This video from Britain says about itself:
BBC Panorama – Amazon The Truth Behind the Click. BBC documentary behind Amazon shopping 2013
It’s the online retailer that has transformed the way we shop, but how does Amazon treat the workers who retrieve our orders? Working conditions in the company’s giant warehouses have been condemned by unions as among the worst in Britain. Panorama goes undercover to find out what happens after we fill our online shopping basket.
From the Daily Mirror in Britain:
Voice of the Mirror: It’s time world’s richest man saw how other half live in his Amazon sweat shops
An undercover reporter witnessed first hand how workers are forced to take timed toilet breaks and meet impossible targets during a five-week investigation at Amazon‘s biggest plant in Europe
22:35, 25 NOV 2017
Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest man, worth $99billion
When you click to buy a goody from Amazon, has it ever occurred to you what happens next?
It is not a side the company wants you to see.
Today, Sunday Mirror reporter Alan Selby reveals all after spending five weeks undercover as a packer at Amazon’s biggest European plant, in Tilbury, Essex.
His story is not a happy one. Workers are paid as little as 7p for each parcel, which must be ready to go in 30 seconds.
The sack hangs over anyone not up to speed. But some are so exhausted they fall asleep on their feet. Ambulances were called as others collapsed.
Selby is a superfit marathon runner. But he says the targets were impossible to meet – even for him. And the two half-hour food breaks in a punishing 10-and-a-half-hour shift were not nearly long enough.
[Amazon] … should now acknowledge that the way it treats its workers is not acceptable.
The company has made its founder Jeff Bezos the world’s richest man. Black Friday alone added another £1.8billion to his treasure chest.
It is now time for Bezos to see for himself how the other half live in his sweatshops.
And it is time for us, his customers, to consider the price others must pay for the convenience of online shopping.
Together we can do something about it.
Bezos can start by improving working conditions with more staff, better wages and proper breaks. He earns enough money to be more generous than just obeying government employment law to the letter.
And we must swallow paying a little more for what we want to buy and the presents we like to give.
While Amazon is about it, it could satisfy the Treasury by paying its fair share of tax to this country. That way everyone will enjoy a happy Christmas with a clear conscience.
USA: Amazon builds low-wage Maryland plant on ashes of largest steel mill in US: here.
Amazon conducts total surveillance of workers in new German plant: here.
It’s the most exhausting time of the year: Amazon, UPS workers denounce grueling holiday conditions: here.
‘Crying at work is becoming normal’: Whole Foods employees revolt after Amazon imposes ‘scorecard’ system: here.
Amazon’s global profit reached $1.9 billion for the final quarter of 2017, an increase of more than 150 percent from just a year earlier, according to the company’s financial earnings report released Thursday. Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos’ personal wealth has increased more than $17 billion in the past month. This compares to the average monthly wage of an Amazon warehouse worker as the weight of an elephant compares to an ant: here.
This toilet makes it uncomfortable for workers to take long breaks.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
The Amazon Warehouse that opened here in Robbinsville, NJ, was to be such an economic savior but was soon to be found out by its employees to be a horrendous place for employment. The turn over alone was frightening, I don’t know how they kept any of their employees there.
Great read!
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Thank you for this comment, Beckie! Maybe Amazon and similar corporations keep some of their employees because there are not very many better jobs around them.
Thanks all rebloggers!
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Reblogged this on sdbast.
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Monday, 27 November 2017
Amazon workers ‘Black Friday’ strike
WORKERS at six Amazon distribution centres in Germany and one in Italy began a 24-hour strike on Friday, in a protest timed to coincide with ‘Black Friday’ to demand better wages from the American online giant.
In Germany, Ver.di union spokesman Thomas Voss said some 2,500 workers were on strike at Amazon facilities in Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben and Koblenz. In a statement, Ver.di board member Stefanie Nutzberger, said workers faced ‘high pressure to create more and more in less time, permanent performance controls and monitoring, and a poor leadership culture.’
In a warehouse near Piacenza, near Milan in northern Italy, hundreds of workers walked off the job to demand ‘dignified salaries’. Over 500 employees were carrying out their first ever strike at the Piacenza warehouse. Strikers have also refused to work overtime until 31st December, covering the whole of the online retailer’s peak season. Piacenza is Amazon’s main Italian hub, employing 4,000 people.
