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Vocab:
-> Embedding - to incorporate or contain as an essential part or characteristic

-> Stakeholders - a person or group not owning shares in an enterprise but affected by or having an interest in its operations, such as the employees, customers, and local community.

-> Harassment - to disturb persistently, torment, as with troubles or cares / bother continually
-> Indentured - any deed, written contract, or sealed agreement.
-> Shift - to put (something) aside and replace it by another or others;
change or exchange
-> Committed - giving one's complete loyalty to something

Summary:
Amazon claims that they are committed to investing in their employees because they workers are those who make the company work and they also endeavor to provide safe inclusive, and respectful workplaces.

This business tries to create safe and healthy workplaces, equal opportunity with diversity and inclusion and employee communication.

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From the associates in our fulfillment centers, to the drivers delivering packages to our customers, to the factory workers making the products we sell—people are critical to our mission of being earth’s most customer-centric company. Our Human Rights Principles demonstrate our support for…

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1) link of the article: https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-brown-press-amazon-on-workplace-safety-ahead-of-the-holiday-sales-season

2) VOCABULARY
1-Warehouse: almacén - a large building for storing things before the are sold, used or sent.

2- Injury: lesión - physical harm or damage to someone’s body caused by an accident or an attack.

3-Worker safety: seguridad del trabajador - prevention of occupational hazards.

4-On going: en curso- in process.

5-Hazard: peligro - danger.

6-Meantime: mientras tanto - meanwhile.

7-Temporary workers: trabajadores temporales - workers who only work for a set season.

8-Shift rotation: turno de rotación - frequency with which tasks are changed.

9-Musculoskeletal disorders: trastornos musculoesqueléticos - muscular problems derived from poor ergonomics.

10-Scope of practice: alcance de la práctica - put something into practice.

3) SUMMARY
This article explains the bad work situation experienced in various Amazon warehouses in the United States. This has provoked a response from the US Senate, mainly due to the record of several deaths in these warehouses.

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. - Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) pressed Amazon on workplace safety ahead of the holiday sales season. The letter comes after continued disturbing reports of dangerous workplace conditions at Amazon facilities throughout the country, particularly the WASHINGTON, D.C tragic deaths of three workers within three weeks in New Jersey Amazon facilities earlier this summer. Additionally, reports have shown that from 2020 to 2021, Amazon Warehouses' injury rates increased by 54% in New Jersey and 20% across the country.

"As this pattern of insufficient response by Amazon continues and the effects are evident, it is even more important for Amazon to address exacerbated safety issues during busy holidays for consumers," . "In 2019, a report found that Amazon employees suffered serious injuries at five times the rate of the national average for all private industries. the Senators wrote to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy ⁵ Rafael Mota, an Amazon worker at a facility in Carteret was the first of three New Jersey Amazon employees who died this summer. His coworkers reported that Rafael had pleaded for fans to be placed near them in the facility, a request which was denied hours before his death. This fatality occurred on Prime Day, the biggest "deal event of the year." Data from 2019 shows that Amazon had full knowledge of the risks associated with Prime Day and internal reports warned that warehouses in New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Connecticut "were expecting an increase in injuries across all sites during Prime Week." ⁶ Eleven days after Rafael's death, an Amazon employee died at a facility in Robbinsville, New Jersey, a location which had a record of worker safety violations. 7 The following week, another fatality occurred at a delivery station in Monroe, New Jersey. This is abhorrent"

"Reporting suggests that conditions for Amazon workers are worsening and are out of line with industry norms, leading to ongoing federal investigations and litigation across the country," the Senators continued. "Indeed, OSHA is conducting an ongoing investigation into hazards in Amazon warehouses in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Tennessee, Washington, and nation-wide. Under the OSHA law, employers have a legal obligation to provide a workplace free of hazards that can cause serious physical harm or death. We urge you to proactively implement policies to improve conditions in the meantime."

Specifically, the Senators urged Amazon to:

Immediately implement paid, comprehensive workplace safety trainings for all employees, including temporary workers, independent contractors, and any other worker performing duties for Amazon;

Take steps to improve warehouse ventilation and air quality, including through facilities upgrades and investments including new or enlarged A/C units, fans, and windows with the ability to open.

Improve shift rotations so that workers are not spending prolonged periods of time working close to significant indoor heat sources, including large-scale machinery like boilers, or performing highly aerobic activities without rest;

Allow and encourage workers to take a preventative cool-down rest in the cool areas when they feel the need to do so to protect themselves from overheating and such access shall be permitted at all times.

Address the sky-high rates of musculoskeletal disorders in all operations by immediately conducting a safety analysis to identify the ergonomic hazards and implement job design changes that reduce the risk to workers.

Provide adequate and timely medical referral for a doctor's care to injured workers, assuring that the delays in care found by OSHA in its investigations of the New Jersey Robbinsville facility no longer exist and that all medical staff are operating under their legal scope of practice.

Hire enough workers to provide all workers with appropriate time off with their families.

During his time in the Senate, Senator Booker has led efforts in calling out workplace safety concerns. Specifically, in 2020 related to the coronavirus pandemic, he sent a letter to Amazon, the U.S. Postal Service, and Walmart.

The full text of the letter can be viewed here.

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Booker, Brown Press Amazon on Workplace Safety Ahead of the Holiday Sales Season | U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey

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WASHINGTON, D.C . - Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) pressed Amazon on workplace safety ahead of the holiday sales season. The letter comes after continued disturbing reports of dangerous workplace conditions at Amazon facilities throughout the country, particularly the tragic deaths of three workers within three weeks in New Jersey Amazon facilities earlier this summer.

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ARTICLE: https://www.businessinsider.com/why-you-should-and-shouldnt-feel-good-supporting-amazon-2019-7#amazon-has-helped-its-customers-donate-nearly-135-million-to-charities-through-amazonsmile-6
KEY VOCAB:
Veteran - someone who has served in the Armed Forces
Harmful - dangerous
Warehouse - a place where objects are stored
Blanket - like a little cover people put over themselves to keep warm.
The cloud - a virtual space where you can store data (over the internet)
drastically - very, very much
groceries - what you buy at the supermarket. e.g. food and other products you need to survive.
stumped (adjective) - confused
carbon footprint - the quantity of emissions, the impact of your (or a company´s) actions on the environment

SUMMARY:

Amazon, like other big mutlinationals, is not all bad. Amongst other things, it treats LGBTQ workers, it supports families with a generous package when they have children, and it has employed big numbers of veterans (people who have gone to war), who sometimes struggle to readjust society. The question is more complex than simply: AMAZON IS BAD.

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Spencer Platt / Getty Images

It's hard not to feel excited about the bargains to be had on Amazon Prime Day and pretty much any day on Amazon.

But Amazon has also attracted vocal protests over its business practices.

Is it a company you can feel good about supporting?

