Sainato, an investigative reporter who follows labor issues as well as large employers, recently detailed the steps and workers in Amazon’s supply chain for Gizmodo. Among other things, he found that Amazon often relies on contracted and third-party workers for multiple steps in its chain, and uses leased spaces on airplanes and cargo ships to transfer its goods around the world; he also reported on multiple third-party job postings for work delivering Amazon packages, with pay rates below the $15-an-hour mark.
Sainato said in a Twitter message that the flip side of companies’ fast service is the disservice it does to workers, in his view. “The delivery competition between Amazon, Wal-Mart, Uber, and other companies is entirely customer-centric,” he wrote.
“That means workers will suffer most in the race to the bottom to minimize labor costs through mis-classifying workers as independent contractors, tip stealing, which numerous delivery companies have already been exposed in doing, and luring a workforce under false pretenses of decent wages when expenses like gas, mileage, and wear and tear are passed onto the employee, effectively reducing those wages to minimum-wage levels.”