[slynn12]

This is going to be controversial, but Amazon in my mind is one of those companies that gets a pass. They needed to move fast and get people supplies. If that hadn't, there would have been bigger issues.

Very sad all of this is happening, but Amazon should get a little slack.

[threatofrain]

In the context of national lockdown, Amazon is basically of national security importance right now as Amazon not working right would’ve killed any lockdown strategy. America doesn’t have enough slack for Amazon to bow out in any way.

This should’ve been very clear when we talk about any shutdown — things were never going to work if we all insisted on the same level of sacrifice. Amazon workers must keep working, just as food and transportation workers had to keep going at any cost, and next will be the teachers inside closed rooms with 30 or 40 kids.

[CoffeeDregs]

This is an excellent point and one I had not considered.

I'm generally anti-intervention but do strongly support the notion of driving diversity-of-business within markets. A common measure of market concentration is a sum of squares of market-share percentages (see: https://www.justice.gov/atr/herfindahl-hirschman-index). I'm not sure exactly what to do about this right now but I would suspect Amazon is a huge percentage of the distribution-to-the-home market so should be looked at closely. Their position could be good if they provide excellent Covid policies/procedures (and would be much worse to have a large diversity of participants with poor Covid P&Ps), but could be quite bad if people got scared of Amazon and effectively shutdown-by-virtue-of-disuse a large percentage of the distribution infrastructure in the US...

[Avicebron]

Isn't it a little questionable that we are discussing one singular company as being a requirement for a country to remain functional? is this peak capitalism, a monopoly has a country by it's throat and doesn't pay taxes in said country?

[krapp]

>is this peak capitalism, a monopoly has a country by it's throat and doesn't pay taxes in said country?

It's not actually true. I'm not aware of any lockdown or shelter in place orders which don't allow people to buy food or necessities, and plenty of essential businesses remain open, and also deliver.

Also, the vast majority of items being shipped by Amazon remain non-essential goods. Amazon may well be helping people, but their necessity in keeping the country running is overstated.

[kjaftaedi]

I would tend to agree, but the company has a track record of putting employees last.

The company went out of their way to force workers not to get paid for the half-hour each day they wait for security checks, not to mention the peeing in bottles due to how they structure break time.

Given their track record, an employee hostile company like Amazon likely contributed to the situation and was not just a regular victim of circumstance.

[kevingadd]

They had the resources to do a better job and to do it earlier. They dragged their feet for some reason and people paid for it. It's why employees were protesting: not because they didn't want to work, but because they wanted to work safely. Some warehouses had insufficient safety practices or didn't have enough access to things like soap, gloves and hand sanitizer.

[krapp]

>They dragged their feet for some reason and people paid for it.

They did spend a lot of money on a propaganda campaign encouraging workers to keep working and not take time off because they were "heroes" on the front lines saving lives. Gotta remember what Amazon's actual priorities are.

[supercanuck]

No, Amazon should compensate people for their risk.

If being a Warehouse Worker means risking your life or reduced lung capacity, how can we justify this as a %15 an hour job with poor health care benefits.