Here's a list of some of Amazon's best contributions and some of the not-so-wonderful aspects about the online giant, so you can decide for yourself.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amazon Prime Day is here and consumers worldwide are rubbing their hands together with delight at the potential bargains.

But some of us also have a niggling feeling about it, and about our use of Amazon in general. Is Amazon ultimately a worthy company, deserving of our support? Or is it an evil corporation, serving its own interests at the expense of the greater good?

The answer is, perhaps, not so simple.

We've assembled a list of 14 things Amazon is doing that may make you feel good about supporting the company and 8 things that could make you feel less good about giving Amazon your money.

In the end, you'll have to decide for yourself.

Amazon ranks tops for its reputation among consumers

Among the annual Harris poll which asks consumers to rank the reputations of corporations, Amazon always does well. In the 2019 survey of 18,228 Americans, Amazon landed the No 2 spot.

Amazon ranked No. 1 among market research company Morning Consult's Most Loved Brands.

Consumers love Amazon. The company helps them find the goods they want (even obscure items) at the prices they want. And Amazon's "customer obsession" means it tends to be good about things like returns and exchanges.

Back in 2016, Amazon vowed to hire 25,000 military veterans and spouses by 2021

Amazon wants to hire 25,000 military vets and their spouses over a five-year period.

In the company's 2018 annual report CEO Jeff Bezos said the company "was well on its way" to filling that promise, though he failed to give an actual number.

One report said that Amazon had 17,500 veterans and military spouses on its payrolls, including part-time workers.

Many of these positions are among Amazon's lowest-wage, hardest working warehouse employees. However, Amazon has also promised to give 10,000 of them access to its cloud computing certification program.

A cloud certification doesn't mean they'll work for Amazon's high-paying cloud unit, but it could be a path to a better paying job elsewhere.

Amazon scored 100 on The Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index

The index measures how well companies treat their LGBTQ employees and 100 is the highest score. It looked at areas like policies and benefits.

Amazon offers generous family paid leave for new parents

Amazon was ahead of the curve by offering a 20-week paid leave program back in 2015. This includes up to 4 weeks of pre-birth leave.

While other companies offer more time off, Amazon earned industry-wide kudos by letting parents donate up to six weeks of their paid leave to their partners.

It also offers six weeks paternity leave and a ramp-up period where new moms can job-share for a time when they return to work.

Amazon is donating to homeless charities

Amazon's success has contributed to skyrocketing housing prices in its hometown of Seattle.

Amazon has been supporting homeless charities Mary's Place and FareStart, including building a new homeless shelter and restaurant space, contributions it says are worth $130 million.

Earlier this year, Amazon promised to donate up to $13 million to organizations combatting homelessness in Seattle as well as its second HQ area, Arlington, Va., the company said.

It will donate $5 million to the Seattle area, $3 million to Arlington and then match up to $5 million employee donations to a select number of non-profits.

CEO Jeff Bezos has also personally donated nearly $1 billion to homeless organizations through his $2 billion Day One Fund, a philanthropy fund that focuses on homelessness and education.

Amazon has helped its customers donate nearly $135 million to charities through AmazonSmile

AmazonSmile is a site operated by Amazon which offers the same prices as the main site but where 5% of the money is donated to charity.

Amazon bills it as a "way for customers to support their favorite charity every time they shop with Amazon, at no extra cost."

As of May, Amazon says Smile had raised nearly $135 million for 1 million charity organizations.

The key to using it is to remember to go to smile.amazon.com, instead of amazon.com, and to set up your preferred charity via your Amazon account.

Amazon has a policy that restricts sales of harmful chemicals in its consumer products

Shutterstock

Amazon has published a comprehensive list of responsible sourcing polices that it demands its suppliers uphold.

The policies forbid its suppliers to use child labor, slave labor, conflict minerals or to force its workers to be in unsafe conditions.

Amazon also published a list of harmful chemicals it is forbidding its private label suppliers to use, including things like parabens. This applies to Amazon brands of baby care and personal care products like shampoos and lotions.

Amazon has joined industry organizations to push for green beauty and personal care products. However Amazon didn't say how it planned to enforce these policies, nor did it promise to publish updates on its progress.

Amazon is helping small businesses reach millions of customers.

Amazon allows just about any small business to sell its wares in its enormous ecommerce store, potentially instantly gaining access to millions of customers.

Amazon says that it sold $160 billion of products from third parties in 2018.

These businesses can also pay to use Amazon's warehouses, tapping into a mega distribution system they couldn't afford to build on their own.

Amazon says that small and mid-sized businesses selling on Amazon have created an estimated 1.6 million jobs worldwide in 2018, up from 900,000 in 2017. There were 50,000 sellers who earned more than $500,000 in 2018 and 25,000 who earned more than $1 million.

And Amazon says there were more than 1,000 self-publishing authors who earned more than $100,000.

Amazon has a team of people and two planes that donate disaster relief items worldwide

So far in 2019, Amazon's disaster relief team responded to the tsunami in Indonesia, the snowstorm in Seattle, the tornadoes in Alabama/Georgia, and the cyclone in Mozambique.

The team helped with Hurricane Maria that devastated Puerto Rico, the Texas floods and other events by setting up pop-up tents and distributing needed items to people.

Amazon employees volunteer to pack the boxes. Items are donated by Amazon as well as by Amazon customers and include food, water, hygiene supplies, towels, blankets and other supplies.

Amazon is building dozens of wind and solar farms

Amazon has promised to use 100% renewable energy across its global infrastructure. And it has been building wind and solar farms to attempt to meet this promise.

In 2017, the company opened a massive wind farm in Texas, and it is developing three new wind farms in Ireland, Sweden, and the United States.

Amazon says it is supporting 53 wind and solar projects worldwide and installing solar systems on 50 of its warehouses by 2020.

In 2018, Amazon's cloud computing business, AWS, got half of its energy needs from renewable energy usage.

Amazon has spearheaded a better way for startups and companies to buy technologies: cloud computing

Flickr/Will Merydith

Amazon has a business unit called Amazon Web Services of which Amazon, the retailer, is one of its largest customers. AWS helped spearhead the cloud computing revolution.

Thanks to cloud computing, everyone has access to supercomputing capabilities with just the swipe of a credit card, paying only for what they use.

Cloud computing has made it far easier and less expensive for startups to launch innovative products and for researchers to conduct important research such as discovering new drugs and supporting scientific climate change research.

Amazon has built an industry-changing voice-control system

Amazon Alexa isn't the first voice assistant but it works so much better than previous iterations that it has drastically changed the way we interact with computers.

The sci-fi future of controlling our most powerful supercomputers with our voices is now closer than ever, thanks to the success of Alexa and the Amazon-made Echo smart speaker.

What's more, tens of thousands of products, from ceiling fans to washing machines, now work with Alexa and let you control them with your voice.

