Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Longread #23 -- America's Warehouse Labor -- 3/6/12

This article sends a reporter undercover as a temporary worker in one of the massive order-fulfillment warehouses that are driving e-commerce in America. While it doesn't explicitly say what this is an Amazon warehouse (and the author does note that Amazon is clearly not the only company with facilities like this), it is certainly implied. As someone who is a devoted user of Amazon Prime, this article was shocking. It's not just workers abroad who bear the brunt of our relentless pursuit of lower prices (and fast, free shipping). I'm still not sure exactly how to process what I read here and figure out if/how it will change my behavior as a consumer. I hope it does push me to make changes, though, because there's clearly something wrong here.


“I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave” by Mac McClelland 
Published in Mother Jones, March/April 2012

http://motherjones.com/print/161491

Thanks for reading!

Eric

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