While Jeff Bezos sails the ocean blue on a $500 million yacht, Amazon workers suffer horrific working lives.
The Ethical Consumer has been running a boycott against global Amazon since 2012. It is protesting the company’s ‘impossible time-per-package targets; pervasive worker surveillance in warehouses; pregnant employees having to stand to for 10 hours at a time; repeated worker injuries; and employees having to urinate in bottles for fear of taking breaks.’[i]
‘An Amazon delivery driver wrote in 2020, “I pee in a coffee cup every day, I have had termination or write up threats weekly. I go home in pain every day.’”[ii]
Another report says ‘60-hour weeks are mandatory and ambulance calls are common across Amazon facilities in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe.’[iii]
Penny pinching employees’ time and putting their health at risk – that’ s how Jeff Bezos is in the running to be the world’s first trillionaire.
Grand Theft of the Real Price of Labour Time
‘Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.’ So says Article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Based on a survey[iv] of UK workers of what a comfortable living should be paid, an average of £25 per hour, or £52 K ($66K) a year, would cover basic necessities, savings and an annual holiday.
In the United Kingdom Amazon workers are paid on average £11.18 (£23,254 annual salary.) It’s a subsistence wage that barely pays for shelter, food, utilities, mortgages and taxes, let alone holidays and rest time.
By not paying £25.00 per hour, Amazon saves £13.82 (£25.00 minus £11.18) per hour. That’s £110.56 every day each worker is working but not earning as they should. It works out to 4.5 unpaid labour time, transferred as value to Amazon.
This type of exploitation has taken root in the skilled labour sector too. There are over 476,445 adjunct professors on zero hour contracts currently employed in the United States.[v]
Adjuncts are paid on average $3000 to teach a class for four hours a week across a 16-week semester. They are not paid for lesson planning, research and scholarship that give value to the class, which means that professors are working for $10 an hour and under. Their value as scholars however is transferred as value to the university, which prices classes at $1000 average. Adjuncts end up giving away hundreds of hours free labour time over a semester.
Downgrading the real value of work time is a common practice, which has left millions in ‘in-work poverty.’
People are fighting back. In the UK, strike actions for higher pay have been launched in sectors like transportation, health care and education. Around the world, there are mass protests against rising costs.
Bosses argue that higher wages drive up prices resulting in more inflation.
It is not well known that the head of the European Central Bank blames corporations for higher prices. At a conference held for central bankers this year, Christine Lagarde said that corporate profits were the biggest factor driving up prices.
She cited research by Isabella Weber at the University of Massachusetts: “Rising corporate profits account for almost half the increase in Europe’s inflation over the past two years as companies increased prices by more than spiking costs of imported energy.”’ [vi]
Amazon, a 21st Century Devil
Corporations, out of pure greed, ascribe self-serving and unrealistic monetary value on labour time.
For example, Amazon has valued the time of CEO, Andy Jassy, as worth 6,474 times the take home pay of Amazon’s typical worker. Jassy raked in $212.7 million in 2021. [vii]
As well as underpaying workers, Amazon avoids paying tax on its facilities abroad. It’s estimated half a billion pounds could have gone to the social services in the UK that workers desperately need, such as free health care.
The Los Angeles Times had it right: Amazon.com is a 21st century deal with the devil - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
When I heard about the strikes and boycott of Amazon, I wondered if I could give up my addiction to having items delivered to my door in a couple of clicks.
But refusing to buy from a company as a protest works. Successful boycott campaigns have forced corporations to change their ways.
In July of 2021, after 10 years of campaigning by human rights activists, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream company said it would stop selling in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Under pressure from boycotts, Mitsubishi, Burma Campaign, De Beers, Fur Trade and The Body Shop have made reforms.[viii]
The Ethical Consumer wants Amazon to a)stop denying workers’ rights on the job, b) stop denying the right for workers to organize into trade unions, c) pay taxes in countries where it is based.
It notes that ‘For small sellers, a boycott may also not be possible, with some saying they rely on the website to reach their market, owever, in many markets there are wonderful alternatives – we take you through them in our guides.’
Time is one of the most precious aspects of life – how long you live, the enjoyment of life, and what you do on Planet Earth. Time is everyone’s God-given birth right. It’s time to boycott the time-thieves.
References and footnotes
Amazon and worker exploitation - Oakwood Solicitors Ltd
[i] The Amazon worker: paid £18,000 a year to shift 250 items an hour | Work & careers | The Guardian; Report | Eyes Everywhere: Amazon's Surveillance Infrastructure and Revitalizing Worker Power — Open Markets ; Institute ; Amazon ethical issues | Ethical Consumer ; ‘I'm not a robot’: Amazon workers condemn unsafe, grueling conditions at warehouse | Amazon | The Guardian ; Amazon workers ‘forced to urinate in plastic bottles because they cannot go to toilet on shift’ | The Independent | The Independent
[ii] Boycott Amazon | Ethical Consumer
[iii] Amazon Employees Describe Working for Jeff Bezos' Company During Peak (businessinsider.com)
[iv] How much you need to earn to live comfortably where you are (telegraph.co.uk)
[v] Adjunct Professor Demographics and Statistics [2023]: Number Of Adjunct Professors In The US (zippia.com)
[vi] Corporate profits drove up prices last year, says ECB president | European Central Bank | The Guardian
[vii] Low-Wage Employers Spent Billions Inflating CEO Pay Through Stock Buybacks - Inequality.org
Bezos thanked employees for his trip to space
https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-thanks-amazon-customers-for-paying-trip-to-space-2021-7-
(also reported in the Independent etc. )
Amazon withdrew the few scraps it used to pass (why would it need the tax relief!?)
https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/amazon-scraps-donation-tool-used-by-thousands-of-charities.html