Greenwashing a malicious brand

Summary: Amazon, the company (not the forests), not only harms human dignity of customers but also of employees

FOR a number of years now Techrights has strongly urged everyone to boycott Amazon, which does many despicable things that are too many to name offhand.

Now that reports reveal Amazon's abuse of its own employees [1,2] we should simply take these employees' lawsuits as a sign that Amazon is inherently unethical at many levels. It cares about its employees no more than those garment factories in Bangladesh [3], where death of these employees are common (everything to drive the price down!).

The reason we hear a lot more about the abuse of Amazon workers and hardly anything about workers in Bangladesh is probably the racial factor. We're inclined to be more sympathetic towards people of our race (in Western nations) and suspicious of others, as new studies help remind us [4]. When thinking about how Amazon treats people, think about the many dead workers in Bangladesh. ⬆

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Worker sues Amazon over lengthy security searches without pay





2. Amazon sued over 20-minute, unpaid, daily security searches of workers

   A Pennsylvania man who works for Internet retail giant Amazon says the company is taking advantage of workers by putting them through daily security checks that last anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes — and eat into unpaid hours, before work, after work and during lunch breaks.
   
   He’s kicked off a class-action suit against the company, filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and alleging violations of the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act, NBC reported.





3. Bangladesh garment factory fire kills at least 10 people





4. Estate agents discriminate against black people, finds BBC investigation

   Posing as a landlord, reporter uncovers London agents willing to meet request flat should not be let to African-Caribbean renters