Former Amazon employee Shannon Allen claimed in a Thursday interview with Tucker Carlson that the stressful workplace conditions nearly drove her to suicide.
When Carlson asked her whether she knew someone who attempted suicide, Allen said, “Tucker, I’m going to just go ahead and be honest with you. My very first YouTube video I ever made, I mentioned something about driving my car off of Eagle Mountain Dam because I was…worth more dead than I was alive. And let me tell you what—that was so surreal to me because…that’s the kind of mindset that they put you in: is you are not important.”
“What you are giving to [Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos]—his wealth, his Amazon winnings—that’s what’s important to him. Not your mindset or your health.” (RELATED: Amazon Employees Say ICE Contract Is Like Assisting Hitler With The Holocaust)
Allen first made news during a series of YouTube videos that chronicled her trials as an Amazon employee. Her story was picked up by the World Socialist Web Site in an article about the recent company-wide pay raise to $15 per hour. Although every employee experienced an increase in hourly pay, nearly every benefit and bonus went away, which ultimately resulted in a net loss for workers.
“It makes me so mad,” Allen told the WSWS in October. “I want to know who Bezos asked about doing this. Bezos said that he supposedly heard from his workers. Who did he ask? It wasn’t me. We didn’t get to vote. They didn’t pass out a ballot. Nobody asked me. Now I have an option to buy my own stock. It just pisses me off.”
Bezos is one of the richest men in world history, with a net worth exceeding $130 billion.