Are Impoverished Amazon Workers News to Bezos' Newspaper?

Janine Jackson

CUED (5/15/24): "A large share of Amazon warehouse workers report facing financial strain,
including difficulties meeting basic needs."

A new report (5/15/24) from the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois/Chicago reflects the largest nationwide study of Amazon workers to date, some 1,500 Amazon workers across 451 facilities in 42 states. The big takeaway: Roughly half of Amazon’s frontline warehouse workers are struggling with food and housing insecurity, with a third relying on public assistance programs.

Now, the Washington Post, owned by Amazon chair Jeff Bezos, has heard of the Center. The paper quoted it in a 2022 piece (12/10/22) about robots that led with the news that "Amazon has robotic arms that can pick and sort cumbersome items like headphones or plushy toys." Oh, and “other companies are making progress, too.”

And even in a 2020 piece (9/3/20) on how overworked and exhausted warehouse workers were “bracing for a  frenzied holiday rush.” Though beleaguered Amazon workers came in at the end, after Kohl’s and Wayfair, Best Buy and Target and so on. Bezos’ paper allows some pointed criticism of Amazon; it’s just often in “opinion” pieces, like a 2020 oped from Alex Press (4/25/20).

So we’ll wait and see if the paper gives proper news coverage to what is incontrovertibly a news story: the clear association, as report co-author Beth Gutelius put it, between “the company’s health and safety issues, and experiences of economic insecurity among its workforce.”

Featured Image: Photo of Amazon warehouse worker from CUED report (5/15/24).