By Nichole Gracely

Working-Class
Voices
foi Contemporary
America

SURVIVING IN
THE AMAZON
BY AUGUST 2010, AMERICA HAD SUPPOSEDLY RECOVERED FROM THE GREAT
Recession. But the unemployment rate in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley was near-
ing double digits, and anyone who suffered losses had no tangible evidence that
an economic recovery had ever taken place. Only one job opening was available
for every five seekers, so the career counselors who coached applicants were

irrelevant as they attempted to convince us The positions paid up to $12.75 an hour and
that we were free agents capable of landing offered full-time work with possible overtime.
our dream job if only we chose the most I completed an online application, printed out
effective resume format and mastered the art my resume on fancy almond linen paper, and
of "personal branding" to stand out among visited the ISS office.
the competition. Although I'd resisted staffing agencies for as
A major new employer had recently arrived long as I could, I was respectful when I visited
in the Lehigh Valley and its timing could not have ISS because it offered compensation that topped
been more opportxme. It was agreed that the state what the other staffing agencies had advertised;
would not introduce legislation requiring this and I liked Amazon.com. Amazon delivered
e-commerce pioneer to collect sales tax from nearly-impossible-to-fmd titles to my door, and I
Pennsylvania residents because we desperately didn't know it sold anything other than books at
needed the jobs it promised to bring. the time. I imagined myself surrounded by books
when Ifirstvisited ISS and knew nothing about
Integrity Staffing Solutions (ISS) launched a
the actual job that I was to be assigned. I merely
sustained advertising blitz to recruit temporary
had to pass drug, background, and basic skills
laborers to staff Amazon's new Breinigsville,
tests, and was stunned when they told me I'd start
Pennsylvania fulfillment center (a warehouse)
working the night shift as an order picker the
throughout the upcoming holiday season
following week for $12.75 an hour. They never
and beyond. Billboards and postcards invited
looked at my resume. It was too easy.
residents of downtrodden neighborhoods in the
Lehigh Valley and surrounding areas to apply.

New Ubor Forum 21(3): 80-83, FaU 2012

Copyright © foseph S. Murphy Institute, CUNY
ISSN: 1095-7960/12 print, DOi: 10.4179/NLF.213.0000011
 I soon discovered that, despite its technologi- laborers—veterans, immigrants, rural and urban
cal prowess, Amazon is a labor-intensive opera- poor (all disenfranchised)—were hungry for a job,
tion that sells just about everything imaginable. any job, with many commuting an hour each way
Receivers catalog inbound inventory; stowers to earn a meager paycheck and a shot at ftill-time
place items on shelves; pickers receive rapid-fire employment with Amazon. Mandatory overtime
orders through hand-held scanners and place was casually referenced upon hire and we soon
items in plastic totes that are steered around on started workingfifty-fiveto sixty hours a week.
carts; the totes are placed on conveyer belts and Management grew increasingly despotic and
sent to packers; the items are boxed, labeled, and the worst among them barked and hollered and
conveyed to shippers. Amazon's Lehigh Valley carried on in ways that I have never experienced
center is more than six hundred thousand square in any other workplace. They'd sometimes enter
feet and multi-tiered. Merchandise is stored in the break room up tofiveminutes before break
"mods." There are threefloorson the east end of ended and start herding us back to the floor. I
the warehouse, and three on the west; each floor consistently exceeded the 125-unit-per-hour
is roughly the size of a football field and it takes target rate and was made an "Ambassador." I was a
roughlyfiveminutes to walk from one mod to the temp assigned to train the hundreds of temps that
other. Narrow aisles are numbered and shelving were descending upon us daUy. Every warehouse
units are divided into scannable bins, with each job function can be learned in a few hours and
bin holding random merchandise. I scanned we were disposable unskilled laborers, treated
thousands of barcodes a night. Everything had accordingly. Everything was non-negotiable.
a barcode—even me. My labor was tracked Peak season officially started in November
through a barcode printed on a white (to denote and, during this "blackout" period, any absence
temporary status) ID badge that hung from a was inexcusable. Doctor's notes were not accepted.
lanyard I wore around my neck. Our schedules were changed to suit management's
needs and single mothers struggled with this
Everything had a most. If an employee accrued six demerit points,
his or her assignment was terminated. We could
barcode—even me. also be written up if we did not adhere to bizarre
safety standards. Pickers could be written up if
I walked approximately ten to fifteen mues a they were caught steering their cart with one hand
night whue I worked, the warehouse was stifling or holding their scanner while they were pushing
hot, and there wasn't any fresh air to breathe. the cart. Workers could not be hired after one
It had to be pushing 110 degrees on the third minor write-up and were indiscriminately let go.
floor and, in a fog of confusion, I'd be unable Managers happily referred to us as Santa's
to tell if the numbers and letters were going up elves at standup meetings. They realized the
or down; or I'd read "twenty-eight" instead of promise of full-time regular employment would
"eighty-two" and walk to the wrong location. get us to strain harder through the exhaustion,
When I had to lower myself into a boftom bin and the coveted blue badge (blue to denote
and rise again, I'd stagger a little, drop the item in Amazon status) was regularly dangled in our
the tote on my cart, and look at my scanner. "Go faces. Management effectively pitted worker
to P3-G578-D25r' it might say, and I'd scurry against worker in a struggle to survive and
People came from all over. Laid-off teachers, there was pain on people's faces as they pushed
recent high-school graduates, struggling students, throughfifty-five-hourweeks. Pickers could be
and debt-laden college graduates; former manag- seen rolling their eyes and giving another picker
ers, construction workers, electricians, and skilled a knowing look as they passed each other in the

