Amazon relies on taxpayers subsidizing its workers' livelihoods, but it also refuses to pay its fair share of taxes. (Photo: Tony Webster / Flickr/ CC BY-SA 2.0)
Amazon Abuses Workers and the Climate--Because It Can
Far more effective than individuals walking away from the company (although that doesn’t hurt), is collective action to change the laws that Amazon benefits from.
A majority of American households are members of Amazon Prime. All we see with our eyes is the website that we make purchases on and the boxes that arrive on our doorstep a day or two later. Sometimes we may catch a glimpse of a delivery person rushing away to their truck to drop off the next package. But the worker protests that have plagued the company ought to deeply trouble us, as well as documented abuses in numerous recent studies and investigative reports.
As millions of Americans this holiday season have been doing, I too have been relying on the convenience of Amazon's shopping experience to tick off the boxes on my list of gifts. In fact, I routinely count on it to meet the needs of my family. As a parent with a full-time job, I have barely 20 minutes of free time during the day to run errands, buy groceries, drive my kids to their extracurricular activities, and so on. When I see heavy rain in the forecast and realize with dismay that my child has outgrown his rain boots, it is far easier to order him the right pair of boots on Amazon in minutes than spend more than an hour driving to and from a store that may or may not have the size and price I'm looking for.
Like Walmart, Amazon has reached its heights by cutting labor costs to the bone and faces a plethora of accusations of underpaying workers and violating their rights.
Online shopping has been a boon, especially for working mothers like me. I will admit, I have often thought of my reliance on the convenient online shopping experience as "self-care," to use the parlance of the modern wellness movement. But each click confirming a purchase comes with a heavy bout of guilt, knowing what I know about how the workers who fulfill my order are treated.
Most Amazon customers are blissfully unaware of the appalling conditions behind their online shopping experience. The company paints a rosy picture of the warehouses where the bulk of work happens in translating orders into packages for delivery. According to Amazon, its warehouses are spaces where "magic" happens, where the temperature is always kept comfortable for workers, and where there are "orange robots balancing towers of goods twirling in what looks like a choreographed dance across shiny concrete floors, miles of conveyor belts and ramps carrying inventory across the building, and shipping labels practically flying onto boxes, blown by puffs of air."
This fantasy has a dark underbelly, as a recent investigative report from The Atlantic and Reveal showed. Workers are under surveillance to ensure they do not waste even a single second and are often left injured so badly by the pace of the work that they can no longer find employment. Internal records obtained by reporters showed that Amazon's worker injury rate is more than twice that of the industry average. The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health also placed Amazon on its "Dirty Dozen" list of most dangerous workplaces of 2019 citing grim statistics: "Six worker deaths in seven months; 13 deaths since 2013. Reports of a high incidence of suicide attempts; workers urinating in bottles and workers left without resources or income after on-the-job injuries."
A U.K.-based watchdog group called Fair Tax Mark claimed in a report last week that the so-called "big six" tech firms, all based in the U.S., are "aggressively avoiding" paying international taxes and that Amazon was the worst offender.
Amazon relies on taxpayers subsidizing its workers' livelihoods, but it also refuses to pay its fair share of taxes. A U.K.-based watchdog group called Fair Tax Mark claimed in a report last week that the so-called "big six" tech firms, all based in the U.S., are "aggressively avoiding" paying international taxes and that Amazon was the worst offender. Globally, the company paid only $3.4 billion in taxes over the past ten years. Microsoft paid nearly $47 billion during this same time period, despite the fact that Amazon's profits were $80 billion more than Microsoft's.
The company squeezes its workers so hard that they are forced to rely on public benefits in order to survive--an accusation that dogged Walmart for years when it was the nation's top retailer. A new study by the Economic Roundtable focused on Amazon's Southern California warehouses found that "For every $1 in wages paid by Amazon, warehouse workers receive an estimated $0.24 in public assistance benefits." Additionally, "57 percent of Amazon warehouse workers live in housing that is overcrowded and substandard. There is direct and indirect evidence of significant homelessness among warehouse workers."
It's not just that workers are mistreated and government treasuries fleeced, but also the fact that the impact of Amazon's business model on the environment has been serious. With climate catastrophes unfolding around the world, our thirst for easily available products translates into a huge amount of transportation of packages to and from factories, warehouses and customer homes, and an immense amount of packaging material that is expended each year. Thousands of Amazon's employees recently signed a letter addressed to the CEO, demanding he draw up a plan for the company to lessen its impact on the climate. When Mr. Bezos released a climate plan in response, critics pointed out that it was full of "gaping holes."
