We were party to describe the universe of Charles Dickens adapted for the Twenty-first century. The exploitation of american pensioners, having to house their caravan, by the giant of online commerce Amazon. It was discovered that above all campers, vagabonds, and worthy of road-movies american, recalling the wandering in Alaska, the hero of Into the Wild (2007) or the run of a tragic Thelma and Louise (1991).
However, everything came together to cry misery, in this lost land of Kentucky, the country of the prairie blue, whiskey and bourbon, where retirees spend the autumn in a mobile home and work for ten hours as maneuvers for Amazon. Their task, to select, package, and ship Christmas packages which are then distributed to american households. For 11 dollars an hour (9,25€), the minimum wage of 7.25, with a dollar of bonus for those who stay until the end : on the 23rd of December.
Campers flock, at the beginning of the fall, with their home on wheels – in the United States, one speaks of vehicle, recreational (RV)–, and settled on one of the campsites selected by Amazon. They are thousands, in thirty States (the group increases its total enrolment of more than 100 000 by the end of the year).
Thus, at the Green River Resort of Campbellsville, a few hundred meters from a dam lake and a few kilometres of a site of Amazon, we meet Ed Janssen, great smile, bearded and screw-on cap on her bald head. What age do you have ? “80 years. “Why work at Amazon ? “I am in good health, I keep in shape. I have no need for it, but it is nice to earn more money. “
The drive, motivation first
This is the sixth year that the Dutch emigrated there are half-a-century America joined Amazon for the Christmas season. Prior to Kentucky, he worked for the giant of online commerce in Nevada,…
