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The move from Amazon.com Inc. to free delivery in one day is perhaps good news for Prime subscribers, but not necessarily for those who work in Amazon's warehouses.
The union of retailers, wholesalers and department stores, a long-time critic of Amazon's practices and advocate for unionization in Amazon warehouses, said in a statement Friday that it feared an increased workload for employees at retail centers. order processing.
"With a two-day Prime Expedition, Amazon's executing agents currently face a speed of 200 to 300 orders per hour, in 12-hour shifts. They are already struggling to keep up this pace, "said RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum. "If Amazon plans to effectively double speed, it must also meet the current workforce needs and ensure the safety of its employees. Increasing the speed of execution means that they have to hire more workers, in more sustainable times, that do not put workers' lives in danger. "
Amazon dismissed these concerns in a statement on Friday, calling them "misguided and selfish". Dave Clark, vice president of Amazon Worldwide Operations, said the company had leveraged 20 years of business experience to build environment in our facilities. "
"This allows Amazon to deliver orders faster and more efficiently – not by working harder, but by working smarter, building on decades of process improvement and innovation." ", did he declare.
Productivity in Amazon distribution centers was highlighted in a separate report last week. According to The Verge, Amazon workers are tracked by automated systems that assess each employee's productivity. The software also recommends warnings or redundancies if they do not handle enough packages. The Verge said that between 2017 and 2018, approximately 300 workers were fired for inefficiency in a Baltimore warehouse that employs approximately 2,500 people. Extrapolating this rate, about 10 percent of Amazon's 125,000 warehouse workers in the United States lose their jobs each year because they are not productive enough, according to the report.
Amazon has announced the move to free delivery in one day last week in its quarterly earnings report, in which it is said that operating profit doubled for a fourth consecutive quarter of record profit. The company said it planned to spend about $ 800 million this quarter to shorten the delivery time of Prime.
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