Clearly something needs to be done. It is not enough for individuals to declare that they are canceling their Amazon Prime memberships. There is no formal boycott in place, and Amazon's aggressively seductive business model will ensure that it keeps growing. The company pushes its workers to injuries, pays them so poorly and hurts our environment because it can--not because it must.
Workers are best protected when they have collective power, and that can only come through a union. Amazon has aggressively engaged in anti-union tactics in a country that has deliberately weakened labor laws and undermined the rights of workers to unionize.
Our climate is best protected when there are strict laws in place to regulate emissions and force companies to manage their environmental footprint. Yet year after year, even with climate catastrophe looming all around us, our federal government has only encouraged greater carbon emissions. So Amazon continues to offer free shipping on low-cost disposable items that have an outsize impact on the climate, not because it must, but because it can.
Our tax revenues are best protected and expanded when strict tax laws are in place to ensure companies and the wealthy pay their fair share. But corporate lobbyists and compliant lawmakers have chipped away so badly at our tax code that it has been entirely rewritten to favor the likes of Amazon. So why should Amazon not take advantage of what our laws enable?
Far more effective than individuals walking away from the company (although that doesn't hurt), is collective action to change the laws that Amazon benefits from. Yesterday it was Walmart, today it is Amazon. And tomorrow it may be another company that earns the notoriety that comes with ruthless corporate behavior. Our system is designed to allow Amazon to flourish at the expense of workers and the environment. We have to change the system.
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just two days to go in our Spring Campaign, we're falling short of our make-or-break goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
A majority of American households are members of Amazon Prime. All we see with our eyes is the website that we make purchases on and the boxes that arrive on our doorstep a day or two later. Sometimes we may catch a glimpse of a delivery person rushing away to their truck to drop off the next package. But the worker protests that have plagued the company ought to deeply trouble us, as well as documented abuses in numerous recent studies and investigative reports.
As millions of Americans this holiday season have been doing, I too have been relying on the convenience of Amazon's shopping experience to tick off the boxes on my list of gifts. In fact, I routinely count on it to meet the needs of my family. As a parent with a full-time job, I have barely 20 minutes of free time during the day to run errands, buy groceries, drive my kids to their extracurricular activities, and so on. When I see heavy rain in the forecast and realize with dismay that my child has outgrown his rain boots, it is far easier to order him the right pair of boots on Amazon in minutes than spend more than an hour driving to and from a store that may or may not have the size and price I'm looking for.
Like Walmart, Amazon has reached its heights by cutting labor costs to the bone and faces a plethora of accusations of underpaying workers and violating their rights.
Online shopping has been a boon, especially for working mothers like me. I will admit, I have often thought of my reliance on the convenient online shopping experience as "self-care," to use the parlance of the modern wellness movement. But each click confirming a purchase comes with a heavy bout of guilt, knowing what I know about how the workers who fulfill my order are treated.
Most Amazon customers are blissfully unaware of the appalling conditions behind their online shopping experience. The company paints a rosy picture of the warehouses where the bulk of work happens in translating orders into packages for delivery. According to Amazon, its warehouses are spaces where "magic" happens, where the temperature is always kept comfortable for workers, and where there are "orange robots balancing towers of goods twirling in what looks like a choreographed dance across shiny concrete floors, miles of conveyor belts and ramps carrying inventory across the building, and shipping labels practically flying onto boxes, blown by puffs of air."
This fantasy has a dark underbelly, as a recent investigative report from The Atlantic and Reveal showed. Workers are under surveillance to ensure they do not waste even a single second and are often left injured so badly by the pace of the work that they can no longer find employment. Internal records obtained by reporters showed that Amazon's worker injury rate is more than twice that of the industry average. The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health also placed Amazon on its "Dirty Dozen" list of most dangerous workplaces of 2019 citing grim statistics: "Six worker deaths in seven months; 13 deaths since 2013. Reports of a high incidence of suicide attempts; workers urinating in bottles and workers left without resources or income after on-the-job injuries."
A U.K.-based watchdog group called Fair Tax Mark claimed in a report last week that the so-called "big six" tech firms, all based in the U.S., are "aggressively avoiding" paying international taxes and that Amazon was the worst offender.
