Transnational Corporations (TNC) are a major part of the international trade and the global market. In the last decades, they have expanded their influence and became much more powerful, particularly by gaining support from respected and influential international organizations, such as the World Bank, the World Trade Organizations, and of many governments (“International Corporations” par.1-2).
However, recently the TNCs have been increasingly evaluated by the public health impact they have. While the TNCs do create opportunities for positive health consequences and go the extra mile to project a positive image, they also have a history of practicing policies that cause or ignore damage to the environment and human health, often concealing it with marketing campaigns with misleading messages. This is further enforced by international trade agreements that provide increasingly more power to the TNCs, allowing them to ignore past restrictions on their businesses (Baum & Anaf 1).
Amazon.com, Inc. is an American company, specializing in on-the-line computing and E-commerce, which is trade and facilitation of trading relationships through their computer network. While it is still seen as an American company, dealing in a wide variety of goods and services, since its inception it has diversified into other countries with various national sites and is putting a lot of effort into increasing its presence in the global market.
However, since its founding in 1994, Amazon.com has steadily attracted media attention through numerous controversies, with examples such as accusations of monopolistic practices. A severe number of these allegations concern mistreatment of workers in their workplaces, adverse treatment of individual sellers, or the fact that it hasn’t published to date any publicly available reports on its contributions to climate change.
A lot of criticism comes from Amazon’s attitude towards its warehouse employees. For example, in 2011, Pennsylvania’s news agency interviewed twenty Amazon’s workers and recovered a lot of information about unsafe conditions of the warehouses and physically and mentally debilitating employment practices. These included extreme heat inside of the buildings, strenuous workloads, regular deactivation of air conditioning for economy purposes, and conditions so inadequate that the company had arranged for regular ambulance pick-ups for people who had passed out in the workplace.
Other unhealthy medical practices included being fired over health issues, such as breast cancer, management by stress and through unattainable work goals, and general “sweatshop conditions” (Soper 1-15). This situation was recorded in several of company’s workplaces, including those in the United Kingdom, with the investigation by BBC News coming to the conclusion that working in their warehouses could cause “mental and physical illness” (Amazon Workers Face Increased Risk of Mental Illness par.1-18).
Amazon has also been criticized for the products it has been willing to host on its sites, which had been deemed dangerous to the public mental health. This was exemplified in the 2010 controversy about Amazon selling the book “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct” (Saint par.1-2)
Another example of Amazon’s policies that allude to the damage it might have on the health of people is its adamant refusal to publish its emissions data. While having implemented some “green” policies, such as the use of renewable energy in limited areas, as well as having very basic recycling procedures, the company refuses to adopt the policy of transparency about the impact it has on the environment, and the health and safety of people (Kaufman par.3).
In conclusion, at the present moment, Amazon is only beginning its path as a transnational corporation. However, it has already shown its desire for high profits at low costs, even at the expense of the physical and mental health of its employees, and the environment. While the company has made some steps towards healthier company policies, those were made under pressure from the media and courts, so only time will show if Amazon will be willing to advance in those areas on its own.
Bibliography
Amazon Workers Face ‘increased Risk of Mental Illness. 2013. Web.
Baum, F. E., and J. Margaret Anaf. “Transnational Corporations and Health: A Research Agenda.” International Journal of Health Services 45.2 (2015): 353-62. Web.
International Corporations. n.d. Web.
Kaufman, Alexander C. Amazon’s Environmental Record May Be As Bad As Its Work Culture. 2015. Web.
Saint, Nick. Amazon Caves: Pedophile Guide Pulled From The Kindle Store (AMZN). 2010. Web.
Soper, Spencer. “Inside Amazon’s Warehouse.” Tribunedigital-mcall. n.p. 2011. Web.