"But the immense profits produced on the backs of its workforce are not used to improve living conditions for the masses of working people; they enrich a narrow layer of the super-rich.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made $1.8 billion on Tuesday alone."
By E.P. Milligan
7 September 2018
Amazon market capitalization surpasses $1 trillion
By E.P. Milligan
7 September 2018
Amazon’s
market capitalization reached over $1 trillion in value on Tuesday, making it
the second company to do so in US history after Apple. Although Amazon’s share
value receded to $2,039.51 by the end of Tuesday trading, Amazon’s share value
has soared by 108 percent over the past year alone.
The
growth of massive corporate behemoths like Amazon is not the product of its
supposed “creative ingenuity.” Amazon’s soaring profits, like those of Apple,
are the direct result of the brutal exploitation of its workforce. Amazon and
its owners stand atop a mountain of broken bones, hernias, torn knee and back
muscles, heat strokes, stress-induced asthma attacks, and countless other
lifelong bodily injuries.
The
historic character of the rise of Amazon demonstrates once again that the
inevitable outcome of capitalist development is monopolization. Amazon
exemplifies how technological advances are subordinated to the profit motive
under capitalism.
Amazon
is a massive operation, international in nature, which now employs 566,000
people across many countries and 5 continents. It utilizes state-of-the-art
technology and information systems to mobilize and integrate the worldwide
distribution of millions of goods. But the immense profits produced on the
backs of its workforce are not used to improve living conditions for the masses
of working people; they enrich a narrow layer of the super-rich.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made $1.8
billion on Tuesday alone. Broken down, this means Bezos made $20,833 per
second, an amount roughly equivalent to what an Amazon worker makes in
a year. He made $67 billion this year—equivalent to $8 million an hour.
Bezos is now the richest man on earth, with a net worth of $164.7 billion.
Based on the average US annual income of $28,446, it would take an Amazon
worker over five million years to accumulate an amount equal
to their CEO’s wealth—about equal to the time since humans genetically split
off from gorillas and chimpanzees.
The
pay for many US workers is even lower. Base pay at Amazon is $12 per hour,
which amounts to less than $25,000 per year.
Coverage by the International
Amazon Workers’ Voice (IAWV) newsletter has cited reports by workers
at multiple facilities who have seen coworkers sleeping in their cars. Inside
the facilities, workers face a high-tech dystopia, characterized by long hours
and an authoritarian industrial regime. “It is like being tortured in your mind
and your body for 10 hours a night,” one worker, Shannon Allen said. Another worker described the work as “modern day
slavery.”
A
worker in the UK said that the company penalizes workers for getting hurt.
“Someone hurt on the job? It gets raised to a leader who then calls first aid,
they take a statement then ask if you are returning to work or going home.
Going home incurs a half-point penalty.”
All
over the world, the company forces workers to labor at fast, tiring, and often
dangerous speeds. The UK worker said: “I still have near misses and collisions
from people rushing…now it’s faster, faster, faster. It’s all about being on
the go, meeting rates and targets.”
Amazon
is ramping up the exploitation of its workforce as it prepares for another
massive expansion. Last year, the company announced plans to open a second
headquarters, though the decision as to where the facilities will be located
has not yet been finalized. It also recently purchased 20,000 vans from Mercedes-Benz,
with which the company plans to establish a network of contractors to carry out
their last-mile delivery services. This development will deal a harsh blow to
the US Postal Service, which currently handles 40 percent of last-mile
deliveries. It also has begun to muscle its way into the $88 billion online ad
market, with clear plans to surpass tech giants Google and Facebook.
Amazon
workers have begun to fight back against their grueling working conditions and
low pay. Strikes broke out at facilities in Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy and
France this summer, and hundreds of workers have written in to the IAWV to
describe the brutal exploitation they face at the hands of the company.
The
ruling class has begun efforts to neutralize the growing opposition to social
inequality, low wages, and sweatshop conditions. In particular, the Democratic
Party is seeking to take control of these struggles and direct them back into
safe channels like the Teamsters Union and the political orbit of Bernie
Sanders, who endorsed Hillary Clinton for president after the 2016 Democratic
primaries.
On
Wednesday, Sanders introduced a bill that would tax corporations for the
federal benefits their employees receive. The bill, named Stop Bad Employers by
Zeroing Out Subsidies or “BEZOS Act,” would establish a 100% tax on companies
equal to the public assistance programs their employees depend on to live.
This
legislation does nothing to address the unsafe conditions workers face and will
not raise wages or lead to an improvement in their lives. It is significant
that the bill instead is intended to provide the government money which it will
likely hand back over to the corporations in the form of tax cuts and
deregulation. On top of this, the bill’s authors and sponsors know it has no
chance of passage.
In
contrast, the Socialist Party demands the immediate seizure of all of
Jeff Bezos’s assets and their immediate distribution to meet the needs of the
working class, including by massive expenditures on public transportation, healthcare,
education, and the provision of food, water and housing to those in need. The
corporation must be transformed into a public utility to be run not for the
private profit of a few but to meet human need.
