WEBVTT - 08: Amazon’s Scandal Collection

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<v Speaker 1>I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon

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<v Speaker 1>customer because you guys paid progress. You guys paid problems.

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<v Speaker 1>This is Megacorp, an investigative podcast exposing some of the

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<v Speaker 1>world's most unethical corporations. This series is about Amazon. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>Jake Hanrahan, journalists and documentary filmmaker. Megacorp is produced by

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<v Speaker 1>H eleven for Cool Zone Media. So in this series

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<v Speaker 1>we've gone from the Amazon warehouse, to the Amazon picket line,

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<v Speaker 1>to the Amazon accounts office, to the Amazon Spine operations,

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<v Speaker 1>and then to the Amazon sort of space mission. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>in between all of that there are several various scandals

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<v Speaker 1>that haven't quite fit into their own episode. So today

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<v Speaker 1>this is a sort of amalgamation of various Amazon madness,

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<v Speaker 1>a patchwork quilt of disgrace if you like. So, first

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<v Speaker 1>let's take a look at Amazon in Germany, where in

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<v Speaker 1>they were accused of hiring security guards with neo Nazi

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<v Speaker 1>connections in a bid to intimidate foreign workers. Amazon punk

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<v Speaker 1>endersty effect Senans Can Diets in Dudgeland, Germany's a r

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<v Speaker 1>D t V channel made a documentary allegend the Amazon

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<v Speaker 1>hired security personnel from Germany's Hess Security. It claimed that

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<v Speaker 1>the guards were tasked with keeping order at the hostels

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<v Speaker 1>and budget hotels where foreign Amazon workers stayed. The documentary

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<v Speaker 1>showed guards in all black with military boots, searching the

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<v Speaker 1>bedrooms and the kitchens of the foreign staff. One of

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<v Speaker 1>the foreign workers said that the security men lie to them,

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<v Speaker 1>telling them that they were actually the police. Another said

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<v Speaker 1>she was thrown out of her hostel by the security

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<v Speaker 1>for drying her wet clothes on a wall eater. The

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<v Speaker 1>security men were apparently aggressive and intimidating. So what is

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<v Speaker 1>HESS Security well? A r D said that Hess Security

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<v Speaker 1>was run by a man named U E. L and

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<v Speaker 1>apparently he has ties to football hooligan firms in Germany

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<v Speaker 1>and convicted neo Nazis who are quote known to police.

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<v Speaker 1>A I D says the name of HESS Security is

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<v Speaker 1>even a slight noder to a leading member of the

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<v Speaker 1>World War two Iran Nazi Party, Rudolph Hess. They say

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<v Speaker 1>it stands for Hencell European Security Services. From an independent

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<v Speaker 1>article about the HES security situation. In regards to the

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<v Speaker 1>treatment of Amazon workers, A r D said the following quote.

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<v Speaker 1>Amazon's temporary staff worked eight hour shifts packing goods at

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<v Speaker 1>the company's logistics centers in bad Hrstfeld, Constants and Augsburg.

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<v Speaker 1>Many walked up to seventeen kilometers per shift, and all

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<v Speaker 1>those taken on could be fired at will. On arrival

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<v Speaker 1>in Germany, most were told their pay had been cut

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<v Speaker 1>to below the rate promised when they applied for the

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<v Speaker 1>jobs at Amazon. End quote. Amazon denied that they directly

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<v Speaker 1>hired hair security, saying quote, although the security firm was

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<v Speaker 1>not contracted by Amazon, we are of course currently examining

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<v Speaker 1>the allegations concerning the behavior of security guards and will

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<v Speaker 1>take the appropriate measures immediately. We do not tolerate discrimination

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<v Speaker 1>or intimidation. End quote. Just as a side note here,

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<v Speaker 1>I would argue that they do kind of tolerate intimidation

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<v Speaker 1>because they literally trained people on how to act like

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<v Speaker 1>spies in a bid to union bust. But anyway, according

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<v Speaker 1>to d W News, the security firm was contracted by

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<v Speaker 1>an employment agency, not Amazon directly. However, the accommodation where

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<v Speaker 1>they were was full of temporary Amazon workers from outside

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<v Speaker 1>of Germany, brought in to deal with the Christmas rush.

