Amazon embraces drones, but what about workers?

(MoneyWatch) Domino's Pizza used to promote a 30-minute delivery time, although it eventually ended the guarantee after losing some lawsuits over driver accidents. Now another company, Amazon (AMZN), is looking at a 30-minute delivery time, only with high-tech drones, not human drivers.

The most recent issues are a strike in its German operations and multiple reports about the physical difficulty of working in the company's distribution centers.

Hundreds of workers reportedly walked off their jobs in logistics centers in Leipzig and Bad Hersfeld on a one-day strike. A German labor union has demanded higher pay and better working conditions. Earlier this year, Amazon faced claims of foreign worker mistreatment and allegations that it employed a security firm that used neo-Nazi guards.

A recent BBC undercover investigation by reporter Adam Littler, who took a job at an Amazon distribution center, alleged that the company drives workers. Littler said that in one 10.5 hour night shift he had to walk "nearly 11 miles" at a pace that left him "absolutely shattered."

In the U.S., a series of posts in EcommerceBytes, allegedly by an older person working as a temp for three months at an Amazon distribution center, have painted a similar picture.

This past weekend has been a humbling experience. I should explain first that I've always been an active person. No couch potato here. I typically ride my bicycle five miles a day when the weather is good, and even up north I've been seen riding along country roadsides... protective clothing in place. In the winter I work out at the gym and lift weights. So I honestly thought I was prepared for a three month stint working on the Camperforce brigade for Amazon.

Yeah, right. Now that we've gone to five 10 hr work days I've discovered my legs aren't in as good a shape as I thought. By day two of this week my ankles are swollen and painful. By day four I'm down to the drug store talking about support stockings. I'm becoming concerned that standing for long hours on concrete floors is doing damage to my venous system.

The author was part of a group of work campers, people who travel the country in RVs and take on part-time work. According to this person, Amazon expected 85 percent productivity, rather than the 100 percent that full-time employees are supposed to provide.

The series of reports isn't isolated. Two years ago, The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., reported on alleged difficult conditions, including workers passing out under warehouse temperatures that topped 100 degrees, in Amazon's regional warehouse. Other distribution companies have at times come under focus for their working conditions.

But a well-orchestrated series of union-backed labor actions and publicity campaigns have gained considerable attention about wages and working conditions in fast food operations like those of McDonald's (MCD) and at Wal-Mart's (WMT) stores.

Already California is moving toward a $10 an hour minimum wage -- a move that has some significant conservative backing from Ron Unz, publisher of The American Conservative, according to the New York Times:

"There are so many very low-wage workers, and we pay for huge social welfare programs for them," he said in an interview. "This would save something on the order of tens of billions of dollars. Doesn't it make more sense for employers to pay their workers than the government?"