[ad_1]
An employee of Amazon Prime Now at a distribution center in New York in December 2016. (Bebeto Matthews / AP)
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Almost no worker applauded this week at the plenary meeting after lunch at this Amazon fulfillment center located outside of Nashville, when a plant manager announced that the company's minimum wage reached $ 15 an hour.
Instead of partying, many employees raise their hands to ask questions and express deep frustration, according to five employees of the establishment. They asked why, according to the workers, people who had been working in the company 's warehouse for years would now be paid the same way as new employees and temporary help.
"People seemed really disappointed because now [seasonal] workers earn $ 15 an hour, "said Chip Litchfield, delighted to see his salary go from $ 11.50 per hour to a program called Amazon CamperForce, which allows people living in caravans to work in certain centers. distribution during the holiday season. "We are just a group of seniors that they bring back a few months a year."
Amazon's decision to raise its minimum wage has been widely hailed as a victory for workers and a model for other big American companies, even being applauded by people as diverse as men. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Who had previously opposed the company's treatment of workers, and Larry Kudlow, President Trump's chief economic advisor.
But after 24 hours, questions began to arise about the generosity of this move. Amazon has also announced a reduction in bonuses and stock grants, and some seasoned employees say they are devalued and are afraid to end up with less money than they have now.
It is impossible to know how much Amazon's action is magnanimous – the company said it would incur expenses, but it did not specify its importance. However, the split reaction of some of the 250,000 full-time employees and 100,000 seasonal employees highlights one of the biggest strains of Amazon's massive growth. It is likely that no company has hired more people in recent years than Amazon, which has opened distribution centers at breakneck speed.
Yet while seeking to maintain a satisfied workforce and repel critics claiming that the company does not treat its employees well, Amazon must minimize costs and optimize the efficiency of its warehouses to continue to strengthen its formidable position on online commerce. products in as little as one hour.
"Increasing their minimum wage to $ 15 was the first easy step," said Paul Sonn, director of public policy at the National Employment Law Law Project. "Amazon is torn: they do not want to be considered a bad employer, but they are a real cost compressor."
Today, Amazon is the second largest US market. employer, and the bulk of his jobs are creations from the era of e-commerce. Rather than engage in the kind of extreme automation that many fear job destruction, the company relied on a new kind of work – the "collectors" and "packers", as they are called, in large warehouses that chase goods at the speed of the chain, guided by a pocket computer and packing them for delivery.
The jobs are midway between retail and traditional factory work. And the salary reflects that.
The median wage for all Amazon workers is $ 28,446 per year ($ 13.68 per hour), a figure that the company revealed this year for the first time due to a new regulatory requirement . This is a global figure that includes both full-time and part-time workers. Glassdoor, a job site, said the average salary for US order processing centers was $ 13 at the hour, according to nearly 900 people who submitted their data to the site.
Amazon's compensation is well above the $ 10.28 per hour of a retail worker, but is less than $ 15.53 in compensation for an employee at the warehouse, according to the data. of the Department of Labor.
The executive director of Amazon, Jeffrey P. Bezos, also owner of the Washington Post, has decided to raise the minimum wage of Amazon to $ 15, which is bold to "encourage our competitors and other major employers" to join him. Economists point out that Amazon is doing this at a time when almost all companies are complaining about not being able to recruit enough workers. the unemployment rate is the lowest since 1969.
A higher starting salary should help Amazon attract workers to its door, but it is not clear how veterans will cope and what will happen to retention.
"For me, it looks like a publicity stunt from Bezos. The headline looks good, until you realize we are losing important benefits, "said a full-time employee of the Amazon plant in Murfreesboro, who spoke of the condition of anonymity by fear of reprisals.
Amazon spokeswoman, Ashley Robinson, said in an email that all workers would see a "cash wage increase", employees currently earning $ 14.01 or more receiving a dollar boost. She could not guarantee that all workers would be better off, but said, "Our intention is certainly for employees to see an increase in their pay."
Long-time employees say they should get an increase of $ 3 while their salary is close to $ 18 at the hour, especially since Amazon eliminates bonuses, which often add 8% per month to their earnings.
Jobs in Amazon's warehouses can be physically and mentally draining. Nearly every one of the 18 past and present workers surveyed under this article stated that they were taking Advil after work or were bathing or rubbing their feet at night, and many said that they were referring to workers who had been there for a few months as "Amazombies" because they develop a zoned look from the monotonous work.
"Our roles are more comparable to those of retailers in the United States," Robinson said. "We believe that jobs in Amazon's distribution centers are great jobs because they provide an excellent place to build skills to start and develop a career."