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<v Speaker 1>Most of them were brought in from Spain. One of

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<v Speaker 1>these workers, a woman named Sylvia, said quote, it's like

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<v Speaker 1>being in a machine, and we are just a small

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<v Speaker 1>part of this machine. End quote. A spokesman for the

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<v Speaker 1>German United Services Union said, quote, they don't see any

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<v Speaker 1>way of complaining. They're all too frightened of being sent

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<v Speaker 1>home without a job end quote. Now, you could argue

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<v Speaker 1>that Amazon has some responsibility for the security seen as

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<v Speaker 1>they asked the employment agency to provide them with workers

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<v Speaker 1>and their workers were staying at the place where this

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<v Speaker 1>security was. Also, you could say, to be fair to Amazon,

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<v Speaker 1>they said they would investigate and they didn't personally contact

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<v Speaker 1>has security. But this is just another example of what

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<v Speaker 1>can happen when human beings are treated. There's nothing more

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<v Speaker 1>than flesh robots for the warehouse floor. Proper checks were

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<v Speaker 1>clearly not carried out, likely simply due to the fact

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<v Speaker 1>that profit was all that mattered, and as we've learned

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<v Speaker 1>in this series, Amazon often doesn't look out for its workers.

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<v Speaker 1>This is reflected on the ground in Germany more recently also,

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<v Speaker 1>as workers there went on strike in November one to

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<v Speaker 1>protest wages and work conditions. Unions They're said Amazon has

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<v Speaker 1>failed to meet industry standards when it comes to the

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<v Speaker 1>wage rights. A union rep there said, quote is unacceptable

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<v Speaker 1>that a multinational corporation worth billions earns itself silly and

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<v Speaker 1>yet refuses to give its employees the wage increases the

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<v Speaker 1>other companies in the industry repay their colleagues. End quote. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I agree with that guy. That's kind of what this

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<v Speaker 1>whole series is trying to get at. Amazon employees almost

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<v Speaker 1>thirty thou people in Germany and plans to build more

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<v Speaker 1>warehouses there in the future. In November, there was a

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<v Speaker 1>staff walk out in Leipzig and at two sides in

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<v Speaker 1>Bad Hersfeld, which is also where the foreign workers harassed

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<v Speaker 1>by her security were working. This was yet another account

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<v Speaker 1>of workers being mistreated directly by Amazon or via proxy

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<v Speaker 1>of the people that employed them to work for them,

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<v Speaker 1>as we've seen many such cases. Now we're going to

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<v Speaker 1>go from foreign Amazon workers harassed in Germany the mysterious

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<v Speaker 1>Amazon workers on Twitter. This is actually kind of mad

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<v Speaker 1>and it really shows how potentially devious Amazon is. So Basically,

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<v Speaker 1>in March one, as many Amazon workers in the US

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<v Speaker 1>state of Alabama voted to form a union, some Amazon

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<v Speaker 1>workers took to Twitter to say how much they loved Amazon.

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<v Speaker 1>They were a group of so called Amazon FC ambassadors

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<v Speaker 1>Fulfillment Center ambassadors. They were generally starting off by tweeting

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<v Speaker 1>what was a template sort of message with an image

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<v Speaker 1>of themselves, saying things like this, quote my name is Leo,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm an Amazon ambassador and rebin at Jack's two. Any

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<v Speaker 1>questions about the FC, just ask. I'm also into riding motorcycles,

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<v Speaker 1>the beach and slash or pool. I'm retired public service Newark,

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<v Speaker 1>n J c R seven support Portugal National Soccer Club

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<v Speaker 1>and Sporting Football Club end quote. Or there's Michelle, the

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<v Speaker 1>Amazon FC ambassador. She tweeted, quote, I I am Michelle.

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<v Speaker 1>I am a Pick ambassador and trainer at b F

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<v Speaker 1>I four in Kent, Washington. If you have any questions

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<v Speaker 1>about what it is like to work at an FC,

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<v Speaker 1>feel free to ask me. I am passionate about my

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<v Speaker 1>family and love to cook, bake, and garden. It gives

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<v Speaker 1>me peace. End quote. Then it led to things like this.