The German union has been leading a push since 2013 for higher pay for some 12,000 workers in Germany, arguing Amazon employees receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs.
The Italian one-day strike was hailed by one of the nation’s umbrella union leaders, the UIL’s Carmelo Barbagallo, as having ‘enormous symbolic value because it’s clear that progress, innovation and modernity can’t come at the expense and the interests of workers.’
The chief of the CISL union federation, Annamaria Furlan, called on Amazon to work with unions for ‘proper industrial relations, employment stability and dignified salaries’. The Italian strike at the facility near Piacenza was called for permanent workers. The unions advised workers who are on short-term, zero-hours contracts to stay on the job, so they wouldn’t risk losing future work.
https://wrp.org.uk/news/13852
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Tuesday, 28 November 2017
Amazon ‘work till you drop!’
AMAZON workers have their toilets breaks timed, are paid as little as 7p per item they pack and are working as much as 55 hours a week, an undercover investigation has exposed, blowing the lid on the apalling conditions that exist in the warehouse in Tilbury, Essex.
n the run up to ‘Black Friday’, ‘Cyber Monday’ and now the run up to Xmas, workers are being pushed beyond their limits with ambulances being called to the warehouse as they collapse from exhaustion.
These are the findings of undercover reporter Alan Selby who spent five weeks working at Amazon armed with a secret camera. He saw warehouse workers doing such long shifts that some fell asleep on their feet.
Responding to the investigation, Birkenhead Labour MP Frank Field said Amazon should ‘hang its head in shame’. Alan Selby in his report said he felt staff were reduced to ‘livestock’.
During ‘Black Friday’ workers in Italy and Germany went on strike last week complaining about low pay and poor conditions. The Tilbury plant is designed to ship 1.2m items every year. Selby worked there in the run-up to Black Friday.
He wrote: ‘I found staff asleep on their feet, exhausted from toiling for up to 55 hours a week. Those who could not keep up with the punishing targets faced the sack – and some who buckled under the strain had to be attended to by ambulance crews.’
He added: ‘Whatever the hour, thousands of workers are racing to hit goals set by computers monitoring their every move. In my five weeks, I saw staff struggling to meet impossible targets, in constant fear of the sack.
‘Two half-hour breaks were the only time off my feet, but it was barely enough time to race to the canteen and wolf down some food to keep my energy up. My body ached, and my fitness tracker showed I walked at least 10 miles most days.
‘Despite being a keen marathon runner, the physical effort left me feeling dizzy, and I worried I might keel over if I kept pushing myself as hard as I needed to meet my targets. One colleague was taken to hospital by ambulance when they collapsed on the job, after struggling on despite feeling unwell. Another ambulance was called after a girl suffered a panic attack when she was told compulsory overtime would mean her working up to 55 hours a week over Christmas.’
Meanwhile trade union GMB has slammed Amazon over the high number of ambulance call outs to its Scottish warehouse last year. Ambulances were called out on 43 occasions!
GMB Scotland Organiser Helen Meldrum said: ‘These are shocking statistics but given the long-standing history of concern over the working conditions in Amazon, I can’t say that I am surprised. This lends weight to our arguments that Amazon must open up to trade union recognition.’
https://wrp.org.uk/news/13856
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FRANCE: Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire launched a lawsuit against US e-commerce giant Amazon yesterday for imposing unfair commercial relationships on French suppliers.
The legal action follows an investigation by French fraud control watchdog DGCCRF, which revealed that the minister is seeking a fine of €10 million (£8.8m).
The DGCCRF says that Paris wants “to better regulate the activity of large digital platforms and ensure greater transparency, balance and loyalty in their relations with companies.”
http://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/world-brief-19-december-2017
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Amazon workers in Italy conduct overtime ban
Following a strike in November on Black Friday—one of the busiest shopping days of the year—500 workers at Amazon’s main logistics hub in Italy continue to oppose low pay and bad working conditions.
On December 20, workers at Amazon’s Castel San Giovanni plant near Piacenza began an overtime ban and reduced their working shift time by two hours. A series of protest meetings were held throughout the day.
The FILCAMS CGIL union, however, limited the strike to workers on permanent contracts and urged temporary workers to continue to work, undermining the solidarity of workers and the impact of the action.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/12/29/labo-d29.html
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