Amazon reportedly has Pinkerton agents surveil workers who try to form unions

Post by egh » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 7:36 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #267

_wldu wrote: post #145

In 1920 Appalachia, coal companies owned all the land, the homes and stores. They also paid workers with their own special money (that was useless everywhere else). The security companies they hired where armed and violent towards miners and their families. https://explorepartsunknown.com/west-virginia/coal-minings-d... Today, people can tour these old towns and learn the history of how the coal companies trapped and…

Is there anything stopping workers from crowdsource their own protection anonymously? Does it have to be some kind of formal union? If you think about it, work is just a business deal and wouldn't be possible for employees create some kind of company that deals with the companies they are employed? Pretty much like an agency, I guess.

Post by neom » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 7:38 PM UTC

Post by oh_sigh » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 7:39 PM UTC

arcticfox wrote: post #261

claudeganon wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You actually believe that NPR doesn’t edit articles to protect the people who fund them?

Yes, I do actually believe in their editorial independence. Here's an NPR opinion piece talking openly about the subject https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2012/03/16/1487788... Some excerpts that I liked (keep in mind, these are out of context, which is largely focused on why we should keep a very close eye out): > Companies are most interested in getting their name before NPR's audience. They are, in other w…

Post by vidarh » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 7:40 PM UTC

ativzzz wrote: post #157

vidarh wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To the point where if someone ever introduces themselves to me as a Pinkerton employee, my first instinct would be to assume they're immoral and not someone I want to know. It's a company with a history of supporting exploitation wherever it's gone.

By extension, anyone you meet who works at Amazon should be considered that as well. Google and Facebook too probably. Walmart? Honestly any corporation. Add anyone working for the government in there as well

Post by mytailorisrich » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 7:41 PM UTC

ska wrote: post #215

mytailorisrich wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the same time in most Western countries decent working conditions and wages are already mandated by law. I don't know what's the situation in the US but in Europe that means that conditions cannot be horrible to start with if the company acts within the law (which would be expected of a company like Amazon, but maybe I'm optimistic). Unions are a way to negotiate a better deal than the legal minimum for unskilled…

> At the same time in most Western countries decent working conditions and wages are already mandated by law Are they though? There are a plethora of activist, legal, legislative groups focused on both working conditions (often on narrower groups, like say migrant farm labor) and minimum wage issues would probably argue this. Obviously working condition protections are much better than they were before 1950s-ish, and…