Apologies if the following sounds like I'm playing devil's advocate, but I'm trying to resolve a few issues which have arisen in my onw mind. Anyway;

Last night the BBC's Panorama programme showed an expose of Amazon, called 'The Truth Behind the Click; How well does online retailer Amazon treat the workers who retrieve our orders?'

My feeling, on watching the programme, was that Panorama didn't make its case all that well. Also, while Amazon seems hell bent on turning its workers into zombies, its treatment of those workers appears only marginally worse than that of most other catalogue warehouse firms. I can say that with some confidence, having once worked as a warehouseman for a well known high street catalogue retailer.

What do other people think? If slavery type working conditions are endemic throughout the catalogue industry, shouldn't we be attacking that entire industry, instead of making a scapegoat out of its leading member?

Also, does anyone know whether Amazon workers are unionised?

Finally, does anyone know whether these conditions also apply to the Book Depository, or any enterprises which Amazon own?

Well, not quite finally, I should add that I haven't ordered anything direct from Amazon since I first heard about their treatment of their employees.