Amazon is reinventing the retail store

Although Amazon is mostly an ecommerce site, it has begun to open up physical retail stores that are pushing the boundaries on technology, too.

Amazon Go is a grocery store that lets you load your cart and leave, automatically billing you. This is creating new technologies that combines the live stream of cameras throughout the store with transactions, like billing a credit card.

This, in turn, is pushing grocery competitors, like Kroger, to partner up with tech companies like Microsoft and upgrade their in-store technologies as well.

All this technology holds plenty of promise for consumers, though the increasing automation also could lead to fewer retail jobs.

Amazon has promised to train 100,000 workers for better tech jobs

Amazon employs roughly 650,000 people, and about 300,000 of them work on its retail side, many in low-paying, physically demanding warehouse jobs.

Amazon also employs about 200,000 robots in its warehouses and is supporting research that will create robots with better dexterity to grasp and carry objects (something that's stumped researchers so far).

When that happens, Amazon almost certainly won't employ tens of thousands of people to pick items off shelves anymore.

Instead of just shrugging off its workers' futures entirely, in July, Amazon promised to "upskill" 100,000 of its employees for the technical roles it will have available. It has dedicated $700 million to beef up a number of training programs. Not all of them are for warehouse workers, but some are.

This includes tuition assistance for job training for high-demand tech jobs outside of Amazon, like aircraft mechanics, medical technicians and nursing.

Amazon says its helped 25,000 employees get new jobs so far this way.

And now for the bad news ...

While the company makes a lot of grandiose promises for social good, it isn't very transparent on its progress

It's difficult to say how well the company keeps its promises on things like diversity, military hiring, supply chain policies and green initiatives.

The company doesn't publish a comprehensive, annual Corporate Responsibility Report, something its investors have been pushing it to do.

Amazon was a zero when it came to Corporate Responsibility magazine's ranking of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens

Amazon's competitor and Seattle neighbor Microsoft is No. 6 on the list of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens. HP is No. 5, Apple is No. 95.

But Amazon? It didn't make the list.

Greenpeace has accused Amazon Web Services of not holding its commitment to green energy.

Amazon said that in 2018, AWS relied on green energy for half its needs.

But Greenpeace points out that Amazon's promise, made years ago, was to be 100% green across Amazon. As the company grows, it seems to be increasing its usage of non-renewable energy sources, Greenpeace claims.

Some Amazon employees have begun to publicly call for the company to offer a better plan. A group called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice have been demanding the company become a zero-emission company and to do so in a timeframe demanded by science.

They also want AWS to stop courting big oil and for Amazon to be more transparent about its progress.

Amazon says it is working on it. "We are on a path to becoming the most sustainable retailer and cloud provider in the world, and will release our carbon footprint later this year," a spokesperson says.

Amazon has been accused of sparking the retail apocalypse

The rise of Amazon has come with the decline of brick-and-mortar retail stores, and the two phenomenons are very much related.

A think tank called Local Self-Reliance has been warning for years that Amazon is gaining a stranglehold on retail that it believes will hurt competition and erode jobs.

As retailers go out of business, small businesses feel they must use Amazon to sell their wares and Amazon charges them fees for selling, and for advertising.

Amazon has also been accused of competing with its sellers, taking some of the most popular products and making its own private label brands, pricing them cheaper and advertising next to competitors.

Amazon executives point out that this is what all private label retail brands do.

Amazon's facial recognition technology, sold to governments, has come under fire

Amazon Web Service's facial recognition technology, Rekognition, has come under fire by the ACLU, researchers, even its own employees.

Amazon sells it to law enforcement agencies. Protesters want it to stop those sales over concerns that its error rates with minorities are too high and could misidentify people of color (a charge Amazon denies).

Amazon is among the tech companies involved in crafting government regulations that would regulate facial recognition technology (along with Microsoft and Google).

Amazon doesn't pay much in federal taxes

Amazon is able to take advantage of so many tax breaks, and its effective federal tax rate was zilch last year even though it generated $11 billion in revenue.

Amazon even received a $129 million tax rebate from the federal government, mostly thanks to the Republican tax overhaul of 2017, CNBC reported.

The company gets to deduct carryforward losses from those years when the company was in the red; it gets tax credits for massive investments in R&D and its gets breaks for stock-based employee compensation.

But some of its tax breaks are eye-popping.

For instance, the state of Virginia has designated some land for Amazon's data-center hub as an "opportunity zone," which qualifies for federal tax breaks.

That break was intended to help real estate redevelopment in depressed economic areas. But this spot is in one of the most well-to-do counties in the state.

Amazon has become the target of immigration policy protesters

Amazon has attracted a growing number of protesters who believe the company is helping the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) execute its policies at the southern border.

The line to Amazon is not direct: protesters believe that ICE's IT systems are from a tech company called Palantir and that Palantir is an AWS customer.

However, Amazon did meet with ICE officials to pitch sales of its facial recognition tech and other AWS services, as revealed by emails between Amazon and various government officials obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.

Amazon employees are ramping up their protests internally, too, with a group of them sending a second letter demanding the company take a stand against family separation and vow not to support it.

An Amazon spokesperson sent a statement saying that those who buy and use AI tech should do so "responsibly and lawfully" and that the company has "provided a proposed legislative framework" to govern AI use.

The upshot is ... mixed

So if you feel conflicted about supporting Amazon during Prime Day and the rest of the year, you aren't alone.

CSRHub, an organization that rates the corporate responsibility of over 17,000 companies, gives Amazon a score of 48 out of 100. That's a pretty mediocre score, just one-point shy of an acceptable rating (over 50) and well short of good one (60-79) or a great one (80-100).
Are you an Amazon or AWS insider with insight to share? We want to hear it. jbort@businessinsider.com, DM on Twitter or Signal.

Features Amazon Amazon Prime Day

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14 reasons to feel good about buying from Amazon and 8 reasons not to

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's hard not to feel excited about the bargains to be had on Amazon Prime Day and pretty much any day on Amazon. But Amazon has also attracted vocal protests over its business practices. Is it a company you can feel good about supporting?

# data[].attributes.body
https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/posts/is-amazon-ethical

VOCABULARY
Unionization: the process of forming a labor union at a company
Stakeholders: individuals or groups with an interest or incentive in a venture’s success or failure.
Greenhouse gases: a gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation. Carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons are examples of greenhouse gases.
Food stamp: a voucher issued cheaply by the state to those on low income and exchangeable for food.

SUMMARY
a group of activist investors affiliated with ICCR presented 15 proposals to Amazon, including requests for a report on the company’s environmental and social impact of food waste; an independent study of civil rights implications of their facial recognition technology; a report on their efforts to address hate speech; and a review of sexual harassment policies.

