IS THE AMAZON ON-LINE RETAIL "MONOPOLY" EMPIRE KILLING ITS "SLAVES"?

"Can you feel it?" "No, because I'm dead from overwork."

"Can you feel it?" goes the latest series of ads by the mega-online-retail-monopoly empire, Amazon, referring to that tingly feeling of excitement you get when your package from Amazon is left in a puddle on your doorstep. 

But if you are one of Amazon's army of overworked wage slaves, you won't be feeling much, except for crushing exhaustion, muscle aches, or -- if you're lucky -- numbness all over your body as you robotically whizz around the warehouse packing, stacking, and sending books, DVDs, and child sex dolls to all corners of the globe. 

Can you feel it...with your pedo dick?

With the Xmas rush in full swing, fears are growing for the health and safety of Amazon's workers, after several reports of staff being worked almost to death by the retail juggernaut and heartless behemoth.

A recent report in the New York Post mentioned the degrading and inhuman conditions at the company's new Staten Island warehouse, where workers are desperately trying to unionise before they are killed or hospitalised through overwork:

Employees say they are subject to 12-hour workdays five to six days a week, and claim Amazon never made good on promises to provide buses to and from its $100 million Bloomfield warehouse, which opened earlier this year.

“It takes me four hours every day to get to and from work. Between my work schedule and my commute, I haven’t seen my daughter in weeks,” worker Rashad Long said in a statement read by organizers at a rally on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday.

Long said the workers are treated worse than the robots they labor alongside.

“We have asked the company to provide air conditioning, but the company told us that the robots inside cannot work in the cold weather,” Long’s statement read.

Meanwhile, Democrats, as usual are doing nothing except pissing on the workers. 

Stuart Appelbaum, the head of the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union criticised New York Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo, who recently cut the deal to bring Amazon’s massive HQ2 office to Queens:

“I have a message for all elected officials in New York state and New York City: Nobody can call themselves progressive or pro-worker or pro-union if they accept or ignore Amazon’s behavior,” he said.

A few months before this Vice in the UK ran an article highlighting the number of times that ambulances had to be called to Amazon warehouses to pick up sick, dead, or dying workers, not only revealing the callous toll on Amazon's work force but also the enormous economic drain the company had placed on Britain's socialised medicine:

Figures obtained by VICE under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that ambulances have been called to Amazon's UK warehouses at least 600 times in the last three years. Common complaints included breathing problems and chest pain, and patients were taken to hospital on more than half of these occasions. Between 2015 and 2017, ambulances were called 115 times to Amazon’s warehouse in Rugeley, Staffordshire. Over the same period, paramedics attended a Tesco warehouse of the same size in nearby Lichfield on eight occasions.

A members survey of Amazon workers conducted by the GMB union paints an alarming picture of life in the company’s warehouses. The findings are due to be published at the union’s annual congress this weekend. Respondents included a pregnant woman who claimed she was made to stand for ten-hour shifts. Workers described life at the company as "soul destroying" and like "living in a prison". Another reported feeling "like a trapped animal". Current and former employees shared similar stories with VICE. One claimed to have been the subject of disciplinary action after failing to call in sick from hospital following an epileptic seizure at work.

Mick Rix, national officer at GMB, said: "Hundreds of ambulance call-outs, pregnant women telling us they are forced to stand for ten hours a day, pick, stow, stretch and bend, pull heavy carts and walk miles – even miscarriages and pregnancy issues at work. None of these things happen in safe, happy working environments. Companies like Amazon should be treating staff with respect, not treating them like robots."

OK, that's enough doom and gloom. After all, it is Xmas time. So here's Amazon's latest ad to cheer you up, although warehouse workers may wish to go through to another room, drape their heads in a blanket, and gently sob.

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