Necessary evil

I worked at an Amazon fulfillment center back as a picker. Their warehouse is massive. Row after row of consumer goods that a small handheld device would guide me to wander my way through to pick goods at a break-neck speed. After I finished any run, I would have to head up front and drop off my goods on a conveyor belt which is taken to sorters who would place them in boxes. They would then send them down another conveyor to be put on pallets for shipping.

You're not allowed to talk to your co-workers. It doesn't matter if the topic is political or as benign your favorite restaurant. No talking allowed. If you're caught, you'll be verbally reprimanded. If caught more than once you'll be "let go". The entire experience leaves no trace of doubt as to the nature of your existence. You're a cog in their machine . You might have started as a human being worthy of respect, but not anymore. Instead, you are now just a part of a massive machine that barely tolerates your presence. Long day after day and you start to wonder if you'll spend the rest of eternity wandering these aisles. It's like purgatory. Picking from rows of miscellaneous junk. Avoiding eye contact with your fellow workers for fear that you'll see your own sad state reflected back. 

The recent suicide in the Amazon South Lake Union headquarters was a big deal in the media. There are plenty of similar stories in the history of our FCs. But those weren't newsworthy since they didn't take place at work. The only thing this proves is that Amazon is unique in our industry because of also mistreating office workers, maybe as badly as us grunts on the FC floor.

What all of these workers need to do is obvious. We need to organize unions and strike. There is no other solution since Amazon will never see us as human beings on their own. This view of workers (including office workers) as a necessary evil starts at the top. No one will ever respect us when they don't even see us as their fellow human beings.