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Amazon, an online conglomerate with an expected valuation of $1 trillion and the largest marketplace on earth, has redefined how people shop. Its activity impacts employment, investment, and even inflation. Given the organization's global reach, its stakeholders have widely differing interests.

Amazon considers customers its most important stakeholder group, attracting them through price and convenience. The cost for next-day (or next-hour) shipping is increasing emission of greenhouse gases and pollutants such as carbon dioxide, though Amazon intends to make half of its shipments carbon neutral by 2030. Employees are another stakeholder group, since its organizational culture provides a key competitive advantage. However, Amazon has been regularly sued for workplace abuse, discrimination, and maltreatment after workers have been left homeless and without income following workplace accidents; many subsist on food stamps. The company also opposes unionization. Communities near Amazon facilities are the third key stakeholder group. Researchers have said that the benefits of tech campuses-like Amazon's forthcoming HQ2 in Northern Virginia-often filter to the wealthy while displacing working-class black and Latino communities. Amy Liu noted that in Seattle, Amazon's presence has "also led to a rise in homelessness, housing unaffordability, and such stark inequality that created a lot of political and community distrust." In New York, Amazon has already pulled out from building its planned Queens HQ2 after local residents protested, worried about the rising cost of living and what they considered excessive government incentives.

Groups like the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) use shareholder advocacy to press companies on such environmental, social, and governance issues. For instance, a group of activist investors affiliated with ICCR presented 15 to Amazon, including requests for a report on the company's environmental and social impact of food waste; an independent study of civil rights implications of their facial recognition technology; a report on their efforts to address hate speech; and a review of sexual harassment policies. The Amazon Board of Directors recommended votes against all of the proposals.

This week the Berkley Forum asks: For public companies, do obligations to maximize profits for shareholders trump their social responsibilities to look out for the welfare of others? Is the purpose of a twenty-first century corporation to maximize shareholder value or to contribute to general social well-being? What role can faith-based actors play in shaping the ethics and values that govern economic activity? How can shareholders, consumers, and governments work with companies to promote the common good?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Amazon, an online conglomerate with an expected valuation of $1 trillion and the largest marketplace on earth, has redefined how people shop. Its activity impacts employment, investment, and even inflation. Given the organization's global reach, its stakeholders have widely differing interests. Amazon considers customers its most important stakeholder group, attracting them through price and convenience.

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ARTICLE
https://ethicalunicorn.com/2019/01/12/how-ethical-is-amazon/

KEY VOCAB:
Taxes
Avoid
Redistribute
Federal income tax
Warehouse
Delivery:
Monitored:
Exploitation
Temporary workers:
Culled

SUMMARY:

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The Ethical Issues With Amazon – ETHICAL UNICORN

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At this point I think we’ve all heard something shady about Amazon. A hint of unethical practice, a stray article about something in their warehouses. But when a mega-corporation starts to become pervasive and ever present in our daily lives it’s hard to imagine an alternative. Amazon has reached such a height that for many it may seem like a necessary evil in modern society, and it can almost seem fruitless to learn why they are problematic. If it’s unavoidable, better to not know just how bad it is.

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https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/posts/is-amazon-ethical

Differing: to be not like something or someone else, either physically or in another way.
Synonym: Diverge

Sued: Institute legal proceedings against (a person or institution), typically for redress.
Synonym: charge

Unionization: the process of subjecting an industry, profession, or region to the regulations of one or more labour unions.
Synonym: Organize

Unaffordability: Too expensive to afford.
Synonym: Expensive

Stark: severe or bare in appearance or outline.

Synonym: Sharp.

Distrust: to have no trust or confidence in.

Synonym: Mistrust/suspicion

Advocacy: public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy.

Synonym: Approval

Trump: beat (someone or something) by saying or doing something better.

Synonym: Surpass.

Welfare: the health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group.

Synonym: Well-being.

SUMMARY:
In general, Amazon has received many complaints from workers about discrimination, over-exploitation, etc. It is also one of the most polluting companies. Although it is not known if the allegations are true, it is true that Amazon is one of the many multinationals that prefer to maximise profits rather than contribute to society in a positive way.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Amazon, an online conglomerate with an expected valuation of $1 trillion and the largest marketplace on earth, has redefined how people shop. Its activity impacts employment, investment, and even inflation. Given the organization's global reach, its stakeholders have widely differing interests.

Amazon considers customers its most important stakeholder group, attracting them through price and convenience. The cost for next-day (or next-hour) shipping is increasing emission of greenhouse gases and pollutants such as carbon dioxide, though Amazon intends to make half of its shipments carbon neutral by 2030. Employees are another stakeholder group, since its organizational culture provides a key competitive advantage. However, Amazon has been regularly sued for workplace abuse, discrimination, and maltreatment after workers have been left homeless and without income following workplace accidents; many subsist on food stamps. The company also opposes unionization. Communities near Amazon facilities are the third key stakeholder group. Researchers have said that the benefits of tech campuses-like Amazon's forthcoming HQ2 in Northern Virginia-often filter to the wealthy while displacing working-class black and Latino communities. Amy Liu noted that in Seattle, Amazon's presence has "also led to a rise in homelessness, housing unaffordability, and such stark inequality that created a lot of political and community distrust." In New York, Amazon has already pulled out from building its planned Queens HQ2 after local residents protested, worried about the rising cost of living and what they considered excessive government incentives.

Groups like the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) use shareholder advocacy to press companies on such environmental, social, and governance issues. For instance, a group of activist investors affiliated with ICCR presented 15 to Amazon, including requests for a report on the company's environmental and social impact of food waste; an independent study of civil rights implications of their facial recognition technology; a report on their efforts to address hate speech; and a review of sexual harassment policies. The Amazon Board of Directors recommended votes against all of the proposals.

This week the Berkley Forum asks: For public companies, do obligations to maximize profits for shareholders trump their social responsibilities to look out for the welfare of others? Is the purpose of a twenty-first century corporation to maximize shareholder value or to contribute to general social well-being? What role can faith-based actors play in shaping the ethics and values that govern economic activity? How can shareholders, consumers, and governments work with companies to promote the common good?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Amazon, an online conglomerate with an expected valuation of $1 trillion and the largest marketplace on earth, has redefined how people shop. Its activity impacts employment, investment, and even inflation. Given the organization's global reach, its stakeholders have widely differing interests. Amazon considers customers its most important stakeholder group, attracting them through price and convenience.

