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Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

#381

Post by BurningFrog »

cyphar wrote: post #303
BurningFrog wrote: post #299

Since Amazon easily hires and retains people at these wages, there very likely isn't anything wrong with these jobs. At least not compared to similar jobs for the same segment of the work force. What I think is really going on here is that Amazon has a PR vulnerability that can be exploited. With enough videos and testimony produced contrasting the plight of the poor oppressed workers with their boss, The World's Ric…

> Since Amazon easily hires and retains people at these wages, there very likely isn't anything wrong with these jobs. At least not compared to similar jobs for the same segment of the work force. I agree that there are almost certainly many other examples of inhumane treatment of low-wage workers. We should fix those too. If low-wage workers had unions then you would be able to have those kinds of cross-industry gro…

The US unemployment rate is at 3.6%, the lowest in living memory. It has never been easier to find a new job.

The number of people working multiple jobs to make ends meet peaked in the 90s, but the legend lives on...

That you find blue collar job conditions unacceptable says something about you, not too much about the jobs.

Re: Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

#382

Post by tekknik »

dragonwriter wrote: post #257
drup86 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So effectively you're saying: As far as democrats are concerned, a worker from Bangladesh is just as deserving of a given job as a worker from Florida. At that point, the party doesn't seem to be caring about American workers, but behaving more like a "global party". Thinking further, might as well normalize wages for all low skilled american workers across the 7 billion or so world population. I mean why have border…

> As far as democrats are concerned, a worker from Bangladesh is just as deserving of a given job as a worker from Florida. Nope. I'm saying that Democrats realize that with relatively free movement of capital and goods, stopping a worker from Bangladesh from entering the US doesn't remove that worker from the pool of labor competing with US labor. I didn't say anything even remotely related to what anyone deserves,…

This is a very globalist view. What about region specific jobs? The worker in Bangladesh absolutely isn't in the local competitive pool for service jobs. When we talk about exported goods, then sure.

Re: Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

#383

Post by tekknik »

robryan wrote: post #201
klodolph wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a leap, for sure. I am not arguing for a higher minimum wage. I didn't mention minimum wage, even obliquely. I am arguing that it is correct to demonize companies for their labor practices.

A minimum wage is far better. Why make every company try to guess what is reasonable on some moral level?

Increasing minimum wage will do nothing. If you increase the cost of the workers of a good then the cost of the good increases. The idea that we can raise the minimum wage without inflating will never happen, companies are not just going to absorb the costs of increased wages, they will increase their prices to compensate. So the net effect of raising the minimum wage is nothing.

Re: Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

#384

Post by drup86 »

tekknik wrote: post #382
dragonwriter wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As far as democrats are concerned, a worker from Bangladesh is just as deserving of a given job as a worker from Florida. Nope. I'm saying that Democrats realize that with relatively free movement of capital and goods, stopping a worker from Bangladesh from entering the US doesn't remove that worker from the pool of labor competing with US labor. I didn't say anything even remotely related to what anyone deserves,…

This is a very globalist view. What about region specific jobs? The worker in Bangladesh absolutely isn't in the local competitive pool for service jobs. When we talk about exported goods, then sure.

I said the same thing in a comment further down.

Re: Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

#385

Post by pytester »

dehrmann wrote: post #331
pytester wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The realistic reading is that it mainly just transfers money from profits to wages. Demand for minimum waged labor is very, very inelastic.

Is it? In countries with higher minimum wages, McDonald's uses kiosks for ordering. I'm guessing, but it feels like 1/3 of fast food staff mans the registers.

Automated kiosks for ordering aren't new - they date back about to the 1890s. They actually went out of fashion in the 1950s-60s when wages grew the fastest and died out entirely in 1991.

Re: Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

#386

Post by foobarchu »

akudha wrote: post #259
derefr wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if people only have so much time+energy+motivation to protest things. Attempting to get people angry at one thing is implicitly an attempt to "spend" the limited currency of their motivation-to-make-the-world-a-better-place. Righteous indignation works similarly to the "warm fuzzies" that cause people to donate to charity. Each person craves some set amount of these resources; once they have enough, they're satis…

One of the easiest and best forms of protest is to stop spending money with Amazon, Walmart or > Sometimes it is difficult - if Comcast is the only game in our area, then we don't have a choice. Otherwise, this hits these companies where it matters most - their profits.

I think it's correct that doing that is the most effective direct action, but the problem is that one person doing this is totally ineffective, it's the "drop of water" problem.

Raising a ruckus, strikes, etc are useful because they trigger people to become aware and concerned that this is a problem, causing more people to stop giving the company money. The ruckus is essential.

Re: Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

#387

Post by f00zz »

thundergolfer wrote: post #345
f00zz wrote: post #227

I'll get downvoted to hell for saying this, but $15/hr is upper middle class pay here. I made less than that for much of my software development career...

You’ll be getting downvoted because what you make “here” and it being upper-middle class pay is not relevant at all to these workers, unless you want to make a disingenuous suggestion that they move countries to “here”.

Of course I understand that. I just find it very hard to sympathize with the plight of someone making $15/hour. It seems high, even taking differences in cost of living into account.

Re: Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

#389

Post by [deleted] »

dang wrote: post #167
toomuchtodo wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a fine plan if you're not the one suffering. Democracy takes time, and you can (and should) use leverage against corporations at the same time when necessary.

This is the point at which the thread swerves into unsubstantiveness and therefore flamewar. I realize it's not always predictable, but please take threads in the opposite direction. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[deleted]

Re: Amazon workers launch protests on Prime Day

#390

Post by mkane848 »

dang wrote: post #176
mkane848 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did that sound clever in your head?

Please don't respond to a bad comment with a worse one. Maybe you don't owe the other commenter better, but you do owe the community better if you're posting here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

You're right, I just get really annoyed when people take flippant attitudes in situations that you'd think would elicit some empathy.
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