Surviving in the Amazon New Labor Forum-81

aisles; some would raise their scanners to their him immediately because of the questions he
temples and mime the pulling of a trigger. asked. I decided to return to Amazon as an ISS
I did not have time to speak to family or temp to work the upcoming peak season, and
friends during peak season, much less celebrate requested anonymity in Soper's article. I had
the holidays. My sister phoned after a local news been receiving messages from ISS telling me
station reported that an Amazon employee set they'd gladly take me back—you're allowed to
fire to a shelving unit while we were working. return after three months of punitive leave, and
The building was evacuated and, if we wanted they're so smugly certain that you vriü. I have
to keep our jobs, we were forced to stand outside never met any of Soper's other informants and
in sub-freezing temperatures for more than two wasn't aware of the scope of his investigation.
hours, most of us wearing only t-shirts and I certainly did not expect the story to go viral.
shorts. I told my sister not to worry and went I returned in late August and the pick manag-
back to sleep. ers were worse than before. Amazon rotates its
managers regularly and my new managers did
Managers referred to not know about my previous stint. I was called
to the pick desk on two occasions because they
us as Santas elves. noticed I had not scanned an item's barcode in the
minutes leading up to break, and I was accused
Christmas Day passed and we waited to of cutting off the floor early to get to break. I
be hired by Amazon. There was conflicting asked if he'd looked at my rate—I was averaging
information about the hiring promises. Several 150 units per hour and we were haggling over
temps were told by ISS representatives that around minutes. He answered, "Well, then we're just
80 percent of us would be hired, and managers losing more when you decide to leave a minute
regularly said it would be a "significant number." early." He added, "If you don't like our policies
January passed and nobody was hired. The Lehigh you're free to leave." I'd heard that one before and
Valley was blanketed in a series of early-February I just shook my head. "I've got a metal rod in my
snowstorms and I missed too many shifts and leg," I pleaded. Security is tight and we had to
accumulated more than six demerit points. I pass through metal detectors to exit the floor,
returned to work the first day I could get back, so I lost precious break minutes every time I set
walked into the ISS office on Amazon's premises, off the detectors and had to wait to have a guard
and a representative told me my assignment was run a wand up and down my body as I stood
terminated. I quietly felt relieved. I suffered a with my arms up and legs spread. My manager
chronic dry hacking cough the entire season, softened. "You've got metal in you, now we're
was exhausted, and craved sunshine. talking. I've got metal throughout my body."
Amazon actively recruits ex-military personnel
On July 23,2011, Spencer Soper of Lehigh
to manage their warehouses and I wondered
Valley's Morning Call newspaper published an
if he was an "Amazon Warrior." The company
article titled: "You're hired.. .no wait you're
is praised for this while it's really just more of
not." Communication errors led applicants to
the same for the veteran—they're overworked,
mistakenly believe they were offered ISS jobs at
undercompensated, and subjected to endless
Amazon; some quit other jobs and were later told
hostilities. I never envied my managers' positions
they were not needed. I immediately composed
because they clearly suffered under tremendous
an e-mail message to Soper imploring him to
corporate pressure.
further investigate Amazon's labor practices.
He later contacted me by phone and I trusted Soper's bombshell expose, "Inside Amazon's
Warehouse" ran on September 18,2011. When

