Our society claims that we care about workers, but in our consumer-driven culture, cheap sales prices take precedence over what goes on behind the scenes.
A cursory search on Google about Amazon Prime Day 2021 yields pages of articles touting all of the cool things you can buy. It’s not too easy to find out what effects this has upon Amazon workers.
Amazon is a great American success story. You’ve probably seen the photo taken in the 1990s, the early days of the online retailer, of a young Jeff Bezos sitting behind a shabby desk with a slipshod Amazon banner hanging above him. Fast forward to today, the online retailer is one of the largest and most successful companies in modern history. Bezos and investors in the company’s stock have made fortunes. There’s scant talk about the stressful, rough lives of its workers.
During the pandemic, as businesses were told to close, online giants—like Amazon—greatly benefited. To gain a sense of the enormity of consumer demand, Amazon hired over 300,000 people to keep up with orders. A New York Times investigative piece shed some harsh light on the lives of warehouse workers.
The story focuses on JFK8, a large warehouse based in Staten Island, which is a working and middle-class borough of New York City. The location pays around $18.25 an hour—about $37,000 a year for a full-time worker.
The piece contends that CEO Jeff Bezos “discovered what he thought was another inefficiency worth eliminating: hourly employees who spent years working for the same company.” His theory of people, according to the article, is that workers expect raises. The inconvenient fact, according to the reporting, is that while people want raises, their input decreases over time. Since it’s contended that workers become disengaged and less enthusiastic as time goes on, Amazon encourages its employees to leave. When they leave, the spot is filled with a fresh face, eager to work.
This churn in employees keeps wages down. In an effort to jettison workers, who the company believes are a depreciating asset, the New York Times wrote, “After three years on the job, hourly workers no longer received automatic raises, and the company offered bonuses to people who quit. It also offered limited upward mobility for hourly workers, preferring to hire managers from the outside.” According to the Times, “Turnover at Amazon is much higher than at many other companies—with an annual rate of roughly 150% for warehouse workers.”
This sounds cold, but it uncomfortably makes sense. It’s hard for a person who does physically demanding, repetitive and monotonous manual labor to stay motivated day after day, year after year. It gets even harder to stay optimistic when there doesn’t seem to be much—if any—upward advancements on the horizon.
Some of the other takeaways from the piece include:
- Internal corporate systems caused some workers to erroneously lose their benefits and jobs.
- The policy of closely surveilling workers stoked a culture fear.
- There have been issues raised over racial inequity.
- Without regard for the lives of people, workers sometimes only find out about a new shift the day before.
According to Fortune, “Workers at Amazon warehouses across the nation have long complained about grueling working conditions. They say they have too few bathroom breaks, which are all timed, excessive productivity goals and an unsafe working environment. The pandemic, they claim, only exacerbated problems, as more people turned to delivery.”
In an email, Kate Scarpa, an Amazon representative, said, “We prioritize the health and safety of employees every day of the year—and we are prepared to deliver for our customers this Prime Day, while putting the well-being of our employees first.”
In 2019, Amazon workers protested working conditions.
Amazon employs over one million workers, making it the second largest employer in the U.S.—after Walmart. Earlier this year, there was a movement to unionize workers at Amazon. A vote was taken in an Alabama facility to determine if the warehouse would become the company’s first unionized U.S. facility. However, the union efforts did not prevail.
At the time, Rachael Lighty, an Amazon spokesperson, addressed this matter, stating, “Amazon already offers what unions are requesting for employees: industry-leading pay, comprehensive benefits from the first day on the job, opportunities for career growth, all while working in a safe, modern and inclusive work environment. At Amazon, these benefits and opportunities come with the job, as does the ability to communicate directly with the leadership of the company.”
Amazon spokesperson Lisa Levandowski said, “Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available everywhere we hire, and we encourage anyone to compare our overall pay, benefits, and workplace environment to any other company with similar jobs.”
In an effort to improve working conditions, the giant retailer launched “WorkingWell, a comprehensive program providing employees with physical and mental activities, wellness exercises and healthy eating support that are scientifically proven to help them recharge and reenergize.” The program is part of an initiative by the giant online shopping empire to invest over $300 million into safety projects in 2021 for its workers.
In the press release, the company said, “About 40% of work-related injuries at Amazon are musculoskeletal disorders, which include sprains or strains caused by repetitive motions. Pilots of the WorkingWell program have reduced these injuries.” Leila Brown, a person involved with the creation of the AmaZen booth, said in a corporate video that she wanted to “create a space that’s quiet where people could go and focus on their mental and emotional well-being.”
Part of the wellness program includes AmaZen. It “guides employees through mindfulness practices” inside of interactive kiosks stationed at the worksites. Employees are encouraged to “visit AmaZen stations and watch short videos featuring easy-to-follow well-being activities, including guided meditations, positive affirmations, calming scenes with sounds and more.”
The online vitriol was brutal. It felt that the program brought out all of the pent-up anger simmering against the online-shopping behemoth. This includes its treatment of employees and resentment of outgoing CEO Jeff Bezos, who profited handsomely during the pandemic, reaping billions more to his already-staggering net worth, while millions of workers across the country suffered layoffs and a rapid decline in their financial and living standards.
Vice savagely reported, “In one of its most dystopian moves yet, Amazon is introducing tiny booths where its overworked warehouse employees can momentarily escape a job so grueling, many employees say they don’t feel like they have enough time to even use the bathroom.” The piece pointed out, “What this looks like in reality is a coffin-sized booth in the middle of an Amazon warehouse where workers can use a computer to view ‘mental health and mindful practices.’”
Jeffrey Ku, an operations employee at an Amazon fulfillment center in Aurora, Colorado said, “Amazon takes our safety very seriously, and my managers have made it clear to me it’s more important than anything, even productivity and quality. WorkingWell is an extension of that—it makes sure we’re taking care of our minds and bodies. It encourages us to make positive changes to how we work, and since I started watching the program’s health and safety videos, I’ve incorporated a stretching routine into my day.”
It’s fair to point out failings. There should also be at least some recognition that the company is making an attempt to improve the lives of workers. The Wellness program isn’t meant to be a cure-all. The plan is one small step. Amazon will try out the concept and test to see if it resonates with and helps workers cope with demanding jobs.
The Guardian reported about a nascent attempt of unionizing 5,000 workers on Staten Island. In April, 2020, warehouse workers were concerned about Covid-19. Chris Smalls, who helped coordinate a protest walkout in Staten Island, said, “We’re not returning to work until they close the building down.” Smalls complained, “If you don’t come in because you choose to be safe with your family, they’re not paying us.”
The company said in a statement that Smalls was paid for the two weeks he self-quarantined. Amazon generally denies any and all accusations of unsafe environments, asserting, “These accusations are simply unfounded. We have taken extreme measures to keep people safe, tripling down on deep cleaning, procuring safety supplies that are available and changing process to ensure those in our buildings are keeping safe distances.” Amazon has also raised its pay by $2 an hour for a certain time period.
After he helped organize the protest walkout, Smalls was fired from his job. Amazon claims that Smalls violated a company order to self-quarantine. The online retailer also alleges that he put his co-workers at risk of contracting the virus.
Smalls is now “spearheading an effort to unionize more than 5,000 workers at four Amazon facilities in Staten Island, including a giant warehouse.” He started an independent union, the Amazon Labor Union, undeterred from the previous “crushing defeat” in Alabama.
Smalls said, “New York is a union town. The bus drivers, the sanitation workers, the police, the firefighters, they’re all unionized. Everybody is related or knows somebody in a union. I believe we’ll be successful.” Smalls’s GoFundMe collected about $4,500.
Source: Forbes