Monday, July 15, 2019

Don't cross the picket line: avoiding Amazon Prime Day

Today is Amazon Prime day, which is an annual sale at the world’s largest online retailer. Many newspapers and magazines I follow have been celebrating this day and sharing deals they’ve found on Amazon. But last week, a group of workers at a Minnesota warehouse announced they would be striking on Prime Day for better working conditions. We need to support them during this time by not making purchases at Amazon or their affiliated companies including Audible, Goodreads, Twitch, IMDB, and Whole Foods.

“Amazon is going to be telling one story about itself, which is they can ship a Kindle to your house in one day, isn’t that wonderful,” said William Stolz, one of the Shakopee employees organizing the strike, in an interview with Bloomberg. “We want to take the opportunity to talk about what it takes to make that work happen and put pressure on Amazon to protect us and provide safe, reliable jobs.” The workers stated that the company has failed to respond to demands such as offering full time employment to the numerous temporary workers and they have not yet permanently cut productivity quotas which make their jobs unsafe and insecure. Between 2015 and 2018, OSHA reported 41 "severe" injuries resulting in hospitalization associated with Amazon delivery or fulfillment jobs. Workers are routinely fired for not meeting Amazon’s quotas. Workers further allege that Amazon does not provide fair opportunities for promotion.

“We were treated like animals,” said former Amazon worker Ibrahim, speaking with New York Communities for Change. The productivity demands were so harsh that workers frequently skip bathroom breaks and are humiliatingly forced to urinate in bottles or other containers.


A group of Amazon white-collar engineers, part of the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, have expressed their support through messages and intend to join the striking workers in Minnesota on Prime Day. The statement, published on Medium, reads: “We cannot create a sustainable, long-term approach to addressing the climate crisis without addressing structural racial and economic inequities that are part of our system of extraction — of energy, material, and human labor — that have caused the crisis.”

According to an article at The Daily Beast, the same day as the strike, a coalition of activists that includes former Amazon workers will deliver petitions to Jeff Bezos’ $80-million-dollar New York City apartment in protest of conditions in the company’s warehouses and its working relationship with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

While Amazon has been neglectful of its relations with its workers, it has become a symbol of inequality and corporate irresponsibility. Despite reporting more than $11.2 billion in profits in 2018, Amazon did not pay any taxes due to tax loopholes. Instead, the company received $129 million in a federal income tax rebate. In May, Amazon’s shareholders voted down proposals that would have pushed the company to reconsider its societal impact in the areas of facial recognition and climate change. The proposals asked Amazon to develop a more comprehensive approach to reducing its carbon footprint and limit how the company sells surveillance technologies to governments.

By refusing to purchase from Amazon today on ‘Prime Day’ we can show our solidarity with the striking workers who are demanding better working conditions. Chances are, what you need from Amazon can wait a day or two. Better yet, see if you can find a local retailer who carries it. Today, I visited my local bookstore and made a purchase thereby keeping money in the local community. Buying locally has real benefits beyond saving money on shipping. I think it’s time we consider the broader economic impacts of shopping at Amazon. We must ask: does Jeff Bezos, who currently has a net worth of $130 billion, and Amazon’s shareholders need to be enriched further? Will the personal savings we enjoy ultimately be offset by Amazon’s continued neglect of its workers and the environment? Amazon’s sale, which will continue through tomorrow, is a time to reflect on the limited agency we have in this world as individual consumers and it is time to show solidarity with Amazon workers who are forming a picket line. Although we cannot see this picket line, we can choose not to cross it by refusing to participate in Prime Day.

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Sources:

Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. “Quotes of Solidarity for Striking Amazon Warehouse Workers.” Medium, Medium, 12 July 2019, medium.com/@amazonemployeesclimatejustice/quotes-of-solidarity-for-striking-amazon-warehouse-workers-fe6e1c1e3c61.

Change, New York Communities for. “Former Amazon Worker Ibrahim Speaking about His Experience Working for Amazon- We Were Treated like Animals. #AmazonPrimeDay #NoTechForICE Pic.twitter.com/rFAvWgQO7Z.” Twitter, 15 July 2019, twitter.com/nychange/status/1150799862339907584?s=09.

Eidelson, Josh, and Spencer Soper. “Amazon Workers Plan Prime Day Strike at Minnesota Warehouse.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 8 July 2019, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-08/amazon-workers-plan-prime-day-strike-despite-15-an-hour-pledge.

Montgomery, Blake. “Worker Protests Loom Over Amazon's Big Sale Day.” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 15 July 2019, www.thedailybeast.com/amazon-warehouse-workers-in-minnesota-strike-on-prime-day.

Myers, Kristin. “Amazon Will Pay $0 in Taxes on $11,200,000,000 in Profit for 2018.” Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo!, 16 Feb. 2019, finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-taxes-zero-180337770.html.

Weise, Karen. “Amazon Investors Reject Proposals on Climate Change and Facial Recognition.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 May 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/technology/amazon-climate-change-facial-recognition.html.
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