Jeff Bezos announces that he will step down as CEO of Amazon. Amazon employee William Stolz joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss how workers are reacting to the news.
Video transcription
ZACK GUZMAN: William, thanks for taking the time to talk, man. I know that you have been an active voice in building this union change of employees here, in terms of forcing Amazon to do a few more things in the climate space, in addition to being active internally. What does that sound like to you and your employees? What was Amazon’s internal reaction to the news that Jeff Bezos would step down as CEO?
WILLIAM STOLZ: I mean, I’m not sure how everyone sees it. I think most of the time I work at Amazon, I mean, most of the time, it looks like we’re working for a computer, actually. I don’t know if the individual at the top – I think, the way that we are pressured to make certain productivity guidelines, the ways that repetitive movement is continuously, everything tracked through this computer system, and that’s basically what they use to hold us accountable.
Seeing that kind of individual movement – I don’t know. I mean, this man was very rich with all the work that all his employees did. And it has been frustrating over the years to see that not being shared and not having workers [INAUDIBLE].
AKIKO FUJITA: So, William, let’s talk about the change that Amazon workers, specifically warehouse workers, have been pushing for, which is the issue of unionization. I was just referring to the vote that will take place a little later this month in Alabama.
But I’m curious to see how you see it moving forward. It seems that, at least on the climate issue, while it lasted, the company ended up accepting this. Do you see the divide narrowing between the position of workers and where the company is willing to give or what the company is willing to give?
WILLIAM STOLZ: Well, I mean, also on the climate issue, many of the workers who are pressing Amazon on this issue are still not satisfied with what the company has been doing and the ways in which it presents the steps it takes. When it comes to making the workplace a place where workers have more voice, I mean that Amazon continues to struggle very, very much. Only on the delivery side, on the warehouse side, it is very difficult for workers to come together and make positive changes in the workplace.
And when they do, as Jeff Bezos’ own Washington Post is now reporting, Amazon is struggling a lot against this effort in Alabama. Also here in Minnesota, where I recently live, one of Amazon’s delivery contractors, a company called Eclipse, has suspended 30 employees. Workers speak because they are only asking for better and safer working conditions.
And so, it’s not just Amazon that we’re talking about, I want people to understand, but it’s all these small contractors that Amazon basically uses so that whatever treatment these contract workers are facing, even if, in the end, they are delivering packages to Amazon, that Amazon can dodge some of the heat of this by making these small businesses part of that work.
ZACK GUZMAN: Yes, and I mean, I know that you have been active on some of the issues you raised with your co-workers. And it may seem that there is not much to be expected to change there. We should have known that Jassy had been with Bezos since the 90s, so not exactly as if someone outside was being called on to change things. And, of course, Jeff Bezos will remain in the role of executive chairman. But thank you for coming here to talk about all this. William Stolz, Amazon employee in Minnesota.
Originally published