The lure of affordable goods and convenient delivery is strong. While the worst of the affordability crisis is beginning to ease, for some, the challenge of making ends meet never abates. The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness writes that more than half of the country is living on the edge, paycheck to paycheck, and “one crisis away from homelessness.” So it’s hard to blame anyone for shopping for a deal at a big-box retailer, in-store or online, like Walmart or Amazon.
While we can understand the draw to these retailers, we must also recognize and reckon with the true cost of their business model. Walmart is a wretched, exploitative corporation that underpays its workers and fights tooth and nail against unionization attempts. But Amazon makes it look like the Paris Commune.
A new Senate report finds that nearly half of Amazon’s warehouse workers are injured during the company’s Prime Day event. The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP), chaired by Senator Bernie Sanders, states, “Prime Day is also a major cause of injuries for the warehouse workers who make it possible.”
The two-week lead-up to Prime Day and the event itself result in double the industry average of recordable injuries, which must be reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That’s ten injuries per hundred workers, which is an astounding number that is only surpassed by the seemingly impossible but all-too-real rate of forty-five injuries per hundred workers when including nonreportable injuries. Nearly half of Amazon’s warehouse workforce.
Amazon, of course, rejects these numbers.
Walmart is a wretched, exploitative corporation that underpays its workers and fights tooth and nail against unionization attempts. But Amazon makes it look like the Paris Commune.
The HELP Committee reports, “These injury rates are especially egregious in light of the incredible revenue the company generates and the…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: David Moscrop
