Amazon’s business model meets Sweden’s labor unions
1–10 of 149 posts
Re: Amazon’s business model meets Sweden’s labor unions
#2The most relevant quote:
> If they can operate in Germany, they can operate in Sweden.
Re: Amazon’s business model meets Sweden’s labor unions
#3> Initially, Swedish and Nordic clients will be mainly served from German warehouses — known as fulfillment centers in Amazon-speak — with trucks driving up to Sweden through Denmark, and a fulfillment center operated by local partner Kuehne + Nagel in the Swedish town of Eskilstuna, near Stockholm.
During the lockdown here in France Amazon was forced to close some warehouses and filfillment centers under pressure from unions (among other pressures, of course). It was big news for a week or so, and deliveries seemed to pause briefly before being picked up from German warehouses, too. After a week or so we started getting our deliveries again, usually with an extra day of delay because it was being fulfilled from Germany.
I suspect they will eventually do a deal with the Swedish unions but that, in the meantime, trucking things in from Germany will allow them to become established.
Re: Amazon’s business model meets Sweden’s labor unions
#4Amazon is the kind of company to instead build high speed hovercraft and base them in Poland or park a large warehouse offshore.
Re: Amazon’s business model meets Sweden’s labor unions
#5It will be interesting to see what happens. But right now, nothing has happened...
Re: Amazon’s business model meets Sweden’s labor unions
#6Good luck with Sweden's one hour lunch break. And the fika breaks every hour as well. Sorry Jeff, no forcing workers to pee in bottles among the shelves[1] in Sweden to drive up the stock price. I hope the Nordic countries wont bow down to Amazon's exploits.
[1]: https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/16/17243026/amazon-warehouse...
Re: Amazon’s business model meets Sweden’s labor unions
#7What a weird article. Loads of international companies operate in countries with wildly different laws, standards of living, disposable income, etc.
Why compare Sweden with a Polish warehouse workers and not investigate how e.g. Amazon.fr operates? That country at least goes on strike significantly more often (probably more so than the rest of the EU combined). Meaning, one year I noticed them on strike every other week to protest some intended government plan, even though the company had nothing to do with that, plus they only went on strike during the night.
> Initially, Swedish and Nordic clients will be mainly served from German warehouses — known as fulfillment centers in Amazon-speak — with trucks driving up to Sweden through Denmark, and a fulfillment center operated by local partner Kuehne + Nagel in the Swedish town of Eskilstuna, near Stockholm.
So partly they question if they'll operate a warehouse, but at the same time, there's going to be a warehouses. Only difference is that someone else does the logistics for them.
What usually happens with different standards of living is that the companies raise their prices a bit. Not sure why the article does not go into that.
EU is planning some changes in the trucking cabotage laws, see e.g. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/202.... This might (according to articles) make it more difficult to only use truckers from certain countries (e.g. whomever has the lowest standard of living / wage). Might also benefit the environment by ensuring companies might reduce the amount of trucking.
Re: Amazon’s business model meets Sweden’s labor unions
#8Nordic politicians will cave in like everyone else.
Generally it's funny how this region (Nordics) is reported in the media as some kinds of rationalist demi-gods, when in reality most politics here are just your regular smokescreen mixed with wishful thinking and a lack of understanding the real world.
In conclusion, politicians will do as politicians do nowerdays - drive their own career over the 'public good'.
Re: Amazon’s business model meets Sweden’s labor unions
#9I'm very interested to see how Amazon's entry into the Swedish market plays out. I used to shop a lot on Amazon back when I lived in the SF Bay Area and thought I would miss it when I moved to Stockholm but honestly that has not been the case. I get 1-2 day shipping from other online retailers in Sweden anyway (like CDON and Webhallen) and there is quite fierce competition between a few of the bigger names in the game which keeps prices low. The only thing I miss about Amazon was their very generous return policy and same-day shipping on some items, but I think the latter is limited to larger markets.
Re: Amazon’s business model meets Sweden’s labor unions
#10Let's see how that goes. Everybody in Sweden right now has an uneasy feeling about Amazon, and I have the impression that if people could have a referendum on the matter, Amazon wouldn't be allowed in.