Opinion: The true cost of all your Amazon deliveries

A delivery person pushes a cart full of Amazon boxes in New York City, US. For all of its Kiva warehousing robots and efforts with drone distribution, Amazon still depends on hundreds of thousands of human workers around the world. — Reuters

Coronavirus self-isolation is fostering a growing dependency on Amazon.com Inc. But it’s also refocusing attention on the human cost of having the entire stock of the "Everything Store” merely a click and a day away from your front doorstep.

Amazon workers at a fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York are on strike, saying the company has not been responsive to safety concerns and demanding that the facility be closed for two weeks and sanitized. In Italy, Amazon reached an agreement with workers last week to provide additional virus containment measures and end an 11-day strike. Elsewhere, France’s labour minister has demanded an improvement to the working environment for the firm’s employees, saying that "protection conditions are insufficient”.