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OneZero is a former publication from Medium about the impact of technology on people and the future. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

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Boycotting Amazon Won’t Work

Justin Ward
OneZero
Published in
7 min readNov 27, 2019

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Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

TThe Atlantic recently released a damning report on Amazon that linked the breakneck pace in the company’s fulfillment centers to an epidemic of workplace injuries. Strict quotas enforced through an unforgiving disciplinary regime explain why Amazon has a rate of serious injury more than double the industry average, according to the Atlantic. The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a nonprofit coalition of labor unions and worker advocate groups, labeled Amazon part of its 2019 “Dirty Dozen,” with six workplace deaths in seven months.

The Atlantic investigation is only the latest in a long series of exposés to shine light on the role the e-commerce giant’s abysmal labor practices play in its ruthless pursuit of ever-greater speed and efficiency. The past few years have seen a litany of horror stories, from workers in the United Kingdom urinating in bottles to the macabre tale of Billy Foister, who lay dead on the floor of an Amazon warehouse in Ohio for 20 minutes without aid while co-workers were forced to continue working around him.

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OneZero
OneZero

Published in OneZero

OneZero is a former publication from Medium about the impact of technology on people and the future. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Justin Ward
Justin Ward

Written by Justin Ward

Journalist and legal writer specializing in policing, criminal law, and civil litigation. Bylines at SPLC, The Baffler, GEN, USA Today, and HB Litigation.

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