EU Observer op-ed: “Calling time on Amazon’s monopolism and exploitation”

The op-ed was published on a Europe-wide action day where, Members for European Parliament from the Socialists and Democrats met with Amazon workers and trade union representatives in Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands to hear first-hand stories of employees and to discuss how to empower them so they can stand up to Amazon’s exploitation and abuses.

The beginning of the op-ed reads:

“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 – a worker who witnessed an accident and was later fired, to prevent any negative impact on the company. 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.” 

Read the full article here. A shortened version of this article was also published in German in Frankfurter Rundschau.