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1.     https://www.themarysue.com/amazon-new-worker-chat-banned-word-list/

2.     Concerning -to trouble or make unhappy – worry

Compensation – money given to make up for a loss, damage – repayment

Abhorrent – causing hatred, completely opposed to – Disgusting

Breakneck – fast enough to be dangerous – quick

Shameful – very wrong, disgraceful, terrible – immoral

Grievance – a wrong or unjust act considered as grounds for complaint – complaint

Attrition – a wearing down or weakening of resistance as a result of continuous pressure; a gradual reduction in work force resulting usually from retirements – wearing down

Policing – an organized, nonmilitary force for maintaining order, preventing, and detecting crime, and enforcing the laws. – police force

3.     The article is talk about that according to a report from The Intercept. Amazon have designed an internal messaging app, and the function of the app is like an automatic word monitor, that could recognize the world that you are saying. And there is some ban word, like ¨union¨, ¨living wage¨, ¨slave¨, etc.

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According to a report from The Intercept, Amazon is working on launching an internal messaging app, which will come with an automatic word monitor that will block a number of words and phrases from use. The terms included on the list, according to internal documents obtained by the outlet, is more than a little concerning.

The program is in very early planning stages but it's already off to a terrible start after being outed for planning to ban words including "union," "compensation," "living wage," "slave," "slave labor," and "plantation." This comes on the heels of the successful unionization of Amazon's Staten Island warehouse-the first in the company's history. Amazon has spent recent years doing everything it can to bust unionization attempts, even as its more abhorrent practices have made headlines, from the injuries sustained due to the breakneck pace required of warehouse workers to reports that those workers, as well as delivery drivers, are often unable to fit bathroom breaks into their schedules. (Maybe that's why "restrooms" is also on the list of banned words.)

Amazon banning terms related to unionization would be shameful but I suppose understandable (as corporations are expected to preserve their bottom line at the expense of the humans working under capitalism) on its own. But this list takes things about a dozen steps too far and also prohibits the use of words like "ethics," "fairness," and "injustice."

If a company is preventing workers from saying the word "ethics," it's because they're expecting employees to use it in a way that criticizes the ethics of the company, and that's not great!

I can promise you that amazon banning these words/phrases from their company chat app just radicalized a bunch of workers who were on the fence about needing a union lmao pic.twitter.com/c2KrnvFCXC
- abby (@abby4thepeople) April 5, 2022

On top of all of this, even aside from the labor-related language policing, this list and the reasoning behind it are rooted in such a gross level of toxic positivity that it's almost unbelievable. Other terms on the banned list include "this is dumb," "I hate," "grievance," and "this is concerning."

"The major goal of the program, Amazon's head of worldwide consumer business, Dave Clark, said, was to reduce employee attrition by fostering happiness among workers - and also productivity," writes The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein. Yes, happier employees are more productive, but it's wild that the company thinks they can foster happiness by banning negative talk. That's not how that works!

Company officials told Klippenstein that they decided to monitor and control posts to ensure a "positive community" and avoid what they called "the dark side of social media."

I don't know, Amazon, I'd say banning your workers from talking about bathrooms and ethics is pretty dark!

(image: Mark Makela/Getty Images)
-The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.- Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

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Amazon's New Worker Chat Would Reportedly Auto-Ban Words Like 'Union,' 'Restrooms,' 'Ethics'

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According to a report from The Intercept , Amazon is working on launching an internal messaging app, which will come with an automatic word monitor that will block a number of words and phrases from use. The terms included on the list, according to internal documents obtained by the outlet, is more than a little concerning.

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Article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-ethical-amazons-flywheel-gemma-spence?trk=pulse-article

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Amazon's mission statement is to "serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience." Amazon's vision statement is "to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices."
Read Also: Amazon Business Model
Amazon's origin story

https://fourweekmba.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/History-of-Amazon-with-Brad-Stone.mp3

Back in 1993-4, Jeff Bezos worked for a firm on Wall Street, called D.E. Shaw, and he looked into the Internet.

As the story goes, he was impressed by the staggering growth rate of the Internet and decided it made sense to build something on top of it.

While he had a well-paid job, and a more linear career ahead, on the other side, he recognized this was the opportunity of a lifetime.

Thus, to come to a final decision he used a regret minimization framework, and he resigned from his job, thus, starting Amazon.

Initially, it wasn't easy to get Amazon off the ground, and neither to find potential investors.

Indeed, the first investors were Bezos' parents. Yet, as Amazon kicked off its operations, it did that, by choosing a niche: books.

In fact, Bezos believed that Amazon could prove the viability of e-commerce, by selling an item, which is easy to package and ship, and that comes mostly in a few standard sizes.

Sales soon took off. And as Amazon expanded throughout the late 1990s, the company and Jeff Bezos placed wild bets on other internet players.

And in the meantime, Amazon had also started to expand to other categories, from DVD to music, and toys.

However, by 2001, the dot-com bubble burst, making Amazon lose 90% of its market cap, with many analysts predicting its demise.

It took years for Amazon to recoup its market cap from the dot-com bubble. Yet a key thing happened throughout these years, a paradigm shift.

Amazon understood that to scale its operations, it needed to stop thinking of an e-commerce player, and start implementing a platform strategy.

That is why the company started to build the internal infrastructure to enable third-party stores to build on top of Amazon.

This strategy would take more than ten years to fully roll out, and by the mid-2010s, Amazon's third-party platform had become the dominant player, worldwide, hosting millions of small stores across the world.

In the meantime, as Amazon had tried to clean up the "jumbled mess" of its tech infrastructure, it built its own servers, in what would become, later on, Amazon AWS.

In addition, after several failed products (one of the greatest failures was the Kindle Fire), the company successfully stumbled upon Amazon Prime and Amazon Advertising.

All these pieces, came together, to build the Amazon we know today. If we were to break down Amazon's history, we might break it down in these four waves:

Amazon pre-dot-com bubble (1994-2000): here we have an aggressive company, with an ambitious vision, starting from books and expanding very quickly. While the vision was ambitious, the way to achieve it was blurred. And Amazon placed many bets on the Internet, also in areas it could not directly control.

Amazon post-dot-com bubble (2001-2009): the Amazon of the post-dot-com bubble is a redefined company, with a clear vision and much more focused, on building its own infrastructure, to make the transition from e-commerce to a platform business model.

The new Amazon (2009-2015): the new Amazon is a company that focuses on expanding internationally, by capitalizing on the infrastructure and growth playbook built in the previous decade. The Amazon of these years expand in various countries, by testing, in each, a different growth model.

The tech giant (2015-forward): here we see an Amazon which had consolidated its business model and its growth playbook and it had become a dominant player and a monopolist in its space. This is the Amazon we know today.

Breaking down the Amazon mission statement

As pointed out by Amazon:

When Amazon.com launched in 1995, it was with the mission "to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.

In its annual report for 2019, Amazon highlights its mission to "serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience."

I've highlighted in Amazon Flywheel or Virtuous Cycle how this focus has been in place since the start, and it has been one of the critical elements of Amazon speed!

