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Jeff Bezos Just Became The Richest Person Ever. Amazon Workers Just Marked #PrimeDay With Strikes Against Low Pay And Brutal Conditions.

By Jake Johnson/Common Dreams

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has just become the richest man in recorded history – surpassing $150 billion in net worth – thanks to his business model of subjecting employees to low wages, brutal working conditions, and scant benefits. On Tuesday, Amazon workers throughout Europe marked “Prime Day” by walking off the job in massive numbers to call attention to their plight.
In addition to walkouts by an estimated 80 percent of the workers at Amazon’s largest distribution center in Spain – nearly 1,800 workers – employees of the retailer also launched strikes in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom to demand higher wages and denounce Amazon’s union-busting efforts.


“The message is clear: While the online giant gets rich, it is saving money on the health of its workers,” Stefanie Nutzenberger, spokesperson for the German services union Verdi, said in a statement.
Strikes against Amazon’s notoriously appalling working conditions – which include forcing warehouse employees to skip bathroom breaks and urinate in bottles to meet the company’s unrealistic performance expectations – come as Bezos is coming under growing pressure to address his treatment of employees.
As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pointed out in his “CEOs vs. Workers” town hall Monday night – which Bezos declined to attend – the Amazon chief earns around $275 million each day while refusing to pay all of his workers enough to get by without food stamps.
Seth King, a former Amazon employee who participated in the town hall, described Amazon’s business model as “a revolving door of bodies” and said workers are “not allowed to sit down” or “talk to other people” on the job.


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See also:
* Crain’s: Chicago Wants Your HQ2, Amazon: Our Open Letter.
* Tribune editorial: When Amazon Calls, How Will The Conversation Go?
* Emanuel: Amazon ‘Really Likes’ Two Chicago Sites.
* Oh, and: Amazon Is Thriving Thanks To Taxpayer Dollars.
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Previously in Amazon:
* Amazon Finally Drops Deceptive Price List Comparisons.
* Who Has Your Back? Not Amazon.
* Chicago’s Attempt To Impress Amazon Backfired After It Destroyed A ‘Priceless’ Graffiti Artwork In HQ2 Bid Clean-Up.
* Amazon, Boeing, Chicago And Cautionary Tales.
Let’s face it, the math doesn’t matter – Rahm just wants the win. Like Scott Walker and Foxconn (and Richard M. Daley and the 2016 Olympics). It’s a helluva thing to campaign on. “I got Amazon!” It doesn’t matter how disastrous that might be – it’s all about one man’s political interests.
* Item: Amazon HQ2-fer.
“Later this year, Amazon will begin accepting grocery orders from customers using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the federal anti-poverty program formerly known as food stamps. As the nation’s largest e-commerce grocer, Amazon stands to profit more than any other retailer when the $70 billion program goes online after an initial eight-state pilot,” the Intercept reports.
“But this new revenue will effectively function as a double subsidy for the company: In Arizona, new data suggests that one in three of the company’s own employees depend on SNAP to put food on the table. In Pennsylvania and Ohio, the figure appears to be around one in 10. Overall, of five states that responded to a public records request for a list of their top employers of SNAP recipients, Amazon cracked the top 20 in four.”
the problem with amazon’s short list
This is a long, in-depth report that demands particular attention here as Chicago vies for Amazon’s “second headquarters” through a combination of begging, pleading, and massive tax subsidies contained in a secret offer we may never see.
Also, let’s ask the mayor about this.
* Amazon’s Same-Day Delivery Serves Basically All Of Chicago . . . Except The South Side.
* Amazon Insists On Silence From Twenty HQ2 Finalists.
* Lucy Parsons Labs Sues Rahm Emanuel To Jar Loose The Chicago’s Amazon HQ2 Bid.
* CyberMonday, Amazon & You.
* Amazon Short-List Proves Something “Deeply Wrong” With America’s Race-To-The-Bottom Economy.
* Last Year, Amazon Paid No Federal Income Taxes. Now, It’s Trying To Kill A Local Tax That Aims To Help the Homeless.
See also: About Chicago’s Late Head Tax.
* Ralph Nader’s Open Letter To Jeff Bezos.
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Comments welcome.

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Posted on July 18, 2018