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In reply to the discussion: Why Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Is More Evil Than Walmart and McDonald’s [View all]Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)Don't get me wrong, I think it is shitty. But I was pulling temp warehouse work a few years ago in Southern California, the pay was minimum wage, and no benefits.
For a very brief period of time (the amount of time it took to me to get fired for sticking up for the temps, about two months), I worked for a staffing agency in San Diego which supplied workers to a major manufacturer. The client paid us $13.00/hr for workers we paid $9.50/hr. The client had a rule on the books that no temp could work longer than six months without being made permanent. So, every six months, we'd fire the temps for a week, and then rehire them... as temps. And because the employers were essentially customers, we bent over backwards to give them what they wanted. One manager only wanted young Asian women. So the main office only sent over young Asian women. Equal opportunity laws be damned.
Most of these people were young parents with very young children, many of them single mothers.
I'm not saying you're wrong to criticize Amazon. I would just bear in mind that temp jobs are fucking awful, and MANY companies are relying on "perma-temps" to weasel their way out of paying decent money for permanent jobs. Kicking Amazon in the balls isn't going to fix the problem, because it is much, much bigger than them.