In the same report, Amazon also highlights:

We design our stores to enable hundreds of millions of unique products to be sold by us and by third parties across dozens of product categories. Customers access our offerings through our websites, mobile apps, Alexa, and physically visiting our stores. We also manufacture and sell electronic devices, including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TVs, and Echo devices, and we develop and produce media content. We strive to offer our customers the lowest prices possible through low everyday product pricing and shipping offers, and to improve our operating efficiencies so that we can continue to lower prices for our customers. We also provide easy-to-use functionality, fast and reliable fulfillment, and timely customer service. In addition, we offer Amazon Prime, a membership program that includes unlimited free shipping on over 100 million items, access to unlimited streaming of thousands of movies and TV episodes, and other benefits.
Read Also: Amazon Business Model
Breaking down the Amazon vision statement

Amazon's vision statement is an extension of its mission:

To be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.

However, its vision gets traction from a core belief summarized as always being in "day one."

Jeff Bezos explained day one in these terms:

Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.

Now, it might be easy to say that Jeff Bezos made it, so he can say whatever he likes.

However, he has been obsessed with this concept since the beginning.

In the 1997 Shareholders Letter, Jeff Bezos explained:

But this is Day 1 for the Internet and, if we execute well, for Amazon.com. Today, online commerce saves customers money and precious time. Tomorrow, through personalization, online commerce will accelerate the very process of discovery. Amazon.com uses the Internet to create real value for its customers and, by doing so, hopes to create an enduring franchise, even in established and large markets.

At the time Amazon focused on:

Long-term.

Obsess over customers.

Infrastructure.

Employees.

It all starts from there. In 2016 Jeff Bezos highlighted a few core values that made up Amazon's culture:

It is worth exploring how Amazon deals with being a customer-obsessed company.

Indeed, most businessmen know that exceeding each time customers' expectations isn't' a simple game.

And as expectations are met and exceeded customers become more and more accustomed to the quality of the service, until they grow unsatisfied.

Thus, how does Amazon keep up with that?
Read Also: Amazon Business Model
Breaking down customer-centrism according to Amazon

Customer obsession was also highlighted in the 2017 Shareholders Letter as a critical parameter:

The American Customer Satisfaction Index recently announced the results of its annual survey, and for the 8th year in a row customers ranked Amazon #1

Amazon is aware of the fact that customer obsession isn't an easy game. And in the 2017 Shareholders Letter, Jeff Bezos highlighted:

One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent. Their expectations are never static - they go up. It's human nature. We didn't ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by being satisfied. People have a voracious appetite for a better way, and yesterday's 'wow' quickly becomes today's 'ordinary'.

This puts Amazon in a cycle where not being able to exceed customers' expectations can make its flywheel slow down.

Jeff Bezos specified:

I see that cycle of improvement happening at a faster rate than ever before. It may be because customers have such easy access to more information than ever before - in only a few seconds and with a couple taps on their phones, customers can read reviews, compare prices from multiple retailers, see whether something's in stock, find out how fast it will ship or be available for pick-up, and more.

Thus, how do you stay ahead of this game? Jeff Bezos offers us the answer:

There's no single way to do it - it's a combination of many things. But high standards (widely deployed and at all levels of detail) are certainly a big part of it. We've had some successes over the years in our quest to meet the high expectations of customers. We've also had billions of dollars' worth of failures along the way.

For Jeff Bezos, high standards have four core characteristics:

The four elements of high standards as we see it: they are teachable, they are domain specific, you must recognize them, and you must explicitly coach realistic scope. For us, these work at all levels of detail. Everything from writing memos to whole new, clean-sheet business initiatives. We hope they help you too.

And most of all, they have to be unreasonably high!

Breaking down Amazon's leadership principles

Amazon's fundamental principles that drove and drive the company are:

Customer Obsession

Ownership

Invent and Simplify

Are Right, A Lot

Learn and Be Curious

Hire and Develop the Best

Insist on the Highest Standards

Think Big

Bias for Action

Frugality

Earn Trust

Dive Deep

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

Deliver Results

Breaking down Amazon's business model

Let's see all the components of the Amazon Business Model and how those fit together, in part, to create a whole.

Amazon Platform: Both Consumer-Facing (With Amazon E-commerce) And Enterprise/SMB (With AWS)

A Peek Into The Amazon's Empire

Understanding Amazon From A Systemic Standpoint

Amazon's Way Of Thinking: Working Backward
Read more: Read next: Other resources: Amazon Business Model

Amazon has a diversified business model. In 2021 Amazon posted over $469 billion in revenues and over $33 billion in net profits. Online stores contributed to over 47% of Amazon revenues, Third-party Seller Services, Amazon AWS, Subscription Services, Advertising revenues, and Physical Stores.

Amazon Mission Statement Customer Obsession

In the Amazon Shareholders' Letter for 2018, Jeff Bezos analyzed the Amazon business model, and it also focused on a few key lessons that Amazon as a company has learned over the years. These lessons are fundamental for any entrepreneur, of small or large organization to understand the pitfalls to avoid to run a successful company!

Amazon Revenues Amazon Cash Conversion

Working Backwards

The Amazon Working Backwards Method is a product development methodology that advocates building a product based on customer needs. The Amazon Working Backwards Method gained traction after notable Amazon employee Ian McAllister shared the company's product development approach on Quora. McAllister noted that the method seeks "to work backwards from the customer, rather than starting with an idea for a product and trying to bolt customers onto it."

Amazon Flywheel Jeff Bezos Day One

In the letter to shareholders in 2016, Jeff Bezos addressed a topic he had been thinking quite profoundly in the last decades as he led Amazon: Day 1. As Jeff Bezos put it "Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1."

Mission Statement Case Studies

Uber's mission statement is to ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion.

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. With over $110 billion in revenues in 2018, Office Products and Windows are still the main products. Yet the company also operates in Gaming (Xbox), Search Advertising (Bing), Hardware, LinkedIn, Cloud, and more.

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Amazon Mission Statement and Vision Statement In A Nutshell - FourWeekMBA

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Amazon mission statement is to "serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience." Amazon vision statement is "to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices."

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1.https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/company-profile/amazoncom-inc

2. arch -> playfully roguish or mischievous
garment -> an item of clothing
bereft -> deprived of or lacking (something).
notorious -> famous or well known, typically for some bad quality or deed.
tax haven -> a country or independent area where taxes are levied at a low rate.

miscarriage -> the spontaneous or unplanned expulsion of a fetus from the womb before it is able to survive independently.
exploitation -> the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work.
appalling -> very bad; awful.

SUMMARY:
The article analyses different aspects of amazon (environment, animals, people...) to determine if it is an ethical company or not.
In people, Labour Behind the Label’s 2019 UK report punctuated the enterprise with the worst grade E, as their workers work under awful conditions as explained by the GBM Union national officer "pregnant women telling us they are forced to stand for 10 hours a day, pick, stow, stretch and bend, pull heavy carts and walk miles" and, for example in China, workers are paid well below average for the area.

