SHOULD SHIT BILLIONAIRE JEFF BEZOS PAY WORKERS A LIVING WAGE?
BUT IF HE DID, HOW MANY BILLIONS WOULD HE MAKE THEN?
"Another Amazon worker added, “If something unexpected comes up, an illness or something needing repaired, then that’s it for you. The wages suffice to barely survive, if even for that, and even then it is difficult."
Striking Amazon workers in Germany support call for international
cooperation
By our correspondents
27 May 2017
27 May 2017
Workers at
Amazon distribution centers in Bad Hersfeld went on strike yesterday. Workers
have been resisting ruthless exploitation and low wages at the online sales
giant for years.
Around 1,000
workers in Bad Hersfeld work at FRA1, the oldest distribution center in
Germany, and an additional 2,000-2,200 work at FRA3, which is located on the
so-called Amazon Road. Around 100 striking workers gathered at the entrance in
the early morning, and 40 departed by bus to Frankfurt to participate in a day
of action by retail workers in the state of Hesse, organized by the Verdi trade
union.
Amazon is
known for its brutal
methods of exploitation and workflow,
which is organized
down to the last
detail. It is also notorious for the harsh
treatment of anyone
who complains.
Many striking workers therefore did
not want to speak on camera
about
their working conditions. “I am on the
verge of being fired,” was a
common
refrain.
Thomas, is a
“picker,” the name given by Amazon to workers who locate ordered goods in the
huge storerooms. He said that he walks between 20 and 30 kilometers each day.
“When I take goods from the lower shelf, I have to bend my knees, often go down
on my knees,” he said. Even being in good physical fitness cannot assist in
such a situation.
Andrea has worked
for Amazon for nine years and earns about €2,000 per month before tax, “and
that is only because I have been employed here longer than 24 months,” she
said. New hires earn much less. “That is €24,000 per year!” said Andrea. By
comparison, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos “is the second richest man in the world. He
‘earns’ $24,000 within a minute,” she said.
Andrea
recalled how company management had previously said that there was no money for
higher wages because the company would make a loss. “But what about now?” she
asked. Profits are exploding today. “We do not participate in the profits,” she
added.
Andrea also
explained how Amazon “justified” the low wages. “Amazon hires us all as
trainees. Yet many of us are trained professionals.” She had trained as a retail
saleswoman, with a focus on storage and logistics. “But that is not required.
So you run around here as a trainee for years.”
The massive pressure on workers was clear to see on Friday
morning. It was barely possible for workers who were not striking to speak as
they went to work. However, almost all took the WSWS flyer introducing
the International
Amazon Workers Voice. Some were reluctant at first, but took it
after campaigners informed them that it was not associated with Verdi, which is
known for organizing a series of one-day strikes that have no impact on company
operations.
Carl was
formerly a US soldier and stationed in Germany until 1992. He began to work at
Amazon in 1999 when it opened its first storage and distribution center in Bad
Hersfeld. Prior to that, he worked as a gardener and landscaper, and he also
worked in arms manufacturing and security.
Since his
health had been ruined by the decades of labor, Carl spoke out vehemently
against the “health bonus” introduced by Amazon management at several German
stores. Bad Hersfeld has not yet introduced this system. According to this
system, part of the bonus payment is linked to the absentee rate of an entire
department. If one worker is absent due to illness, all workers lose out.
The obvious
goal of this measure is to encourage workers to check on their colleagues and
put them under pressure. “I have to go to the hospital twice a year, sometimes
for a long period,” Carl said. “Should the entire department lose out because
of that?”
Dave, who
has worked in the returns department since 2011, said that he is also opposed
to the system. It is merely a “scheme to get workers to turn up to work,” he
said. Workers drag themselves to work when they are ill, for example when they
have a cold, and infect more workers. “It just makes the whole thing worse,” he
said. He hoped that the works council would manage to block the “health bonus”
in Bad Hersfeld.
Jens
explained the perfidious system to us on the sidelines of the demonstration in
Frankfurt. A trained retail salesman, Jens has worked for Amazon for seven
years. The group bonus is designed to work so that “if five people are selected
from the department, and one of them is ill, then the entire department gets no
bonus, everyone suffers as a result. This is not only a lottery, but also makes
a fool of the workers.”
Jens said he
knew one worker who forced herself to come to work even though she was ill.
“She had a breakdown at Amazon and later died. That shows exactly where this
type of thing leads.”
Another
Amazon worker added, “If something
unexpected comes up, an illness or something
needing repaired, then that’s it for you. The wages
suffice to barely survive,
if even for that, and even
then it is difficult.”
Many workers
from different retail and online companies took part in the demonstration at
Frankfurt. They were very interested to learn of conditions at Amazon, and
almost all took the flyer introducing the International Amazon Workers Voice.
Many spoke about similar working conditions.
Raffaela,
who works on the check-outs at Karstadt, has had experiences with several
retail companies: “I think Amazon is terrible. But even at Real it can happen
that a note is taken if someone doesn’t work fast enough. Then he is at risk of
being taken into the office and cited.”
