The case for strong labour unions

Why read this story?

Editor's note: Amazon’s Great Indian Festival sale ends at midnight tomorrow. The company says it sold more iPhones on the opening day, 17 October, than in all of last year’s sale. By next week, you will see policy wonks, economists and sections of the government hailing the green shoots of recovery, citing data from the sale. And later, in a dramatic turn of events, you will see the same set of people calling out the company for predatory pricing and killing the retail sector.  But I digress. While you enjoy the new iPhone, or wait for your air fryer to arrive, spare a thought for the people who are working in the shadows, round the clock, to ensure that the large volumes of deliveries go through without a hitch. These are the employees most at risk from Amazon’s alleged move to track and monitor staff and limit their efforts to form unions. Two weeks ago, citing a confidential Amazon internal memo, technology news website Recode reported that the American e-commerce company was “making significant investments in technology to track and counter the …