Belated upsurges in hostile contexts: labor contention at Amazon in the US and India in comparative and transnational perspective

Scott B. Martin

Chapter 9 in Unpacking Global Amazon, 2026, pp 222-260 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter explores similar trajectories from labor quiescence to labor action in the hostile contexts of Amazon's home country of the United States and its largest global South host market in India. The analytical framework emphasizes the interplay of regulatory institutions and labor market structures promoting precarity with patterns of labor organizing, as well as the role that national engagement in transnational labor networks plays in promoting activism. The explanation for shifts from quiescence to active contention centers on shifts in economic and labor market conditions, patterns of e-commerce growth and economic and public health responses to the pandemic, and subtle shifts in institutions offering slightly greater openings for labor action and how these created new pressures and demands among Amazon workers. The mobilization built on nascent forms of associational power that had emerged in the years prior to the pandemic.

Keywords: Gradual Institutional Change; Power Resources Approach; Labor Transnationalism; Amazon; Corporation; Precarious Work; Labor Organizing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035380442
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