Amazon relies on taxpayers subsidizing its workers' livelihoods, but it also refuses to pay its fair share of taxes. A U.K.-based watchdog group called Fair Tax Mark claimed in a report last week that the so-called "big six" tech firms, all based in the U.S., are "aggressively avoiding" paying international taxes and that Amazon was the worst offender. Globally, the company paid only $3.4 billion in taxes over the past ten years. Microsoft paid nearly $47 billion during this same time period, despite the fact that Amazon's profits were $80 billion more than Microsoft's.
The company squeezes its workers so hard that they are forced to rely on public benefits in order to survive--an accusation that dogged Walmart for years when it was the nation's top retailer. A new study by the Economic Roundtable focused on Amazon's Southern California warehouses found that "For every $1 in wages paid by Amazon, warehouse workers receive an estimated $0.24 in public assistance benefits." Additionally, "57 percent of Amazon warehouse workers live in housing that is overcrowded and substandard. There is direct and indirect evidence of significant homelessness among warehouse workers."
It's not just that workers are mistreated and government treasuries fleeced, but also the fact that the impact of Amazon's business model on the environment has been serious. With climate catastrophes unfolding around the world, our thirst for easily available products translates into a huge amount of transportation of packages to and from factories, warehouses and customer homes, and an immense amount of packaging material that is expended each year. Thousands of Amazon's employees recently signed a letter addressed to the CEO, demanding he draw up a plan for the company to lessen its impact on the climate. When Mr. Bezos released a climate plan in response, critics pointed out that it was full of "gaping holes."
Clearly something needs to be done. It is not enough for individuals to declare that they are canceling their Amazon Prime memberships. There is no formal boycott in place, and Amazon's aggressively seductive business model will ensure that it keeps growing. The company pushes its workers to injuries, pays them so poorly and hurts our environment because it can--not because it must.
Workers are best protected when they have collective power, and that can only come through a union. Amazon has aggressively engaged in anti-union tactics in a country that has deliberately weakened labor laws and undermined the rights of workers to unionize.
Our climate is best protected when there are strict laws in place to regulate emissions and force companies to manage their environmental footprint. Yet year after year, even with climate catastrophe looming all around us, our federal government has only encouraged greater carbon emissions. So Amazon continues to offer free shipping on low-cost disposable items that have an outsize impact on the climate, not because it must, but because it can.
Our tax revenues are best protected and expanded when strict tax laws are in place to ensure companies and the wealthy pay their fair share. But corporate lobbyists and compliant lawmakers have chipped away so badly at our tax code that it has been entirely rewritten to favor the likes of Amazon. So why should Amazon not take advantage of what our laws enable?
Far more effective than individuals walking away from the company (although that doesn't hurt), is collective action to change the laws that Amazon benefits from. Yesterday it was Walmart, today it is Amazon. And tomorrow it may be another company that earns the notoriety that comes with ruthless corporate behavior. Our system is designed to allow Amazon to flourish at the expense of workers and the environment. We have to change the system.
A majority of American households are members of Amazon Prime. All we see with our eyes is the website that we make purchases on and the boxes that arrive on our doorstep a day or two later. Sometimes we may catch a glimpse of a delivery person rushing away to their truck to drop off the next package. But the worker protests that have plagued the company ought to deeply trouble us, as well as documented abuses in numerous recent studies and investigative reports.
As millions of Americans this holiday season have been doing, I too have been relying on the convenience of Amazon's shopping experience to tick off the boxes on my list of gifts. In fact, I routinely count on it to meet the needs of my family. As a parent with a full-time job, I have barely 20 minutes of free time during the day to run errands, buy groceries, drive my kids to their extracurricular activities, and so on. When I see heavy rain in the forecast and realize with dismay that my child has outgrown his rain boots, it is far easier to order him the right pair of boots on Amazon in minutes than spend more than an hour driving to and from a store that may or may not have the size and price I'm looking for.
Like Walmart, Amazon has reached its heights by cutting labor costs to the bone and faces a plethora of accusations of underpaying workers and violating their rights.
Online shopping has been a boon, especially for working mothers like me. I will admit, I have often thought of my reliance on the convenient online shopping experience as "self-care," to use the parlance of the modern wellness movement. But each click confirming a purchase comes with a heavy bout of guilt, knowing what I know about how the workers who fulfill my order are treated.
