New York, NY – Amazon, the giant tech company engages in labor practices that we have not seen in this
country since the ‘sweatshop’ era. The company pays wages barely above the poverty line. Surveillance systems continually monitor workers. The $550-billion-plus global conglomerate treats its employees with disdain and there is no sign of unionization to combat the company’s abusive practices.
If Amazon’s “employee-athletes” fall behind schedule, they receive a Big Brother-like text message pushing them to reach their targets or suffer the consequences. Three strikes and you are out. There is no union so workers are consistently abused .
A study by Policy Matters Ohio found that more than 700 Amazon employees receive food stamps, or more than 10 percent of the tech giant’s 6,000 workforce in the state. The jobs barely pay above the $26,208 poverty line.
Amazon calls its employees “athletes” with an emphasis on endurance and speed. Each employee’s performance is monitored daily. In an article appearing in the “The Morning Call,” a local newspaper in Ohio, this quote is reveiling: “workers were forced to endure brutal heat inside the sprawling warehouse and were pushed to work at a pace many could not sustain. Employees were frequently reprimanded regarding their productivity and threatened with termination, workers said.
Bloomberg reported last October that emergency responders visit the Amazon warehouse in Licking County, Ohio, at least once a day to attend to an injured worker.
Without a union protecting employees in a mega organization like Amazon, workers are subject to abuse, low wages and little or no benifits. Negotiations between labor and managment does not exist at Amazon. There are no ‘worker rights’ at these huge corporations only a pattern of employee mistreatment.