In the section "environment", it explains that Amazon gave very little information, if nothing, about the impact of its electronic products or textiles and toxic chemicals used.

Regarding animal exploitation, Amazon´s policies permitted the sale of materials like angora, merino wool, or silk which involve animal exploitation.

Finally, the article analyses the ethics of the company regarding politics, highlighting the tax avoidance of the company, and comparing the amount of taxes it should have paid and what it actually paid.

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Amazon is known for its shameless tax avoidance, workers' rights abuses, environmental impacts and much more. The company has been the subject of an Ethical Consumer global boycott call since 2012.

We've summarised the key ethical issues to consider when it comes to Amazon.

How ethical is Amazon?

Our research highlights many ethical issues for Amazon, including: climate change, environmental reporting, habitats & resources, pollutions and toxics, arms & military supply human rights, worker's rights, supply chain management, irresponsible marketing, animal rights, animal testing, factory farming, palm oil sourcing, cotton sourcing, timber sourcing, use of controversial technologies, political activities and anti-social finance.

Below we outline some of these issues. To see the full detailed stories, and Amazon's overall ethical rating, please sign in or subscribe.

Anti-social finance

Monumental tax avoidance

We launched a boycott of Amazon in 2012 over its tax avoidance. This was called because in 2011, as the world's biggest online retailer, Amazon generated UK sales of £2.9bn yet paid only £1.8m in corporation tax. The correct figure should have been over £8 million at the full rate of corporation tax at that time.

Things have become much worse since then.

In 2021, fuelled by the pandemic, Amazon reported a near 200-percent rise in profits, yet taxes paid by the company barely increased on the previous years.

Research by Ethical Consumer has calculated that, in 2021, up to half a billion pounds (£500,000,000) could have been lost to the UK public purse from the corporation tax avoidance of Amazon. It is likely that the same amount would have been lost in 2022.

To make matters even worse, it was reported in June 2023 that Amazon received a tax credit of £7.7m. This means that in 2022, Amazon's main UK division not only avoided paying taxes, it took from the pot that tax-payers filled.

Excessive director's pay

Amazon also lost a mark for excessive director's payment. According to its latest annual report, Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy received over $12 million in 2022.

An average warehouse worker in the UK earns just under £13 an hour.

People

Workers' rights

Amazon is renowned for its poor treatment of its workers.

On many occasions it has aggressively opposed unionisation and organising efforts at its warehouses. Trying to prevent collective bargaining within its workforce, the company has reportedly spent $14 million on anti-union consultants in 2022.

Amazon workers in Coventry, supported by labour union GMB, carried out strikes over pay in 2023 in both April and in July.

In October 2021, 1400 UK delivery drivers sued Amazon seeking employment rights, including minimum wage and holiday pay. In March 2023 Amazon tried to dismiss the lawsuit but a judge ruled that it could proceed.

Amazon suppliers don't receive better treatment either from the company. This year, for the first time Amazon was listed in the UK's Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) survey. The GCA is responsible for encouraging, monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Code and thus for regulating the relationships between the UK's largest grocery retailers and their direct suppliers. Perhaps unsurprisingly Amazon jumped straight to the last place of the list with almost four times as many accusations of code violations as the next company up.

Human rights

Amazon sources conflict minerals and cotton without adequately stringent policies for protecting human rights, which is concerning because these products are at risk of being sourced from places where human rights abuses occur, including Turkmenistan (in the cotton sector) and the Democratic Republic of Congo ( conflict minerals). Much more is needed than vague commitments to ensure the supply chain is free from violations.

Children's privacy violations

In June 2023 Amazon agreed to pay $25 million in fines to settle alleged privacy violations. These involved its voice assistant Alexa and doorbell camera Ring. US's Federal Trade Commission claims in one lawsuit that the tech company kept recordings of children's conversations with its voice assistant Alexa but failed to delete them - as it had promised it would - when parents asked it to do so.

Amazon agreed to pay another $5.8 million, because Ring had allowed employees and contractors to watch recordings of customers' private spaces, sometimes including bedrooms and bathrooms.

Environment

Timber

Although some of its furniture is Forest Stewardship Council certified, when we looked into this in April 2023 this wasn't true for all products. Amazon doesn't have an overarching timber policy which means that virgin forests may have been cut down for Amazon timber products.

Palm oil

The mass production of palm oil relies on the destruction of rainforests. This has wide ranging impacts including contributing to climate change, as well as loss of biodiversity and human rights.

Some of Amazon's products come from a physically certified supply chain but less than 50%, meaning that half of its palm is untraceable and could potentially be connected to abuses of rainforests and people.

Toxic chemicals

Amazon doesn't have any public policy covering the use of toxic chemicals in its electronics products. Substances, such as brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride are widely used by electronics companies and have significant negative environmental impact when released after disposal.

In terms of cotton, Amazon has a commitment to "source all cotton for our Amazon Private Brands apparel products from more-sustainable sources by the end of 2022." It says that it intends to use cotton sourced for example from recycled materials, from farms certified as producing organic cotton, or through Better Cotton. But, it's 2023 now, and it doesn't look like that commitment has been fulfilled yet...

Cosmetics wise, it does prohibit the use of harmful chemicals triclosan and phthalates, and while it doesn't have a blanket ban on parabens it does prohibit use of a couple of the most commonly used parabens in cosmetics.

Animals

Amazon lost several marks for having no policy on animal testing, for selling products made of factory farmed animals and for selling live animals, such as lobsters on its website. Fur coats made of racoons, rabbits and chinchillas are also for sale on its website.

It prohibits listings relating to endangered species, but only in line with the law, so it's really doing the bare minimum when it comes to the wellbeing of other species.

More information on all these topics is on our Boycott Amazon page.

The text above was written on 21 July 2023.

Subscribe to see the full detailed stories about Amazon.

Amazon Free August pledge

Join our pledge to avoid Amazon

We have created a pledge for Amazon Free August (which applies all year!).

Take the pledge and receive tips and support to keep you going during the month of avoiding Amazon. We give you alternatives and reasons why to avoid shopping with Amazon.

Sign the pledge.

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How ethical is Amazon.com Inc? | Ethical Consumer

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Amazon is known for its shameless tax avoidance, workers' rights abuses, environmental impacts and much more. The company has been the subject of an Ethical Consumer global boycott call since 2012. We've summarised the key ethical issues to consider when it comes to Amazon.

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https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/company-profile/amazoncom-inc

Quantified: express or measure the quantity of something.
Hazardous: risky, dangerous.
Expense: the cost required for something.
Deem: regard or consider in a specified way.

Company profiles FAQs

Amazon is an arch tax avoider and is the subject of a global boycott call by Ethical Consumer.

