These types of articles have always kind of bothered me because here in America we all have the ability to rise as high as we want to put in the effort for. And these articles seem to me more of people who want more without having to work for it. Reminds me of the kids I went to college math classes with who wanted to copy tests. I wasn't too worried because I figured once we're out in the world if we are asked to build a bridge they would be so lost trying to calculate stress and load factors while I would be asking what color do they want it painted. 

Earn your way yourself because you are always the one factor responsible for yourself.

 
 
 
katrix
Sophomore Participates
3.1.1  katrix  replied to  Snuffy @3.1    5 years ago

Amazon is also training some of its lower level employees to take IT jobs (since it's a huge cloud services provider, not just an online store). And their benefits seem pretty good for that type of entry level job.

Bottom line is, people need training or education if they want a better job than filling boxes at Amazon warehouses.

 
 
 
Snuffy
Professor Participates
3.1.2  Snuffy  replied to  katrix @3.1.1    5 years ago
Bottom line is, people need training or education if they want a better job than filling boxes at Amazon warehouses.

Absolutely true. And I would further state that the responsibility for getting such training or education is their responsibility first. If they are not willing to put in effort to at least get it started then they really have no desire to better their life.

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
3.1.3  Sparty On  replied to  Snuffy @3.1.2    5 years ago
Absolutely true. And I would further state that the responsibility for getting such training or education is their responsibility first.

Yep, i have little sympathy for those who took the easy path.   We all know people like that.   People who laughed at you while you were toiling through the military, college and/or multiple jobs to pay for it all while they stayed home, partied, drank beer and otherwise did nothing to get ahead.

Now decades later they are feeling the pinch and we're suppose to feel sorry for them that they made that choice?

Nope, i don't.    Not in the least.

 
 
 
It Is ME
Masters Guide
4  It Is ME    5 years ago

I bought like a crazed Hound !

I guess....It's really the buyers fault that others must work sooooo hard at the job they chose ?

Stop Buying Stuff people ! Your constituents don't want that much work on their plates. "Home" is where their hearts REALLY are.

 
 
 
Sunshine
Professor Quiet
5  Sunshine    5 years ago

I look on Ebay first.  

 
 
 
charger 383
Professor Silent
6  charger 383    5 years ago

I would like to see then work in a rayon factory

 
 

Who is online










91 visitors