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<v Speaker 1>One user named FC Dalla began to speak out against

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<v Speaker 1>the Amazon unions. She said, quote what bothers me most

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<v Speaker 1>about unions is there's no ability to opt out of jews.

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<v Speaker 1>Amazon takes great care of me. End quote. That was

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<v Speaker 1>quite weird to say. Is seen as Dalla claimed to

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<v Speaker 1>be based in Alabama, where reported by the BBC, it's

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<v Speaker 1>actually illegal to have a union without a jew's opt

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<v Speaker 1>out option. Another user named Burt, who said he worked

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<v Speaker 1>at the Okay for Amazon warehouse, tweeted, quote unions are

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<v Speaker 1>good for some companies, but I don't want to have

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<v Speaker 1>to shell out hundreds a month just for lawyers. End quote. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>it just so happened that Burt's display picture on Twitter

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<v Speaker 1>was actually a guy from a YouTube comedy group called

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<v Speaker 1>Dude Perfect. They have almost sixty million subscribers. A short

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<v Speaker 1>while after these anti union tweets were sent out, it

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<v Speaker 1>was noticed online that some of the Amazon FC ambassadors

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<v Speaker 1>suddenly changed their names. So the quote we just read

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<v Speaker 1>about Michelle was actually now from an account called Sarah

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<v Speaker 1>at Amazon FC. Sarah, as first reported by a journalist

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<v Speaker 1>Karen Weiss, Rick, became James, Leo became Sierra, and Michelle

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<v Speaker 1>became Sarah. So what's going on? Well, as you've probably

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<v Speaker 1>clocked by and now, these were not real people. These

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<v Speaker 1>were fake accounts set up to smear unions, made to

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<v Speaker 1>look as if they were the opinions of genuine workers

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<v Speaker 1>at Amazon. The BBC wrote about this and they contacted

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<v Speaker 1>Amazon to ask about these fake accounts, of which there

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<v Speaker 1>were many, but Amazon didn't respond. Now, I don't think

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<v Speaker 1>it takes a genius to realize who the most probable

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<v Speaker 1>company behind them is fake accounts. Aside, Amazon actually pays

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<v Speaker 1>real workers to do this online. These workers are paid

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<v Speaker 1>to promote and defend Amazon on Twitter, these name changing

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<v Speaker 1>accounts I just mentioned, though they weren't even real in

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<v Speaker 1>the end that Twitter had to suspend many of these

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<v Speaker 1>fake accounts as they broke the spam and platform manipulation rules. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>if it was Amazon who was behind these fake accounts,

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<v Speaker 1>which personally I believe it almost definitely was, everything points

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<v Speaker 1>towards them. They even actually pay workers to do this

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<v Speaker 1>without them being fake accounts. If it was them, I

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<v Speaker 1>think this really shows how unbelievably dishonest and devious Amazon

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<v Speaker 1>can be when it comes to busting unions. They do

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<v Speaker 1>not want their workers organized, and they don't want them

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<v Speaker 1>to make a better working environment for themselves. That much

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<v Speaker 1>is clear to me. At least. A way to play

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<v Speaker 1>the long game to stop workers organizing unions could be

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<v Speaker 1>to basically coach people from young that unions are no good. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>how could Amazon. Do that you ask, We'll have to

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<v Speaker 1>listen to this. In Could John High School in the

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<v Speaker 1>US state of California began offering a Amazon Logistics and

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<v Speaker 1>Business Management pathway courts. This was reported first by Vice's

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<v Speaker 1>motherboard writers Aaron Gordon and Lauren Kori Girley. They described

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<v Speaker 1>the course as quotes, a first of its kind series

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<v Speaker 1>of courses intended to help students get a head start

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<v Speaker 1>in a career. In the gistics end quote, Amazon donated

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<v Speaker 1>fifty dollars to kick start the course. You could argue

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<v Speaker 1>that that's not a donation and simply a payment or

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<v Speaker 1>a bribe provided to the school to get them teaching

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<v Speaker 1>and Amazon business syllabus, but I'm not saying that now.

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<v Speaker 1>If you didn't think this was starting to sound a

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<v Speaker 1>bit weird before, get this. The classroom where this Amazon

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<v Speaker 1>Business courses being taught was redecorated, painted in Amazon's signature

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<v Speaker 1>yellow branding and with Amazon's Leader principles written on the walls.

