Amazon, the most powerful e-commerce company in the world, has a weak history of trying to correct its dangerous labor practices that often lead to the exploitation of blue-collar workers.
Not only is the e-commerce company using its power to censor and deplatform content and organizations it doesn’t agree with, but the corporate giant also engages its influence, which it claims to dedicate to “improving lives” and financially supporting leftist movements such as Black Lives Matter with millions of dollars, to provide damage control for its clear pattern of dangerous and derogatory working conditions in its facilities all around the world.
In the midst of the largest and longest government-induced lockdowns in American history, a self-inflicted tragedy that put a dent in the nation’s economy, business at Amazon was booming. Not only did the e-commerce company hire more than 427,300 employees all around the world in 10 short months, but the company confessed just four months into the lockdowns that its revenue shot up by at least 40 percent compared to 2019, a jump aided and abetted by politicians and health officials who continued to keep brick and mortar stores closed.
Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos once again assumed the title of the world’s richest person this year, clocking a record-breaking $200 billion net worth last August. Even as he prepares to step away from his position, the founder will still reap the benefits of building the largest, most powerful e-commerce company in the world.
Amazon’s track record with its workers, though, doesn’t necessarily reconcile with its corporate financial success. One simple internet search about Amazon’s lack of fair labor practices provides hundreds of thousands of results detailing hazards such as high or low temperatures in warehouses, items, and products that are too heavy for a worker to handle unassisted, excessive standing periods, heightened productivity rushed by the threat of losing the job, elaborate non-compete agreements, a lack of breaks, instructions to not call 911 if anything goes wrong, and other dangers that resulted in injuries, illness, and in some cases, contributed to death.