Elke K.
works at Real in Wiesbaden. After being informed about the Amazon flyer, she
said that international cooperation against such a company was extremely
important. “These conditions are really unsustainable, it reminds me of
Bangladesh,” she said. “What amount of pressure must it be when people have to
walk 20 kilometres per day.” Elke explained how she knew many colleagues who
still had to go to the welfare office, despite working full-time and overtime
hours, to top up their income and pay rent. “What a perfidious system!”
Marco, a
Karstadt salesman, was horrified to learn that workers in Scotland lived in
tents because they could not afford the travel to their work or a nearby
apartment. “Hard to believe that something like that is possible in a modern
industrial state.”
Gabriele
added, “The suggestion to cooperate internationally is interesting. Companies
have long since acted internationally and outsource operations to the Czech
Republic or Poland and play us off against each other. And the trade unions
offer only recipes within the national framework.”
Meanwhile in
Bad Hersfeld, Amazon workers at the midday shift change spoke to the WSWS. They
have to deal with the fact that many colleagues are not participating in a
strike called by Verdi. One reason for this is that there is no grounds for
workers to believe that Verdi will represent and fight for their interests.
Verdi has been organizing one-day, isolated strikes against Amazon for years.
The trade
union is pursuing entirely different goals to the workers. The Verdi trade
union is calling for an additional €1 per hour for workers in the retail and
online sales sector. But at Amazon, the issue remains one of securing any kind
of collective agreement. The world’s largest online sales company has refused
to recognize any contract.
With its
demand for a collective agreement, Verdi hopes to be recognized by Amazon and
cooperate with the company as a partner. This ultimately amounts to jointly
organizing the exploitation of workers. Verdi already sits on the supervisory
boards of many companies, including Lufthansa, Karstadt and the rail company
Deutsche Bahn.
Workers said
they could only fight the company by being organized as an international force.
Carl said, “We can all secure more if we are all united. Not only in a state or
federally, but on an international level.” This is why the Sozialistische
Gleichheitspartei and its sister parties internationally have established the
International Amazon Workers Voice. This newsletter will be international, both
in its form and political content. It will link the struggles of workers around
the world in a common struggle against the company and the capitalist system.
Ex-worker: I was close to
heatstroke and Amazon forced me to keep working
By our reporters
29 May 2017
Hundreds of Amazon workers have signed up for
the International Amazon Workers Voice newsletter in recent days. Workers
continue to send in their horror stories of exploitation, and workers in
fulfillment centers in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa
are discussing the need for an international strategy to fight back.
Here is what workers are saying:
Amazon to worker on verge of heatstroke: keep working
Amazon tries to keep the lid on scenes like this one, described by
an ex-Amazon worker who feared he would die on the job.
“I worked there [for Amazon] for a year and I was treated like
complete trash,” the young worker said. “One day I actually got really bad heat
exhaustion from there when I was trying to keep myself hydrated. I was on water
bottle number seven by lunchtime and that still wasn’t cutting it. Everyone agreed
at my fulfillment center that it was hotter than usual, and the managers
weren’t doing anything about it.”
The company only cared about shipping its goods and making profit.
The worker continued, “I almost passed out while rebinning. I was
taken to Amcare [the company medical team] and was told I was only allowed
there for 20 minutes because I had to get back on the floor when they knew I
was getting very close to having a heat stroke. They even said I was very close
to having a heat stroke. So I left Amazon that night and never returned because
I felt like my life was more important than dying at the job. If I died there
that night I would be number four on the list of people who died while working
at my fulfillment center, and I didn’t want that.”
“Why not share the benefits of industrial progress, instead of
accepting our fate as slaves for the rich?”
One former warehouse worker in the UK explained: “I worked in a
warehouse in Manchester as a picker for XPO/Missguided under conditions very
similar to those recounted by Amazon workers. Workers were demeaned with a
barrage of dictatorial policies and pushed to the limit of physical and mental
endurance. A few workers passed out due to overexertion.”
The worker continued, “Why shouldn’t society share equally the
benefits of productive development? After all, it was the workers who built the
warehouses, and the means of production and operations, not Bezos. Why not
share the benefits of industrial progress, instead of accepting our fate as
slaves for the rich? The social condition today is appalling and given the
productive forces available, entirely medieval.”
No to nationalism! Unite Amazon workers across the world!
One worker in the UK messaged the International
Amazon Workers Voice to
report stressful and dangerous conditions at their facility. The worker thanked
the IAWV for exposing Bezos’ wealth, but said that part of the problem is that
English workers are mistreated while Polish workers are favored.
The International Amazon Workers Voice responded:
“The rich want you to compete with workers of different national
origins so that all workers don’t unite and fight the real enemy: the rich. We
are socialists, that means we’re for the international unity of the working
class, regardless of national origin. English workers have much more in common
with workers from Poland than they do with David Cameron, and the Polish
workers have more in common with you than they do with Polish oligarchs, too.
“Imagine how much power Amazon workers would have if they united in
the US, UK, Poland, Germany, Mexico, China, Germany, India, and all over, in a
common struggle for social equality. Divided by nationality, the workers are
powerless. But united across the world, the working class is a powerful force
that can change the course of history.”
The worker responded with a “thumbs-up.”
Amazon workers, if you have stories to share, sign-up for our newsletter and
send them in the comments field. We keep all sources anonymous to protect from
arbitrary firing.
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