Amazon is the name of a beast which does not care about the jungle it resides in. We have heard and read about various lawsuits against Amazon for exploiting their workers and just when we thought it could not get any worse Amazon comes out with a pamphlet which gives the impression that it was written by Satan himself.
Amazon distributed a pamphlet comparing its daily wage workers to ‘Industrial Athletes’. The pamphlet contained information on how they could optimize their ungodly 10 hour working shifts without succumbing to their own demise, the cause of which is the extreme working conditions which they are forced to comply with. The pamphlet said that they should eat healthy during the working days, maintain a suitable sleep cycle – if they somehow manage to even have one – and to wear shoes after working their shifts as it would help with the swollen feet. The most diabolic suggestion in the pamphlet was that the workers should check the color of their urine during the work hours to see if they were dehydrated from over exhaustion or not. This suggestion was made keeping in mind that Amazon does not allow its workers to take washroom breaks during the shifts.
Comparing their workers who are forced to over work themselves for a minimum wage to “athletes” is as heartless as it gets. Athletes have all the proper resources for keeping their body in the best shape possible along with keeping their mind at peace through proper rest and meditation. I fail to understand how a worker who is essentially the most important part of any large scale organization is not taken into account by the organization itself. A worker who somehow manages to earn the minimum wage through their hard work is being compared to an athlete who, in today’s capitalist society is usually amongst the top 3%.
Extracting every ounce of blood from their employees for sheer profit was not enough for Amazon. It had to mentally drain the workforce of their will to fight for anything. A work environment which has the highest number of serious injuries recorded in the work place, i.e. Amazon’s workshops has the audacity to suggest its workers methods to cope with the unrealistic work and mental load.
Even after being defamed and questioned through several lawsuits, the e-commerce giant known as Amazon refuses to mend its ways just for the sake of profits which, may I point out, are not distributed equitably but go to the top dollars of the company who spend their days sitting in lavish air conditioned offices submerged in their own materialistic, high-society, never ending ego.
