* Posts by Lia_Marie

1 publicly visible post • joined 9 Sep 2020

As Amazon pulls union-buster job ads, workers describe a 'Mad Max' atmosphere – unsafe, bullying, abusive

Lia_Marie

Current employee of Amazon

The thing you should be after knowing, to begin with, is that Bezos is an intelligent individual. He mapped out the anti-trust laws, then aligned his business in such that he could bybass everyone of them unrecognized. He also tells his 'backstory' to play on the heartstrings of the 'common folk.' Most everyone has heard the tale of him being born to a teen mam who then married an immigrant. He started his business in his garage with the highest possibility of it failing and him losing it all. The American Dream come to reality. The facts are, his teen mam was not only married to his biological father, but she is the daughter of a, now retired, rocket scientist. His mother did end up divorcing his biological Da and marrying Miguel Bezos, the immigrant from Cuba. (The only one out of them all who came from an impoverished background.) Miguel had met his mam through her father only after he had become successful. Later, Bezos was working the on Wall Street as the youngest senior vice president at the investment firm D.E. Shaw. He quit his job to start Amazon, an idea his wife, now ex-wife, created. He received "a loan" from his very wealthy parent of $250,000. Eventually, through his Wall Street connections, he received several investors that continued to finance his work, so any loss (and there were many) was not an issue. This actual backstory is meant to shed light into the topic of 'boycotting' Amazon. I can not legally voice my opinions on a boycott without losing my employment. So I'll just state other facts. Do what you feel is morally sound. He didn't care about losing millions of dollars then, when he wasn't a billionaire, so he'll likely not be fased now. The reason being, Amazon is not his highest source of income. He has his foot in so many other industries now, Amazon is just an old toy he still plays with for nostalgia. AWS is his favorite toy that earns him far more. If Amazon crashed and burned today, he'd still be a trillionaire in upcoming years due to AWS and his dozens of other ventures. Do I care if he is that rich? Should you? Yes and no. If he was after paying his fair share of taxes, abiding by anti-trust laws, and had no hand in the ability to sway the Government, then I wouldn't care one bit. His money, he worked for it, have at it. However, he does skid by without paying taxes for almost every warehouse facility he has in operation, while his "unskilled essential workers" get pay that barely (if at all) covers the cost of living while getting hit with every bit of taxes required in their state/country. He violates anti-trust laws and monopolized many industries in a way that has caused the shut down of hundreds of businesses. (So the "if you don't like it, start your own business" theory can be cancelled before it begins knowing this.) He has many times even stolen kickstarter ideas and made them his own. And as per his interrogation that occurred during the House Judiciary Committee in the U.S. regarding anti-trust laws, it was obvious that he has so many companies, he doesn't even know the ins and outs of what goes on at each one. He doesn't know half of the policies put in place at Amazon and admittedly knows little to nothing about Twitch.

All this has been said without even getting started on the treatment of his employees. And it's not just at the warehouses. It includes tech, streamers, and corporate. I myself have been there for three years alongside my husband. We have seen so many atrocities from bottom to top that don't even begin to break the ice of the overall situations. Just when you think you've heard it all, we are told a new story from another city, state or country. I'm from Ireland and have dealt with anti-Irish statements regularly. My husband is from Colombia and has dealt with racism from "Murica" types. I've been bullied, stalked and physically assaulted by a coworker, in which neither the management nor HR did anything to prevent and have allowed tge coworker to remain employed to continue the ill treatment towards me. Bezos is well aware of the events surrounding my situation and has done nothing to rectify it. I know of a couple in Florida who waited over ten years to become pregnant. After they finally decided on it, due to Amazon not accommodating the medical stipulations of heavy lifting, they miscarried their first child. Another woman in Oklahoma became pregnant and put on bed rest. They continue to mess up her pay causing her to currently be on her third eviction. People have reported injuries and even deaths at the warehouses that have been kept out of the media. Retaliation on workers that speak out, such as with Chris Smalls. However, he's NOT the only one. He's just the one that has gotten the most traction in the media. Amazon is aware of this. They allow him to speak, because it gives the mirage that it's just one person, an isolated event. But if the media would cover all of them the way they cover Chris, it would verify the trend. This reporter here is the only one so far who has dived deeper into the worst side with as much detail as this. Right on him like.

You've also got people like Tim Bray, who resigned in protest over Amazon firing other employees for protesting. And in Twitch you've got the most famous streamer, Dr. Disrespect, who was banned without notice or reason in a matter of seconds. Just other things to point out when looking at the overall issues here. Protesting Amazon isn't new, or isolated to any particular country. Can a change occur, can things be made right? I truly hope so.

Anyway, this has been my Ted Talk. Thank you for coming.