Is Amazon really the Death Star of corporate America?
A generally successful company that executes billions of transactions a day gets worse press than the Boston School Committee  and that is saying something. The Los Angeles Times aired out the idea that Nomadland shouldnt win an Oscar because it pulled punches in its portrayal of Amazons CamperForce program, which offers RVers temporary work at holiday time. Nomadland, which did win the Oscar for Best Picture, had zero documentary aspirations. It told the intimate story of a middle-aged woman cast into the wilderness of a changing America. Because thats not what the movie was about. More recently, screenwriter John Logan, (Skyfall; The Aviator; Gladiator) fretted in a New York Times guest essay that Amazons takeover of MGM might compromise the artistic integrity of the James Bond movie franchise. Now, I love Commander Bond as much as anyone. And I love Woody Woodpecker, too, but I dont lose sleep worrying that the megalopoly NBCUniversal, owned by Comcast, is going to compromise whatever purported integrity might attach to his brand. Amazon is a publicly-owned company answerable to three constituencies: its customers, its employees, and its shareholders. Maybe you dont like the cut of founder Jeff Bezoss jib. Fine. But by almost any objective metric, its an excellent company. Shareholders seem to like Amazon, whose stock has roughly tripled in value during the past four years. (I am one of them.) On the same day that ExxonMobil shareholders bucked management to elect two independent directors to the oil giants board, Amazons shareholders supported the companys recommendation to reject proposals on corporate transparency, and on diversity and equity issues. This occurred despite a voluble, nationwide campaign supporting their adoption. Advertisement  Customers like Amazon, too, though admittedly less than before. With tens of millions Americans homebound, Amazon deliveries soared during the Year of COVID, along with supply chain and fulfillment problems. According to the database company Statista, Amazon used to enjoy customer satisfaction ratings in the mid-80s, out of a perfect 100. In 2020, that rating declined from 83 to 79. For context, that is higher than Walmart (73) and overall Internet retail (78.) Amazon cannot escape accusations that it underpays and mistreats its employees, charges that are dramatically amplified by Bezoss embrace of the robber baron lifestyle. (CNN: Jeff Bezos superyacht is so big it needs its own yacht.) Amazons fetishization of latter-day Taylorism, the science of industrial efficiency, seems inhumane. Three years ago, the Globe published a heart-rending account of an Amazon Flex driver working against the clock to make maybe $23 an hour, while paying for her own gas and vehicle costs (insurance, maintenance, and depreciation.) Amazons driving conditions dont seem to have improved. In a recent flap, the company denied that its drivers have to pee in bottles  and then several workers contradicted them. They didnt really force you to pee in the bottles, one told Business Insider. You just didnt really have time to go to the bathroom.  Advertisement  That said, the only objective test of Amazons workplace relations came in April, in a unionization election at its huge Bessemer, Ala., facility. The vote garnered national attention, with President Biden feeling the need to make his pro-union sympathies known. Yet the union lost in a landslide, 1,798 votes to 738. Yes, I remember how Amazon eviscerated Americas book trade at the beginning of this century, and, yes, I much prefer to use brick-and-mortar merchants when I can. Its not my favorite company, but I suspect it is not the dark, Satanic mill of common portrayal. Alex Beams column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him on Twitter @imalexbeamyrnot.