‘POOR CONDITIONS’ AT AMAZON

A senior Amazon.com executive has disputed claims raised by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that Amazon workers face “dehumanising conditions” as being untrue and invited her to take a tour of company facilities. Ocasio-Cortez, a newly elected progressive Democrat who was an outspoken critic of the plans to locate Amazon’s second headquarters in a New York City neighborhood near her congressional district, asked on Twitter if Amazon’s culture of “strict performance” is “why Amazon workers have to urinate in bottles and work while on food stamps to meet ‘targets?’. Performance shouldn’t come at the cost of dehumanising conditions.” She cited a September Newsweek story that raised those claims. Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, responded on Twitter that the claims “simply aren’t true. We are proud of our jobs with excellent pay ($15 min), benefits from day one, and lots of other benefits like our Career Choice pre-paid educational programs.”