None of these people work for Amazon. They are all Integrity Staffing employees. It is up to IS to follow federal labor laws and Amazon's hands are "clean".
Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks
591–600 of 721 posts
Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks
#592Earlier quoted context omitted.
More automation -> less jobs -> more pressure to keep working at the awful, but paying job you have. I think best solution is universal basic income, but that of course is far from being accepted in USA. But it gives power to people, it make them not being so afraid to lose a job, so employers have to act accordingly.
Possibly, UBI or negative income tax (which is probably easier to administer) may be required, but it may not. In India, they still employ someone to sit on a chair in a lift pressing the button. Even in the western world we employ doormen. Of course while people vote against their best interests (the false belief that hard work guarantees success) I'm sure that those with the power will continue to exploit those wit…
> In India, they still employ someone to sit on a chair in a lift pressing the button.
A culture of makework can be harmful in that it would push some people to do pointless jobs when they might actually do something beneficial for society (but perhaps not profit-generating) if they were given free time.
For example, I am fortunate to work remotely in a job that pays me a lot of money, but I am in a country with low cost of living. That means I only work 2–3 days a week. All the rest of my time I am busy with obsessively editing OpenStreetMap, writing the occasional journal publication in the field I trained in at university, and participating in the local arts scene as an audience or writer. I know that if I got to receive UBI, I would still be doing things with my time that are overall contributing to society. Please don’t make me sit in an elevator all day to press buttons instead.
Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks
#593Okay, people here need to get out of their bubbles. This is the same with most warehouse/assembly line jobs.
Folks here are shitting on Amazon because it's relevant to their everyday lives. Walmart does the same stuff. I worked in one of their warehouses, loading trucks for a summer. These situations are not the exception.
Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks
#594Earlier quoted context omitted.
Costco employees interact with customers.. Having a healthy interaction with customers is important, and treating employees well goes a long way in helping grow a customer base. Customers will never interact with the person that boxes their amazon shipment. Those individuals are not seen as people, but just a necessity to continue operations.
Costco (retail) appears to treat their employees much better - much higher base wages, regular increases in wage, benefits, etc. Also know a past Costco corporate employee and only had a positive impression.
Best teenage job I ever had. They treated us with respect and the pay was exceptional for the job, you could live a middle class lifestyle on it. Sundays they paid time and a half. They also had great holiday events, with a very memorable Christmas party I still cherish. I wish more retailers would treat their employees so well.
EDIT: it does go to the top. The CEO resisted investor pressure to reduce wages and perks. Mad respect to him for treating his employees like people instead of cogs.
Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks
#595We can't. Labor and capital need each other, but they are forever at odds. Good wages and working conditions can only be won through negotiating from strength. Modern America favors capital. Elections have consequences.
> Modern America favors capital The universe favors capital because capital is more mobile than labor.
The difference is that physical material need to be transported. I don’t think you can move warehouse overseas to save capital
Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks
#596Is this worth it? Is this worth having the ability to pick between 10,000 different toasters via internet and have them delivered to your doorstep in 2 days? Sometimes I look at society as a complete organ, with a hypothetical ability to make cohesive decisions for itself. And I think, it is making extremely self-destructive choices. All for the sake of satisfying the urge to buy more, at lower prices, with more conv…
We can have both. Amazon isn't going to implode if they pay some extra pennies for reasonable working conditions.
No we can't, Amazon is popular because it's cheap because its hyperoptimised. And if not anything, there are other major issues other than worker's rights (which are bad enough).
Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks
#597Earlier quoted context omitted.
We can have both. Amazon isn't going to implode if they pay some extra pennies for reasonable working conditions.
Why would Amazon pay one more penny than they have to? To win a nice guys award? To get a warm, squishy feeling inside? There is precisely one solution to this problem, and it is us electing leaders who change the rules in favor of the working masses, and enforce those rules mercilessly against exploitative employers.
Or stop putting band-aids in a fundamentally broken system, and change it altogether.
Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks
#598> Amazon said it didn't time workers' toilet breaks... That means they set really high targets for middle-managers and then let them get creative with the rules. > ...and set its performance targets based on previous worker performance. That means they cherry pick their best performing employees and set global standards based on the top n%. > The company said it provided coaching to help people improve... That means…
According to Bezos, there are two types of decisions- 1) type 1 - where Bezos does not time workers' toilet breaks, and 2) type 2 - where he lets middle managers to create their own rules. It's always Day 1 :)
I'm not sure I understand this comment. Day 1? What are you referencing?
Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks
#599Earlier quoted context omitted.
I look forward to capital peeing in a bottle in solidarity with labor. :) Naturally capital and labor collaborate and both produce wealth. That doesn't mean their interests are 100% aligned.
> I look forward to capital peeing in a bottle in solidarity with labor. :) It does. Capital evaporates in risky endeavors all the time. It rusts by itself as well. Sure interests arent perfectly aligned, but fighting capital is like fighting your brother for inheritance. Meanwhile, landowners see all that from afar, evict people into the streets, and those same people go pay taxes to get their food. Capital is not t…
Ahahah, so that's why capital called in the cops to kill members of the first labor unions in America, out of brother hood?
Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks
#600Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meanwhile they shove all of their software developers into one of the highest cost of living cities in the world and pay them six figure salaries.
Maybe it's changed since I lived there, but I don't really think Seattle is "one of the highest cost of living cities in the world". It is (or was) quite a bit cheaper than NYC or SF, for example.
Its going to get so , because even though its not as bad property wise as california, it is following the same path of increasing taxes and expenditures by the local government. I could already see a stark homelessness growth in just one year.