Amazon is not cruel because of evil in someone's heart that manifests itself in the form of intentionally creating harsh workplace conditions. It is a situation arising out of the dilemma of profits vs employee welfare in the context of difficult circumstances.
Most folks here will probably suggest some kind of antagonistic approach like unionizing, etc. but I think it is a better approach to try and figure out a profitable way to have employee welfare in these circumstances.
You can assign some monetary figure to the current situation by factoring the PR, the escalating tension and perhaps an inevitable revolt. See if that money can be spent in a way that can create a long-lasting operations improvement that makes the employees' jobs easier and adds layers of operational efficiency or redundancy.
To do that you'd have to dive deep into the specifics of the situation and understand the motivations of all the competing interests at play, with the goal of coming up with a solution that makes everyone a little happier. I saw a few comments here that talked about going and volunteering at the warehouse to understand things better. That would be a great start.
Unionizing is only antagonistic if you think management really does want to screw over workers. In a healthy workplace, the union absolutely wants the business to succeed and profit, so that the workers can also benefit. Unions are a way of representing one of the competing interests that you identify.
This is often (though not always) true for single-company unions, but not for unions made up of employees at multiple, competing companies. The game theory gets complicated when you're using one negotiation as leverage or signalling for your next negotiation at a competing firm.
Most folks here will probably suggest some kind of antagonistic approach like unionizing, etc. but I think it is a better approach to try and figure out a profitable way to have employee welfare in these circumstances.
You can assign some monetary figure to the current situation by factoring the PR, the escalating tension and perhaps an inevitable revolt. See if that money can be spent in a way that can create a long-lasting operations improvement that makes the employees' jobs easier and adds layers of operational efficiency or redundancy.
To do that you'd have to dive deep into the specifics of the situation and understand the motivations of all the competing interests at play, with the goal of coming up with a solution that makes everyone a little happier. I saw a few comments here that talked about going and volunteering at the warehouse to understand things better. That would be a great start.