8 2 • New Labor Forum H. Gracely

I arrived to work that day I overheard workers The stories provoked fierce online labor debates
spiritedly chatting about the story. A production and I followed the discussion boards closely. In
assistant announced that our managers were the spirit of the season, Amazon introduced a
in Seattle for "training" and some pickers let "price-comparison app" and encouraged Amazon
out cheers, hoots, and hollers. The mUitary- customers to serve as stealthy retaü spies for a
management types were later sent upstairs to $5 discount. Bricks and mortar stores trembled,
work behind the scenes, and less belligerent retaü competition appeared more cutthroat than
managers were brought in and they thanked us ever, and Amazon's empire expands every day.
for our hard work. Corporate eventuaüy lowered The media hailed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
our target rates and a strange new süence fell over shortly after Steve Jobs's death, propping him up
the place; workers were compliant and I hardly as some sort of visionary, quasi-spiritual leader.
heard any complaints. Nobody dared mention Forbes gushed over my biüionaire boss as tens
a union, except me. I tried, and several workers of thousands of workers quietly suffered inside
later refused to sit next to me at lunch. The only his soulless warehouses for subsistence-level
union proposals I witnessed were scrawled on wages. Bezos once said that Amazon workers
the unisex bathroom waüs located in the remote don't need a union because we own the company
corners of the mods. and several Amazon unionization attempts were
summarily squashed. If I worked at Amazon
The only union for two years I'd be entifled to eight shares of
stock. My Amazon "ownership" felt more like
proposals I witnessed an insult. I'm exploiting myself, I thought. The
shareholder in me said, "Drive down operating
were scrawled on costs!" But as a worker, I knew it wasn't fair—we
earned more than we took home.
unisex bathroom walls. I waited for the ideal opportunity to quit
Amazon for good. I wanted to release myself
Amazon lessened its reliance upon temp from the confidentiality agreement I signed
labor and I was included in a group of ISS temps upon being hired directly by Amazon, so I could
who were offered full-time regular employment speak about my experience. My apartment was
(a blue badge) with Amazon in October. I enjoyed broken into and my MacBook was stolen. This
modest privüeges as a blue badge, and outsiders happened whüe revelations about Apple's labor
could now visit the fulfillment center at the abuses at its Foxconn facüity were surfacing, and
beginning of a shift and think it wasn't such a I was actually glad to be rid of the thing. I went
bad place to work. Ironically, I perceived work to work after the break-in, couldn't concentrate,
conditions to be even more unbearable when and wanted to go home. I told my manager the
operations were running smoothly and we weren't story, asked to be dismissed, and called off the
subjected to flagrant abuses. The skeptics among next few nights to accrue enough demerit points
us never trusted Amazon's gestures. to secure my termination. I knew I'd never go
The Morning Call ran foüow-up stories that back there again, and now I purchase books
detailed former Amazon customers' pledges to online through sociaüy-responsible sites with
boycoft. "Almost 13,000 boycott Amazon.com," sustainable business models.
the Morning Call reported, after more than 12,600
people signed an American Rights at Work pledge.

Surviving in the Amazon New Labor Forum • 8 3

Copyright of New Labor Forum (Murphy Institute) is the property of City University of New York on behalf of
The Murphy Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv
without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email
articles for individual use.