A review of some of the bids to woo Amazon’s HQ2 to other cities and states shows it’s not all about the money. In some cases democracy itself is a bargaining chip.
Work at Amazon's distribution warehouses in Italy is backbreaking, and thousands of employees are part time and permanently on call. "It is a grim form of exploitation."
Amazon is a devilishly simple everything-store. You buy it. It shows up. Fast. But, at the bottom of its complicated machinery is a nearly invisible workforce tasked with getting those orders to your doorstep. It’s a network of supposedly self-employed, utterly expendable couriers enrolled in an app-based program which some believe may violate labor laws. It’s Amazon Flex, and it makes Amazon’s “last-mile” deliveries—the final trip from a local facility to the customer.
This is the near-dystopian endpoint of the neoliberal city: gargantuan corporations forcing cash-strapped cities to publicly bid against each other with tax breaks, subsidies and crass public relations campaigns
After an eventful summer in Silicon Valley, there is blood in the water. At stake is democracy itself.
By folding a discussion of mental illness and its stigmas into the series, The Tick has proven a powerful source of representation.
The China-esqsue income for the general labor pool might not spark a backlash against the Chinese, Washington's favorite punching bag. Instead, it will favor future political backlashes against globalization and the corporations seen driving up inequality -- and driving down mobility -- because of it.
Battle for the Net says that on July 12 it will provide tools for all participating companies and groups to make it “super easy” for their followers and visitors to take action.
With Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods, everything about the company is changing. But there remains one constant: Whole Foods still intends to be “100 percent union-free”. The hostility to worker rights that the two companies share is the future they envision for the entire hospitality industry.
Amazon subcontracts to local courier companies that use drivers who are considered independence contractors. These companies are less expensive than Fedex or UPS and they are not unionized. Amazon provides them with phones that track their packages and delivery progress, and workers need to average a delivery every 2 minutes in order to meet demand.
Spread the word