The report went on to say

""Amazon has no policy on living wage and make no mention of wages being enough to cover workers’ basic needs in their supplier code. "In June 2018 an article in the Seattle Times exposed the poor treatment of some of Amazon’s Chinese workers. " Ethical Consumer did not consider this a strong enough response due to the serious and systemic nature of the criticisms. In 2018, multiple Guardian reports outlined issues with Amazon’s warehouses.

One from July that year exposed cases of Amazon workers "being treated in ways that leave them homeless, unable to work or bereft of income after workplace accidents". This came alongside a claim that Amazon’s warehouses were on a list of most dangerous places to work in the United States in April 2018. "Another Guardian article from May 2018 stated that, "During the past three years at one Amazon site, ambulances were called 115 times" whilst a similar-sized supermarket warehouse nearby had only eight call-outs".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Amazon is known for its shameless tax avoidance, workers' rights abuses, environmental impacts and much more. The company has been the subject of an Ethical Consumer global boycott call since 2012.

We've summarised the key ethical issues to consider when it comes to Amazon.

How ethical is Amazon?

Our research highlights many ethical issues for Amazon, including: climate change, environmental reporting, habitats & resources, pollutions and toxics, arms & military supply human rights, worker's rights, supply chain management, irresponsible marketing, animal rights, animal testing, factory farming, palm oil sourcing, cotton sourcing, timber sourcing, use of controversial technologies, political activities and anti-social finance.

Below we outline some of these issues. To see the full detailed stories, and Amazon's overall ethical rating, please sign in or subscribe.

Anti-social finance

Monumental tax avoidance

We launched a boycott of Amazon in 2012 over its tax avoidance. This was called because in 2011, as the world's biggest online retailer, Amazon generated UK sales of £2.9bn yet paid only £1.8m in corporation tax. The correct figure should have been over £8 million at the full rate of corporation tax at that time.

Things have become much worse since then.

In 2021, fuelled by the pandemic, Amazon reported a near 200-percent rise in profits, yet taxes paid by the company barely increased on the previous years.

Research by Ethical Consumer has calculated that, in 2021, up to half a billion pounds (£500,000,000) could have been lost to the UK public purse from the corporation tax avoidance of Amazon. It is likely that the same amount would have been lost in 2022.

To make matters even worse, it was reported in June 2023 that Amazon received a tax credit of £7.7m. This means that in 2022, Amazon's main UK division not only avoided paying taxes, it took from the pot that tax-payers filled.

Excessive director's pay

Amazon also lost a mark for excessive director's payment. According to its latest annual report, Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy received over $12 million in 2022.

An average warehouse worker in the UK earns just under £13 an hour.

People

Workers' rights

Amazon is renowned for its poor treatment of its workers.

On many occasions it has aggressively opposed unionisation and organising efforts at its warehouses. Trying to prevent collective bargaining within its workforce, the company has reportedly spent $14 million on anti-union consultants in 2022.

Amazon workers in Coventry, supported by labour union GMB, carried out strikes over pay in 2023 in both April and in July.

In October 2021, 1400 UK delivery drivers sued Amazon seeking employment rights, including minimum wage and holiday pay. In March 2023 Amazon tried to dismiss the lawsuit but a judge ruled that it could proceed.

Amazon suppliers don't receive better treatment either from the company. This year, for the first time Amazon was listed in the UK's Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) survey. The GCA is responsible for encouraging, monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Code and thus for regulating the relationships between the UK's largest grocery retailers and their direct suppliers. Perhaps unsurprisingly Amazon jumped straight to the last place of the list with almost four times as many accusations of code violations as the next company up.

Human rights

Amazon sources conflict minerals and cotton without adequately stringent policies for protecting human rights, which is concerning because these products are at risk of being sourced from places where human rights abuses occur, including Turkmenistan (in the cotton sector) and the Democratic Republic of Congo ( conflict minerals). Much more is needed than vague commitments to ensure the supply chain is free from violations.

Children's privacy violations

In June 2023 Amazon agreed to pay $25 million in fines to settle alleged privacy violations. These involved its voice assistant Alexa and doorbell camera Ring. US's Federal Trade Commission claims in one lawsuit that the tech company kept recordings of children's conversations with its voice assistant Alexa but failed to delete them - as it had promised it would - when parents asked it to do so.

Amazon agreed to pay another $5.8 million, because Ring had allowed employees and contractors to watch recordings of customers' private spaces, sometimes including bedrooms and bathrooms.

Environment

Timber

Although some of its furniture is Forest Stewardship Council certified, when we looked into this in April 2023 this wasn't true for all products. Amazon doesn't have an overarching timber policy which means that virgin forests may have been cut down for Amazon timber products.

Palm oil

The mass production of palm oil relies on the destruction of rainforests. This has wide ranging impacts including contributing to climate change, as well as loss of biodiversity and human rights.

Some of Amazon's products come from a physically certified supply chain but less than 50%, meaning that half of its palm is untraceable and could potentially be connected to abuses of rainforests and people.

Toxic chemicals

Amazon doesn't have any public policy covering the use of toxic chemicals in its electronics products. Substances, such as brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride are widely used by electronics companies and have significant negative environmental impact when released after disposal.

In terms of cotton, Amazon has a commitment to "source all cotton for our Amazon Private Brands apparel products from more-sustainable sources by the end of 2022." It says that it intends to use cotton sourced for example from recycled materials, from farms certified as producing organic cotton, or through Better Cotton. But, it's 2023 now, and it doesn't look like that commitment has been fulfilled yet...

Cosmetics wise, it does prohibit the use of harmful chemicals triclosan and phthalates, and while it doesn't have a blanket ban on parabens it does prohibit use of a couple of the most commonly used parabens in cosmetics.

Animals

Amazon lost several marks for having no policy on animal testing, for selling products made of factory farmed animals and for selling live animals, such as lobsters on its website. Fur coats made of racoons, rabbits and chinchillas are also for sale on its website.

It prohibits listings relating to endangered species, but only in line with the law, so it's really doing the bare minimum when it comes to the wellbeing of other species.

More information on all these topics is on our Boycott Amazon page.

The text above was written on 21 July 2023.

Subscribe to see the full detailed stories about Amazon.

Amazon Free August pledge

Join our pledge to avoid Amazon

We have created a pledge for Amazon Free August (which applies all year!).

Take the pledge and receive tips and support to keep you going during the month of avoiding Amazon. We give you alternatives and reasons why to avoid shopping with Amazon.

Sign the pledge.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How ethical is Amazon.com Inc? | Ethical Consumer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Amazon is known for its shameless tax avoidance, workers' rights abuses, environmental impacts and much more. The company has been the subject of an Ethical Consumer global boycott call since 2012. We've summarised the key ethical issues to consider when it comes to Amazon.

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Find an article about the ethics of Amazon.
Include:
1. Link to the article
2. 10 pieces of vocabulary with short definition / synonym included
3. a 3 sentence summary