Most Amazon customers are blissfully unaware of the appalling conditions behind their online shopping experience. The company paints a rosy picture of the warehouses where the bulk of work happens in translating orders into packages for delivery. According to Amazon, its warehouses are spaces where "magic" happens, where the temperature is always kept comfortable for workers, and where there are "orange robots balancing towers of goods twirling in what looks like a choreographed dance across shiny concrete floors, miles of conveyor belts and ramps carrying inventory across the building, and shipping labels practically flying onto boxes, blown by puffs of air."
This fantasy has a dark underbelly, as a recent investigative report from The Atlantic and Reveal showed. Workers are under surveillance to ensure they do not waste even a single second and are often left injured so badly by the pace of the work that they can no longer find employment. Internal records obtained by reporters showed that Amazon's worker injury rate is more than twice that of the industry average. The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health also placed Amazon on its "Dirty Dozen" list of most dangerous workplaces of 2019 citing grim statistics: "Six worker deaths in seven months; 13 deaths since 2013. Reports of a high incidence of suicide attempts; workers urinating in bottles and workers left without resources or income after on-the-job injuries."
A U.K.-based watchdog group called Fair Tax Mark claimed in a report last week that the so-called "big six" tech firms, all based in the U.S., are "aggressively avoiding" paying international taxes and that Amazon was the worst offender.
Amazon relies on taxpayers subsidizing its workers' livelihoods, but it also refuses to pay its fair share of taxes. A U.K.-based watchdog group called Fair Tax Mark claimed in a report last week that the so-called "big six" tech firms, all based in the U.S., are "aggressively avoiding" paying international taxes and that Amazon was the worst offender. Globally, the company paid only $3.4 billion in taxes over the past ten years. Microsoft paid nearly $47 billion during this same time period, despite the fact that Amazon's profits were $80 billion more than Microsoft's.
The company squeezes its workers so hard that they are forced to rely on public benefits in order to survive--an accusation that dogged Walmart for years when it was the nation's top retailer. A new study by the Economic Roundtable focused on Amazon's Southern California warehouses found that "For every $1 in wages paid by Amazon, warehouse workers receive an estimated $0.24 in public assistance benefits." Additionally, "57 percent of Amazon warehouse workers live in housing that is overcrowded and substandard. There is direct and indirect evidence of significant homelessness among warehouse workers."
It's not just that workers are mistreated and government treasuries fleeced, but also the fact that the impact of Amazon's business model on the environment has been serious. With climate catastrophes unfolding around the world, our thirst for easily available products translates into a huge amount of transportation of packages to and from factories, warehouses and customer homes, and an immense amount of packaging material that is expended each year. Thousands of Amazon's employees recently signed a letter addressed to the CEO, demanding he draw up a plan for the company to lessen its impact on the climate. When Mr. Bezos released a climate plan in response, critics pointed out that it was full of "gaping holes."
Clearly something needs to be done. It is not enough for individuals to declare that they are canceling their Amazon Prime memberships. There is no formal boycott in place, and Amazon's aggressively seductive business model will ensure that it keeps growing. The company pushes its workers to injuries, pays them so poorly and hurts our environment because it can--not because it must.
Workers are best protected when they have collective power, and that can only come through a union. Amazon has aggressively engaged in anti-union tactics in a country that has deliberately weakened labor laws and undermined the rights of workers to unionize.
Our climate is best protected when there are strict laws in place to regulate emissions and force companies to manage their environmental footprint. Yet year after year, even with climate catastrophe looming all around us, our federal government has only encouraged greater carbon emissions. So Amazon continues to offer free shipping on low-cost disposable items that have an outsize impact on the climate, not because it must, but because it can.
Our tax revenues are best protected and expanded when strict tax laws are in place to ensure companies and the wealthy pay their fair share. But corporate lobbyists and compliant lawmakers have chipped away so badly at our tax code that it has been entirely rewritten to favor the likes of Amazon. So why should Amazon not take advantage of what our laws enable?
Far more effective than individuals walking away from the company (although that doesn't hurt), is collective action to change the laws that Amazon benefits from. Yesterday it was Walmart, today it is Amazon. And tomorrow it may be another company that earns the notoriety that comes with ruthless corporate behavior. Our system is designed to allow Amazon to flourish at the expense of workers and the environment. We have to change the system.