Amazon is cracking down on protesters and organizing, workers say
Source: The Guardian
At least six workers who have participated in protests or advocated for safer conditions have been fired during the pandemic
Michael Sainato
Tue 5 May 2020 17.04 BST
Last modified on Tue 5 May 2020 17.16 BST
Amazons revenues topped $33m an hour in the first three months of the year as the coronavirus pandemic locked down large parts of the world. The sales boost has handed Amazon the biggest dilemma of its 25-year life: how to deal with a growing chorus of critics within the company. So far its reaction has only made matters worse.
Last week an Amazon vice-president, Tim Bray, resigned in protest at what he called the companys chickenshit decision to fire colleagues in the companys warehouse division who had highlighted safety issues. Remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised, wrote Bray.
Bray is just the latest, most highly paid, Amazon employee to speak out. Other critics have not had the luxury of resigning and some of those who remain say the company is actively trying to silence them.
The pushback on critics comes as both Democrats and Republicans are calling for investigations into Amazons dominance. The company may be winning the sales war during the pandemic but the aftermath looks set to be a different story.
John Hopkins has worked at Amazon DSF4 distribution center in San Leandro, California, for about six months. During the pandemic, Hopkins started distributing pamphlets with information about union organizing to co-workers and posting them on bulletin boards in the warehouse in response to safety concerns he has had about how Amazon has protected workers from coronavirus.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/05/amazon-protests-union-organizing-cracking-down-workers
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)Bezos is creating a picture of himself, so to speak, in the minds of the people that work for him and who use his site.
It is amazing that such success can make somebody continue to behave in a competitive, disaffected way. Maybe his success ate him comepletely and now all that matters is conquest and more, more, more. That puts a sour tinge on the whole thing.
Capitalistic androids like Bezos are a really becoming a bane to humanity itself in that case, since their program shows a heartless, data-driven and incessant craving for expansion and wealth. Neither of those can be infinite and both can make a planet's biosphere die and make the heart completely turn to stone.
Robots for riches will end life on this planet given the opportunity, even as we reach a threshold that signals the end of economic growth for good. It's a time to dramatically change tack and steer the Titanic away from the approaching iceberg ahead. Obviously, Bezos wants to take us full speed ahead with a form of collective insanity that ignores so much it becomes absurd and delusional. That kind of delusion backed by billions of dollars is truly dangerous and we will see why more often as the Great Pause continues.
CountAllVotes
(20,854 posts)He will never know another one as you cannot have two masters at the same time.
Needless to say, he sickens me!
CountAllVotes
(20,854 posts)Boycott these greedy parasites that worship wealth.
You can buy things you need elsewhere!
& recommend!