To
accomplish this historical task, Amazon workers require organization—not
through the corrupt trade unions that take their dues money to pay the salaries
of bureaucrats—but fighting organizations run by and for the workers
themselves. Such organizations, workplace committees, will be based on the
principles of democracy and workers’ control of production, and will fight to
educate the working class as a whole about the conditions Amazon workers face
while inviting other sections of the working class to join in a common struggle
against the massive corporations.
"Sanders also cited a recent report from the New Food Economy, which found that one in three Amazon employees in Arizona received food stamps in 2017."
Bernie Sanders Introduces ‘Stop BEZOS Act’ to Bill Companies for Federal Welfare Programs
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) threw some not-so-subtle shade at Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos on Wednesday when he introduced a bill that would allow the government to charge big corporations for the federal welfare programs its low-income workers use.
The “Stop BEZOS Act,” which stands for “Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act,” would stick big companies with a bill for federal welfare programs commonly used by their low-wage workers and stem the flow taxpayer-funded subsidies for companies paying their workers low wages.
“At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when the 3 wealthiest people in America own more wealth than the bottom 50 percent and when 52 percent of all new income goes to the top one percent, the American people are tired of subsidizing multi-billionaires who own some of the largest and most profitable corporations in America,” Sanders said in a statement.
The Vermont senator said that Amazon — which became the second company to be valued at over $1 trillion on Tuesday — is one of the companies responsible for using the federal government to subsidize its workforce, paying more than half of its employees an average of $13.67 an hour, or $28,500 a year.
Sanders also cited a recent report from the New Food Economy, which found that one in three Amazon employees in Arizona received food stamps in 2017.
Amazon, however, refuted those statistics in a blog post, claiming that the company provides “highly competitive wages” and “a comprehensive benefits package including health insurance, disability insurance, retirement savings plans, and company stock” to its employees.
The trend of Amazon employees receiving food stamps is nothing new, however. Another report from January found that more than 1,400 Amazon workers in Ohio were on food stamps, and ten percent of company employees in the area claimed some form of federal assistance.
The online retail giant not only relies on the government to subsidize their workforce, but it is also one of the top sponsors of the H-1B visa — which is extended to foreign workers. The company requested 2,515 H-1B visas for foreign workers in 2017, far surpassing the number of foreign workers requested by companies like Google and Facebook.
BLOG: FEW HAVE PUSHED HARDER FOR AMNESTY TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED THAN BERNIE SANDERS!
But the trend of companies like Amazon relying on the government to help provide cheap labor, largely from other countries, may already be on the downswing.
Because President Donald Trump recently placed a cap on the number of foreign workers entering the U.S., Bezos and other retail warehouse employers are being pressured to increase their wages for their massive workforce and potentially rely less on imported labor.
ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN WORKER…. Amazon’s JEFF BEZOS PLAN FOR A NEW AMERICAN SLAVERY
"Amazon is a massive wrecking machine consuming American retail. It's looting the economy and leaving behind rubble. " --- DANIEL GREENFIELD FRONTPAGE MAG
MODERN SLAVER JEFF BEZOS
AMAZON’S ASSAULT ON AMERICA CONTINUES
Amazon, the multinational online retail conglomerate, is importing more foreign workers to the United States to take coveted tech industry jobs than Facebook and Google combined. JOHN BINDER
"Amazon is a massive wrecking machine consuming American retail. It's looting the economy and leaving behind rubble. " --- DANIEL GREENFIELD FRONTPAGE MAG
"Today, each of the top 5 billionaires owns as much as 750 million people, more than the total population of Latin America and double the population of the US."
“A comprehensive new report released Sunday by the New York-based labor rights watchdog China Labor Watch (CLW) has shed new light on the barbaric and illegal practices that Amazon employs to boost its profits by driving down production costs on the backs of factory workers at the company’s electronics assembly plants in China.”
JEFF BEZOS of AMAZON DECLARES THAT AMERICAN-BORN SLAVES ARE NOT CHEAP ENOUGH. CHINA MUST DELIVER THE REAL SLAVE LABOR!
“A comprehensive new report released Sunday by the New York-based labor rights watchdog China Labor Watch (CLW) has shed new light on the barbaric and illegal practices that Amazon employs to boost its profits by driving down production costs on the backs of factory workers at the company’s electronics assembly plants in China.”
Amazon, the multinational online retail conglomerate, is importing more foreign workers to the United States to take coveted tech industry jobs than Facebook and Google combined. JOHN BINDER
AMAZON’S JEFF BEZOS IS THE FACE OF
MODERN SLAVERY!
The gains for employees are a novel pain for the investors and employers who have been able to hold down wages for decades because the federal government is trying to grow the economy via cheap-labor legal immigration.
“INVESTORS” HAVE AND WILL DESTROY
THIS NATION IF IT WOULD IMPACT THE
NEXT QUARTER’S EARNINGS!
Amazon, the multinational online retail conglomerate, is importing more foreign workers to the United States to take coveted tech industry jobs than Facebook and Google combined. JOHN BINDER
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