At Work and Under Watch: Federal Policy Recommendations
As the two largest private employers in the U.S., retail behemoths Amazon and Walmart disproportionately drive poverty and economic inequality in the U.S. Poor working conditions and punitive management systems are embedded in their models of getting cheap goods to the consumer with unprecedented convenience and speed. But fast and easy commerce is built on the backs of millions of workers.
Oxfam’s new report shows that this obsession with speed comes at a cost to workers—particularly women and BIPOC workers. Warehouse work is especially dangerous, and technology-enabled workplace monitoring, pace pressures, and racialized surveillance put workers’ health and safety at risk.
While Amazon and Walmart carry the largest responsibility for keeping their workers safe, the federal government should implement and enforce policies to better protect warehouse workers. This issue brief outlines concrete steps the administration and Congress should take.