The German Peng! Collective has started a new intervention against Amazon to mark Black Friday. Unionists want a crackdown on subcontractors, but the industry is against an outright ban.

The German artist-activist Peng! Collective greeted the traditional shopping frenzy of Black Friday Week with a campaign aimed at the online retailer Amazon and what one Peng member called its "Soviet" business model. [...]

But, according to Jean Peters, Peng spokesperson, investigative journalist and veteran of several Peng stunts, the reported working conditions are just a symptom of the basic problem: Amazon's colossally successful business model.

This, he claims, is unique, as it relies on monopolizing access to customers, forcing small retailers to give up huge percentages to sell on its marketplace and, above all, exploiting an army of small subcontractors whose employees have only limited-time contracts and few workers' rights. [...]

"With subcontractors there are almost no checks and balances in terms of workers' rights, health and safety," Linton told DW. "Often workers get less than minimum wage." [...]

Verdi wants an outright ban on subcontractors in the postal package industry, a proposal that has already been echoed by some of Germany's state governments. [...]

Activists, meanwhile, insist that Amazon's market dominance and all-consuming business model — funneling retailers and customers through its platform while keeping subcontractors small — suffocates competition.

"Amazon is a kind of microcosm of a radical planned economy to concentrate profits for a few people," said Jean Peters of Peng! "With Amazon we have a planned economy with total surveillance of all the workers and all the products, in a way the Soviets could only dream of. And all of that is done not for the redistribution of wealth, but for profit."

Amazon rejects all these claims, saying that it is in competition with several other major retailers, and that its marketplace model actually helps small businesses.

"The fact is that Amazon has created millions of good jobs while supporting hundreds of thousands of small businesses around the world," an Amazon spokesperson told DW in a statement. "We offer our employees good wages and benefits, attractive career opportunities and a modern and safe working environment for all." [...]