Amazon: Take your business elsewhere

Amazon is a behemoth without a doubt.   But it is not a company which fair-minded people ought to support with their business.

Writing in The Nation, Harold Pollack looks more closely at Amazon and as a one-time purchaser has decided to nix them.

"But then I found this terrific story by Spencer Soper describing the labor practices at Amazon’s Lehigh Valley warehouse, where books, CDs and other products are packed and shipped. Soper and his colleagues interviewed twenty current and former workers. It’s not a pretty story:

Workers said they 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. The consequences of not meeting work expectations were regularly on display, as employees lost their jobs and got escorted out of the warehouse. Such sights encouraged some workers to conceal pain and push through injury lest they get fired as well, workers said.

During summer heat waves, Amazon arranged to have paramedics parked in ambulances outside, ready to treat any workers who dehydrated or suffered other forms of heat stress. Those who couldn’t quickly cool off and return to work were sent home or taken out in stretchers and wheelchairs and transported to area hospitals. And new applicants were ready to begin work at any time."

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"Like Walmart, Amazon pursues an unsentimental business plan that forces you to decide what you really believe about capitalism. Through a combination of innovation, name recognition and bargaining power, both Amazon and Walmart became hugely profitable. Much of this innovation comes through genuinely ingenious supply-chain management and through efforts to minimize labor costs. Both companies provide much value to the American consumer. Both have squeezed their suppliers and workers in ways that promote low prices, but that sometimes cross boundaries of good corporate citizenship and basic decency."