Zum Thema: Vor ein paar Tagen habe ich einen Bericht über Amazon in Großbritannien gelesen, der die ARD-Reportage bestätigt und in einer Hinsicht ergänzt (Amazon unpacked). Auch dort kommt der größere Teil der Belegschaft von Firmen wie Randstad. Die Aussicht, bei guter Führung irgendwann von Amazon übernommen zu werden (und dann zusätzliche Leistungen zu kriegen) wirkt als Motivation für die prekären Arbeiter, aber natürlich werden nur Wenige wirklich übernommen.
Sarah O’Inside the warehouse, Amazon employees wear blue badges and the workers supplied by the agencies wear green badges. In the most basic roles they perform the same tasks as each other for the same pay of £6.20 an hour or so (the minimum adult wage is £6.19), but the Amazon workers also receive a pension and shares. A former agency worker said the prospect of winning a blue badge, “like a carrot, was dangled constantly in front of us by management in return for meeting shift targets”.
Der zusätzliche Aspekt ist die Enttäuschung der Stadt- bzw. Kreisverwaltung und mancher Anwohner. Von der Ansiedlung Amazons hat man sich viel versprochen (die Region ist „strukturschwach“, seit die Kohlegrube dicht gemacht hat), aber die Hoffnungen haben sich nicht erfüllt. Das Problem ist, dass Amazons Arbeiter nicht viel verdienen und die Mehrzahl in der beständigen Unsicherheit leben, ob sie den Job morgen überhaupt noch haben werden (es gibt aber kaum andere Jobs). Sie geben deshalb auch nicht viel Geld im Ort aus.
Sarah O’From behind her desk in Vision estate agents, all purple paint and fairy lights, Dawn Goodwin sucks the air in through her teeth at the mention of Amazon. “We all thought it was going to be the making of the town,” she says. She expected an influx of people, including well-to-do managers, looking to buy or rent houses. But she hasn’t had any extra business at all. People are cautious because they don’t know how long their agency jobs with Amazon will last, she says. One of her tenants, a single young woman, got a job there but lost it again after she became ill halfway through a shift. She struggled to pay her rent for three months while she waited for her jobseeker’s benefits to be reinstated. “It’s leaving a bad taste in everyone’s mouths,” Goodwin says with a frown. Even the little “Unit 9” café next to the Amazon warehouse hasn’t had a boost in trade. The women who run it reckon the employees don’t have enough time in their 30-minute break to get through security, come and eat something, and then go back in again.
In a cramped upstairs office at the Citizens Advice Bureau, Gillian Astbury and Angela Jones have turned to statistics to try to identify Amazon’s effect on the area. They haven’t had an increase in the number of people asking about employment problems or unfair dismissal, but nor has there been any improvement in the community’s problems with debt and homelessness. Their best guess is that people haven’t had enough sustained work to make much of a difference.
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To Hell with Poverty