Thursday, October 09, 2014

Amazon’s gross new innovation: How it’s quietly shortchanging everyday Americans...

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder and CEO of Amazon, is well-known for his almost spiritual belief in the benevolent powers of innovation (the word the 1 percent likes to use when the hostile implications of Silicon Valley’s preferred term, “disruption,” risk alienating them from their audience). And it’s indeed the case that Bezos’ creation has been a leader in the corporate world when it comes to doing things like no one before. Amazon Prime, the Kindle, 2-day delivery; the list goes on.

There’s an addendum to that list, however, and it’s one that, shareholder updates excluded, Bezos and fellow Amazon higher-ups are considerably less vocal in promoting: The company’s longstanding habit of finding creative new ways to exploit and insult its workers. And that’s the version of Amazon-the-Innovator that will stand before the Supreme Court today as it hears oral arguments for Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk, one of the biggest labor rights cases of the term.

To get a sense of the specifics of the case, as well as its potentially far-reaching implications, Salon spoke on Tuesday with Catherine Ruckelshaus, general counsel and program director for the National Employment Law Project. Our conversation is below and has been edited for clarity and length. Full story...

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  2. Call to boycott Amazon for avoiding taxes...
  3. Ex-Amazon workers talk of 'horrendous' conditions...
  4. Why Amazon’s collaboration with the CIA is so ominous -- and vulnerable...
  5. Don't buy gifts from tax-dodging Amazon, say UK MPs...
  6. Amazon’s sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers...

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