The company has been facing more and more criticism about how it treats its staff – information that some employees need food stamps to get to articles about storage conditions. The company has generally reacted by saying that some critics were wrong and exaggerated, while committing to take steps to improve its situation.
"As a company, Amazon is constantly creating new jobs and one of the reasons we can attract people to join us is that our number one priority is to ensure a positive and safe work environment," said Robinson.
According to most workers who have talked about this article, the main problem is the fact that Amazon sets quotas for the number of items to select, sort or pack each day, and it can be difficult to answer to this requirement while having time to hurry. warehouse in the rest room or bathroom during a 15-minute break.
Amazon is defending its quota system, claiming that it is a standard practice and that there are support programs for people who do not achieve the expected levels.
Most workers said that Amazon was candid about employment and that its pay and benefits were good for people without a university degree. Some workers have the same attitude about raising the minimum wage.
"It's a winner-loser for some people, but for others, like me, who do not care about stocks or getting bonuses, earning $ 15 an hour makes a big difference," he said. a California worker whose salary was soon from $ 13.15 to $ 15, and who requested anonymity because he did not want to have trouble for talking to the media.
In its statement announcing the increase, Amazon said workers preferred predictable cash payments to grants and bonuses. All full-time Amazon employees were eligible for free shares.
Amazon has increasingly shaped the job market in the United States since opening its first distribution center in 1997. But while employment at Amazon and other e-commerce sites has skyrocketed in the US. In the 2000s and early 2010s, the average salary of warehouse workers was down. level, according to data from the Department of Labor analyzed by the accounting firm Grant Thornton.
The average earnings of warehouse workers rose from 20.85 USD per hour in 2000 to less than 16 USD in 2013 (both figures are adjusted for inflation and in current dollars). The trend has only recently begun to reverse, with average warehouse earnings reaching $ 17.50 this year.
"Warehousing and distribution were once more skilled jobs than today, so the pay has been reduced, even though the work requires considerable effort," said economist Diane Swonk. principal to Grant Thornton. "E-commerce companies do not care about their turnover rates. They consider that all workers are interchangeable, much like Henry Ford. "
Some of the questions about Amazon's work practices are rooted in the company's efforts to be very effective with its workforce.
Marc Wulfraat, president of MWPVL International, a logistics consulting company that records Amazon's business, has trusted the company. The use of seasonal workers has long been a reality in the retail trade, especially at Christmas time, but Amazon has adopted it on a larger scale, he said.
"They are trying to reduce costs. That's why they do it, "said Wulfraat, noting that Amazon's storage capacity is expected to overtake Walmart for the first time this year. (Amazon says that more than half of its seasonal workers working in distribution centers work directly.)
A typical industrial or manufacturing warehouse employs one worker per 1,500 to 3,000 square feet, while an online trading business requires one employee per 700 to 1,000 square feet, according to the JLL real estate company.
Workers say that items stored in Amazon's warehouses are not sorted in a methodical manner: for example, office supplies in one area and shoes in another. Instead, items are immediately placed on the available shelf when they arrive at the warehouse. Harvesters rely on pocket screens that tell them where to locate something, they say.
Here in Murfreesboro, home to one of Amazon's 110 North American distribution centers, Integrity Staffing Solutions announces temporary jobs at the center for $ 12.25 per hour, without any guarantee of being eventually hired by Amazon.
The salary is higher than the $ 8 starting salary of Dollar General cashiers just down the street, but it is less than the $ 16 an hour announced at Interstate Warehousing, a refrigeration facility located across the street.
In an Amazon distribution center in Baltimore in 2017. "Warehousing and distribution were once more skilled jobs than today, so the wages went down even though the work requires effort "said Diane Swonk, Principal Economist at Grant. Thornton (Patrick Semansky / AP)
In addition to traditional temporary workers, Amazon created a seasonal program in 2009 called CamperForce. These workers, often over the age of 55, live full time in RVs and work from September or October until December 23rd in some distribution centers.
Many CamperForce participants say it's a good deal for them, because in a few months, they will be able to earn enough to not work too much the rest of the year.
Amazon also benefits by encouraging low-cost migrant workers to move wherever they want.
CamperForce participants do not get any benefits and their salary here is lower than full-time workers, but the company pays camping fees, including electricity.
"CamperForce is good for them, and it's good for us," said Litchfield, a 59-year-old Vermont, who is participating in the program for the second time with his girlfriend., Penni Brink. They think that with overtime, they can earn nearly $ 14,000 for their 14-week stay.
"I just hope they'll come back to us next year," he said.
Abha Bhattarai contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link