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<v Speaker 1>Those are customer obsession bias for action deliver results. So

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<v Speaker 1>you go into class in an Amazon colored room with

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<v Speaker 1>their odd catchphrases written all over the walls. Customer obsession

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<v Speaker 1>bias for action deliver results. Sounds like a really weird

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<v Speaker 1>business cult. To get a better idea of what's going

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<v Speaker 1>on with the Amazon Logistics and business management pathway, course,

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<v Speaker 1>I spoke to Lauren Cotory Gurley about the article that

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<v Speaker 1>she co wrote about this. You had this scoop recently.

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<v Speaker 1>I can only describe it as like an Amazon indoctrination

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<v Speaker 1>kind of course in a school. Maybe you can explain

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<v Speaker 1>to us all about this article, you know you recently wrote,

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<v Speaker 1>and the kind of ins and outs of it what

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<v Speaker 1>it actually is. Sure so. UM About a year ago,

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<v Speaker 1>I came across, UM, of course, a program that Amazon

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<v Speaker 1>was launching at a high school in southern California in

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<v Speaker 1>the Inland Empire, which we can talk about later, but

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<v Speaker 1>it's near Los Angeles. Uh, there's a big Amazon presence,

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<v Speaker 1>UM and in the program was specifically to prepare students

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<v Speaker 1>to UM for work in the logistics industry, so for

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<v Speaker 1>warehouse work. UM. You know, we know knew Amazon sort

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<v Speaker 1>of had STEM sponsorship programs and high schools and middle

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<v Speaker 1>schools around the country, but this is the first time

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<v Speaker 1>UM there had been sort of a program specifically about

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<v Speaker 1>preparing a very young workforce for warehouse work. UM. And

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<v Speaker 1>this is in an area where there is a ton

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<v Speaker 1>of warehouse jobs. UM. And so we ended up floying

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<v Speaker 1>UM the school district and this is where this high

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<v Speaker 1>school is located. It's called cohone High School UM to

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<v Speaker 1>see sort of what we could get about the class

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<v Speaker 1>UM and we got a couple of uh, what would

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<v Speaker 1>we call like syllabi um for two courses that are

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<v Speaker 1>currently going on at this high school. The program is

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<v Speaker 1>called Amazon Logistics and Business Management Pathway. And the two

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<v Speaker 1>courses that we got ahold of the syllabi for were

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<v Speaker 1>Business Management and Entrepreneurship and Global Logistics and Concepts. And

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<v Speaker 1>I guess I would just start off by saying that

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<v Speaker 1>Amazon did not design these courses. We talked to the

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<v Speaker 1>school district, and the school district told us that they

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<v Speaker 1>did not play a role in designing it. But they

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<v Speaker 1>are sort of a partner in this, uh in this program,

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<v Speaker 1>and they are sort of oversee it. So they provided

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<v Speaker 1>a load of money though right, like fifty grand I

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<v Speaker 1>think it would, yeah, fifty grand. They donated fifty grand UM.

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<v Speaker 1>And this this is all going on in a in

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<v Speaker 1>a classroom that is um painted with Amazon's leadership principle.

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<v Speaker 1>So we have some photos in the article if you

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<v Speaker 1>look at it, but UH it says customer session bias

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<v Speaker 1>for action deliver results like on the classroom walls. UM.

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<v Speaker 1>Amazon UH is very UM customer centric, as your listeners

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<v Speaker 1>probably already know. But sort of the models like do

0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.640
<v Speaker 1>anything for the customer, UM. And so yeah, the students

0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.320
<v Speaker 1>I learn in a classroom with UH these UM these

0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:05.680
<v Speaker 1>things written on the walls, right, So so tell us

0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.880
<v Speaker 1>about the syllabus of the courses. So the first course,

0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:14.400
<v Speaker 1>the Management and Entrepreneurship course UM has is just like

0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.240
<v Speaker 1>sort of pretty standard I think for what you would

0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.480
<v Speaker 1>get in like a class like this in high school.

