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jimgosailing 's review for:
Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America
by Alec MacGillis, Stefan Alexander MacGillis
So I probably would have read this anyway, but reading it now was prompted by a conversation with my daughter who pointed out that I don’t shop Walmart because of worker issues, so why would I continue to use Amazon?
This book reiterated some of what I knew about Amazon’s treatment of its workers - the pressures to keep up with metrics; lack of bathroom breaks (more of that in the news just recently- peeing into bottles); and the churn of turnover.
The book addresses Amazon’s extreme strategies and negotiations to avoid paying taxes (while reaping the benefits of, for example, local EMTs to provide aid to workers overcome by heat exhaustion)[there is a reason why the company whose origins were in California decided to move to Seattle- to avoid having charge state sales tax on what it projected to be its largest customer base]
And points out that while Amazon touts that it pays its employees $15, it is silent on the fact that so many (hundreds of thousands?) of its workers are contractors who don’t get paid this much.
An incident of an unmarked Amazon delivery truck fatally hitting a young child is provided as an example of the lack of liability on Amazon’s part in such a situation, but I don’t think MacGillis spends enough time exploring the ramifications of having so many workers who appear to be employees but who aren’t; he touches in one sentence on their not getting the same benefits as actual employees - but doesn’t explore lack of overtime, workers compensation, or unemployment benefits such contractors do not receive; and as far as accident liability, they and not Amazon are on the hook.
I like how he drew comparisons of the site in Baltimore where Beth Steel had once been and the wages, working conditions, and camaraderie that existed then versus the new Amazon facility now occupying that site, but this is part of a larger issue of loss of manufacturing jobs and what is now available to job seekers.
I like the vignettes of tying his reporting to individuals - it humanizes what would otherwise be facts and figures (and I’m still trying to decide if some of his examples had too much of their own baggage that maybe undercut his argument of the impact Amazon was having.
This book reiterated some of what I knew about Amazon’s treatment of its workers - the pressures to keep up with metrics; lack of bathroom breaks (more of that in the news just recently- peeing into bottles); and the churn of turnover.
The book addresses Amazon’s extreme strategies and negotiations to avoid paying taxes (while reaping the benefits of, for example, local EMTs to provide aid to workers overcome by heat exhaustion)[there is a reason why the company whose origins were in California decided to move to Seattle- to avoid having charge state sales tax on what it projected to be its largest customer base]
And points out that while Amazon touts that it pays its employees $15, it is silent on the fact that so many (hundreds of thousands?) of its workers are contractors who don’t get paid this much.
An incident of an unmarked Amazon delivery truck fatally hitting a young child is provided as an example of the lack of liability on Amazon’s part in such a situation, but I don’t think MacGillis spends enough time exploring the ramifications of having so many workers who appear to be employees but who aren’t; he touches in one sentence on their not getting the same benefits as actual employees - but doesn’t explore lack of overtime, workers compensation, or unemployment benefits such contractors do not receive; and as far as accident liability, they and not Amazon are on the hook.
I like how he drew comparisons of the site in Baltimore where Beth Steel had once been and the wages, working conditions, and camaraderie that existed then versus the new Amazon facility now occupying that site, but this is part of a larger issue of loss of manufacturing jobs and what is now available to job seekers.
I like the vignettes of tying his reporting to individuals - it humanizes what would otherwise be facts and figures (and I’m still trying to decide if some of his examples had too much of their own baggage that maybe undercut his argument of the impact Amazon was having.