Calling time on Amazon’s monopolism and exploitation

As Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos just reclaimed the title of the richest person on Earth, its workers cannot even take a bathroom break under the pressure of meeting inhumane performance targets.

At the hearing in the European Parliament in January, where Amazon’s chair remained empty, we got a glimpse into horrible working conditions through testimonies of employees.

One particular story sticks in our mind — of a worker who witnessed an accident and was later fired, to prevent any negative impact. There are reports about every break being closely monitored, about cameras in front of the bathroom door, about workers being treated like robots, slaves, numbers.

There must be no place for such exploitation in Europe. The multinational must respect European rules and values if it wants to do business and make profit in Europe. We must make Amazon pay decent wages and ensure workers’ rights — to treat employees like humans, not robots.

With this mission in mind, the Socialists and Democrats are on Friday (12 April) organising a Europe-wide Amazon action day, coordinated by UNI Europa, the European Services Workers Union, to meet Amazon workers and UNI Europa affiliated trade unions in Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands — and discuss how to empower employees so they can stand up to Amazon’s exploitation.

This pledge for more action is the S&D’s answer to Amazon’s dismissive attitude. They refused to participate in parliamentary hearings to talk about workers’ rights and they cancelled an official visit of members of the parliament to observe working conditions in its warehouses, while trying to influence our decisions through the back door.

In response, first, in February, MEPs, trade unions and civil society successfully campaigned to ban Amazon lobbyists from freely entering the European Parliament’s premises. Since the parliament’s decision and additional public scrutiny, Amazon has updated its registration in the EU Transparency Register. The company now reports spending at least €4.5m — up from €2.75m — making it the seventh-largest spender for a single company.