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

npr.org

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

#401

Post by throwaway201103 »

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…

There's no need for anything so obvious as a request from the sposorship sales staff to the newsroom, or corporate sponsors asking journalists for favors. It could be an unspoken, unwritten understanding, subtle enough that the newsroom staff and journalists might honestly deny it exists. Just knowing that Amazon is a major sponsor of your employer (and hence, your job) is going to affect how you write about them, whether or not any overt favors have been requested.

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

#404

Post by m000 »

ixacto wrote: post #394
_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…

We also had the ludlow massacre where the local militia and mine company guards attacked the miners with machine guns (pre nfa...) and dynamite https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre .

For anyone interested, there's a 2014 documentary [1] about the Massacre and Louis Tikas [2], the main labor union organizer of the coal miners.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22U0Hwb-7ao [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Tikas

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

#405

Post by zmix »

javajosh wrote: post #270
djsumdog wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where the Tennessee Ernie Ford song comes from, "Sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't call me cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store." There was an episode of South Park last season where they played this song as a backdrop to Amazon workers in a warehouse.

That is de facto slavery!

I would call it Capitalism without opposition from the Left.

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

#406

Post by DavidAdams »

_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…

For some reason, the history page on the Pinkerton website has a big hole in it between 1907 and 1962. What could they have been up to in the early 20th Century, I wonder? https://pinkerton.com/our-story/history

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

#407

Post by neaden »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #85
neaden wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeff Bezos has made 90 billion dollars during the pandemic. He does not need to squeeze every drop of profit.

Thing is, he does. Else his wealth would quickly evaporate, and he'd be like the CEOs of Fedex, UPS & suchlike. The fact that most of his wealth is in stocks doesn't help.

Are you really saying if Amazon workers had safe working conditions and hazard pay right now, that 90 billion dollars would just evaporate?

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

#408

Post by black_puppydog »

pmiller2 wrote: post #45
mattalbie wrote: post #12

It’s a very minor point but this article makes it sound like the generic term for a union buster is Pinkerton agent. Pinkerton is a private company who does security work these days, but has a long history of doing exactly this. Fascinating Wikipedia read if you’re curious. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)

Indeed, everything old is new again. You know the saying, right? History doesn't repeat, but it sure does rhyme. This is often attributed to Mark Twain, but there's no real evidence he actually said it.

Given how we seem to be unwilling to learn from history, I prefer Julian Barnes' take from "A History of the World in 10½ Chapters"

> History just burps, and we taste again that raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries ago.

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

#409

Post by jodrellblank »

JackFr wrote: post #349
jodrellblank wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If given a free choice of literally anything they could do to contribute to the world, do you think Amazon warehouse employees would put Amazon warehouse work as their primary choice? Something they said they wanted to do "when they grow up"? "Something with dehumanising conditions, please!" If not, what is your answer to the quesiton "why are they doing this job at all"? Because they have to do something, and this i…

So by offering an alternative better than any other available, Amazon is the bad guy? What about all the companies not offering them alternatives?

I didn't say "Amazon is the (one and only) bad guy", or anything about bad guys at all. I said "if they aren't opting out, there is a force compelling them to be there".

You say "who is forcing them? Why don't they quit?" and yet ... they don't quit, and you (apparently?) think there is no reason why.

I don't think the force is a single person or company. I think it's the economic and social system we live in has become (intentionally or not) tuned to keep as many people as desperate as it can, because those are the kind of people who will work longer and harder for less money.

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

#410

Post by ewmiller »

purplecats wrote: post #391
grayhatter wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the common tropes, you only have to learn a single response that allows you to control the narrative. > What did you expect? Well, geez, I don't know basic human decency probably? Are we all so numb to asshattery that we're not surprised or upset when we learn about someone using power to hurt or control the little guy?

[flagged]

> Oh sweetheart

This should also be on the list of annoying conversational tropes.

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