Responding to the spread of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., Amazon has joined a growing number of companies directing their executives to suspend domestic travel “until further notice.” As reported in The New York Times, Dave Clark, Amazon’s Senior Vice President in charge of the firm’s worldwide operations, told his employees that no group or team meetings requiring travel should be planned sooner than the end of April, “by which time hopefully we have a better sense of the virus, its spread and impact.”...

But when Amazon talks about its “team,” to whom is the company referring? This week Amazon finally urged drivers to stay home if they are sick. But the company has said nothing publicly about the hundreds of thousands of factory workers, in China and elsewhere, who are making the products sold on Amazon’s website...

...There are inevitable costs associated with global health crises like the one unfolding now: factories face mounting losses in the face of quarantines and closures, and workers can face destitution if their wages are withheld in the face of these disruptions. Amazon would likely plan to pay those who work at headquarters, even if they had to work from home or couldn’t work at all, but we cannot expect them to do the same for factory workers around the world...