0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:23.520
<v Speaker 1>But UM, there's a there's a section on motivating employees,

0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.480
<v Speaker 1>a very large section motivating employees where they talk about

0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:31.880
<v Speaker 1>UM Frederick Taylor and scientific management, which is sort of

0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:35.880
<v Speaker 1>like Frederick Taylor was an industrialist UM and during the

0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:40.160
<v Speaker 1>Industrial Revolution who sort of developed ways of streamlining work

0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:43.960
<v Speaker 1>processes in order to maximize the productivity of workers with

0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:47.560
<v Speaker 1>a stopwatch. This is very similar to sort of Amazon's

0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.160
<v Speaker 1>practices today where they're just constantly trying to find new

0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:54.320
<v Speaker 1>ways to squeeze productivity and and and and you know,

0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.240
<v Speaker 1>profit in other words, out of out of their workers.

0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.920
<v Speaker 1>UM students are also learning about Maslow those hierarchy of needs,

0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.760
<v Speaker 1>which is interesting because Muzzle's hierarchy needs like sort of

0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:10.160
<v Speaker 1>teaches you that people will UM sort of sacrifice like

0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.480
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, their own personal fulfillment or mental health

0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.800
<v Speaker 1>for basic physical needs if they need to. UM. There's

0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.240
<v Speaker 1>a section on mergers and acquisitions where they ask students

0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:25.560
<v Speaker 1>why our mergers and acquisitions important to a company's overall growth?

0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:32.120
<v Speaker 1>UM sort of a section on Uber actually where UM

0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:34.680
<v Speaker 1>they talk about like sort of things that Uber has

0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:36.800
<v Speaker 1>done wrong and they say what can Uber do to

0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.920
<v Speaker 1>ensure its competitors are not chipping away at its dominant

0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:44.119
<v Speaker 1>market share as a result of such bad press. So

0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:48.840
<v Speaker 1>it's very much like UM a course that was designed

0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:54.200
<v Speaker 1>for from the perspective of someone wants to go into business. UM.

0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:59.919
<v Speaker 1>There's another course that UM that we had the curriculum

0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:04.399
<v Speaker 1>for which goes on to have called about global supply chains,

0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:08.080
<v Speaker 1>and there's a large section on Amazon. UM. It goes

0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:12.600
<v Speaker 1>through Amazon's history, it's vision um sort of its impact

0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.880
<v Speaker 1>on e commerce globally, and it's just found the language

0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:18.560
<v Speaker 1>that they're using you can tell that this is very

0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:22.720
<v Speaker 1>pro Amazon. Um, it's described as exciting and why people

0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:25.800
<v Speaker 1>should be excited to join these industry. Oh and then

0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:28.919
<v Speaker 1>as both as part of this entire program, the stab

0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.840
<v Speaker 1>I say that like students have to take a participate

0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.880
<v Speaker 1>in an internship and the place they suggest the internship

0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:43.760
<v Speaker 1>being is at an Amazon warehouse. Um so um, yeah,

0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.360
<v Speaker 1>so it's it's it's not like Amazon played a central

0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.840
<v Speaker 1>role in designing the course, but clearly they are very much,

0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:53.960
<v Speaker 1>you know, involved in this because they're trying to prepare

0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.800
<v Speaker 1>the future generations of their warehouse workers sort of give

0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:02.359
<v Speaker 1>them a tay east of or like have their first

0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:06.800
<v Speaker 1>experiences with Amazon b ones like these. Um, and just

0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.320
<v Speaker 1>want to note that, yeah, your listeners probably know, but

0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:12.760
<v Speaker 1>Amazon has a long record of of union besting and

0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.479
<v Speaker 1>being anti union and so it's it's ironic too, and

0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:18.520
<v Speaker 1>it's it's very warring to a lot of people to

0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:23.159
<v Speaker 1>have young people have their first you know experience of

0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.560
<v Speaker 1>like what is a labor union coming from a company

0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:29.320
<v Speaker 1>that is extremely anti labor. I think it raises a

0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:32.240
<v Speaker 1>lot of questions for for the community and for people

0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:36.159
<v Speaker 1>who are um, you know, activists in this area. Roughly

0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.520
<v Speaker 1>like what kind of age group the students that were

0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:44.080
<v Speaker 1>in this class. Currently there are ninety four students who

0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:48.520
<v Speaker 1>are in this class and they're um, I think mostly

0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:52.840
<v Speaker 1>uh sophomores, juniors, and seniors, so they're like sixty and

0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:57.800
<v Speaker 1>eighteen years old. Um. And it's unclear this course was

0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:02.600
<v Speaker 1>designed in partnership with a with a state college and

0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.760
<v Speaker 1>a community college is unclear whether Like I asked the

0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:07.359
<v Speaker 1>school and as district, it was like, do a lot

0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:09.000
<v Speaker 1>of students go on how many of your students go

0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:11.359
<v Speaker 1>on to work in Amazon warehouses it? Or do they

0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.359
<v Speaker 1>go off to college or sort of what? Um, where

0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:17.480
<v Speaker 1>are a student? Like are they preparing students directly warehouse

0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:21.080
<v Speaker 1>work or what? And they didn't. I couldn't provide any statistics,

0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:23.600
<v Speaker 1>but I do know in in the Inland Empire, a

0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.000
<v Speaker 1>lot of people working in Amazon warehouses are college students

0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:29.240
<v Speaker 1>trying to get through college. To me, if it was

0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.560
<v Speaker 1>like kind of like subversive feudalism, you know what I mean,

0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:35.399
<v Speaker 1>like putting the seed in there from really early, like

0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:37.920
<v Speaker 1>everybody should be a part of Amazon, Like it does

0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:40.919
<v Speaker 1>feel kind of creepy to me. I mean, what do

0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:44.160
<v Speaker 1>you work? Oh yeah, I mean I think that's totally

0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.040
<v Speaker 1>a part of it. Like companies, and this is not

0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:49.880
<v Speaker 1>just true of Amazon, like companies want to I mean,

0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.600
<v Speaker 1>like look at like Instagram trying to make Instagram for

0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:56.320
<v Speaker 1>like babies or like children or something like they want to, um,

0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:58.879
<v Speaker 1>create a relationship, or like banks wanting young people to

0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:01.240
<v Speaker 1>open up bank accounts, they want to create relationship with you,

0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.359
<v Speaker 1>like as early as possible. Um. There's actually and I

0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:06.720
<v Speaker 1>don't know a ton about this either, but there are

0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:11.199
<v Speaker 1>these things called Bezos Academies, which are preschools that are

0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:14.119
<v Speaker 1>popping up all over the country over the past few months.

0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:19.639
<v Speaker 1>There's some in Florida, Texas, Washington State. UM. Besas Academy

0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:24.520
<v Speaker 1>starting when you can't even read yet. So we've got

0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:29.639
<v Speaker 1>the ironically named Amazon principles being taught in the warehouse,

0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:34.720
<v Speaker 1>on social media and now even in some schools. I'm

0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:39.040
<v Speaker 1>not saying rich business people shouldn't invest in education. I

0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.640
<v Speaker 1>think the opposite is true. They definitely should if they

0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:45.600
<v Speaker 1>want to. However, when you look at who Bezos is,

0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.760
<v Speaker 1>what he believes in, and how his company treats its workers,

0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:52.080
<v Speaker 1>I think we need to take a step back and

0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:57.440
<v Speaker 1>consider what the Amazon long game is in the next

0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:00.880
<v Speaker 1>episode of Megacorp, we're going to be digging into who

0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.399
<v Speaker 1>Jeff Bezos actually is. Is the richest man on earth,

0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:09.919
<v Speaker 1>the founder of Amazon, and much much more. Megacorp is

0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:14.639
<v Speaker 1>made by my production company H eleven for Cool Zone Media.

0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:20.480
<v Speaker 1>It's written, researched, and produced by myself, Jake Hanrahan. It

0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:26.280
<v Speaker 1>was also produced by Sophie Lichtman. Music is by Some Black,

0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:30.960
<v Speaker 1>graphics by Adam Doyle and sound engineering by Splicing Block.

0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:34.200
<v Speaker 1>If you want to get in touch, follow me on

0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:39.520
<v Speaker 1>social media at Jake Underscore Hanrahan. That's h A N

0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:41.840
<v Speaker 1>A A h A n