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How Amazon Crushes Unions

nytimes.com

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Re: How Amazon Crushes Unions

#111

Post by tablespoon »

tidepod12 wrote: post #106
Judgmentality wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're buying from Amazon, you're almost definitely getting comingled inventory - which means even the official retailer themselves can't guarantee it's a genuine product. Your point still stands about easy returns, although personally I've noticed Amazon adding a lot more friction when I have a problem in the past year or so. https://www.redpoints.com/blog/amazon-commingled-inventory-m...

I see the commingling thing brought up in every thread like this, but I've never personally, nor has anyone I know IRL, received anything from Amazon that are even suspect of being counterfeit. If they are counterfeit, then they are such high quality counterfeits that I'm not sure I even care. It's obviously a problem to some extent, but I can't help but think news articles like that blow it way out of proportion. As…

> I see the commingling thing brought up in every thread like this, but I've never personally, nor has anyone I know IRL, received anything from Amazon that are even suspect of being counterfeit. If they are counterfeit, then they are such high quality counterfeits that I'm not sure I even care.

I wouldn't be so sure, since it's not always easy to spot a counterfeit. Take a charger for instance. A counterfeiter can get the case and packaging perfect, but have substandard & legitimately dangerous electronics inside. I don't have the links handy, but I've seen numerous tear-down comparisons that show examples of this.

Re: How Amazon Crushes Unions

#112

Post by capableweb »

blinding-streak wrote: post #4

For reference, Amazon's anti-union site: https://www.doitwithoutdues.com/

I have to ask as I'm really uncertain and also European, so this whole debate is a bit strange for me.

Is that an ironic website supposed to give the union a boost/shit on Amazon or is this a real attempt on getting people to dislike paying unions their due? I could not help but to laugh at some of the arguments in it, hence my question. It doesn't seem very sincere.

Re: How Amazon Crushes Unions

#113

Post by elisbce »

Like the unions didn't already destroy America's auto industry. Now they want to do the same to the tech industry. Supervisors can't talk directly with union workers, they have to go through unions first. Who on earth think this is a good idea? It kills productivity and I'm not even talking about the foreseeable protests down the road. Unions don't work in tech business where you need to break rules and move fast. It kills the big corporations in a few years and subsequently kills the entire job market that it was meant to protect. Ask the residents in Detroit. Now they have no jobs, or jobs with half of the pay before. Happy now?

Re: How Amazon Crushes Unions

#114

Post by doublerabbit »

pc86 wrote: post #18
peer2pay wrote: post #6

I hate Amazon and stories like this make me hate it even more. I stopped ordering anything from them and, if anything, this has actually improved my consumer experience. Most stuff you can buy on Amazon these days is the same garbage that is sold on Wish but you pay ~25-50% more for it to come within a couple of days. Not shopping at either has definitely raised the average life span and quality of goods in my househ…

> Now I only wish I could find a way to move all our infrastructure off AWS If only there were competing cloud/PaaS services.

If only there was a way to buy your own colocation racks and host it yourself.

Re: How Amazon Crushes Unions

#115

Post by dicomdan »

doublerabbit wrote: post #114
pc86 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now I only wish I could find a way to move all our infrastructure off AWS If only there were competing cloud/PaaS services.

If only there was a way to buy your own colocation racks and host it yourself.

Not realistic if you want a globally distributed highly reliable architecture.

Re: How Amazon Crushes Unions

#116

Post by brundolf »

peer2pay wrote: post #6

I hate Amazon and stories like this make me hate it even more. I stopped ordering anything from them and, if anything, this has actually improved my consumer experience. Most stuff you can buy on Amazon these days is the same garbage that is sold on Wish but you pay ~25-50% more for it to come within a couple of days. Not shopping at either has definitely raised the average life span and quality of goods in my househ…

I honestly can't understand how anybody sleeps at night writing software for Amazon, at this point. Maybe it's easier to justify to yourself if you work at AWS and not directly on the retail side of things, who knows.

I'm not going to try and cast judgement on individuals' circumstances, I just experience genuine confusion that Amazon can (apparently) still attract top-ish talent.

Re: How Amazon Crushes Unions

#117

Post by capableweb »

elisbce wrote: post #113

Like the unions didn't already destroy America's auto industry. Now they want to do the same to the tech industry. Supervisors can't talk directly with union workers, they have to go through unions first. Who on earth think this is a good idea? It kills productivity and I'm not even talking about the foreseeable protests down the road. Unions don't work in tech business where you need to break rules and move fast. It…

> where you need to break rules and move fast

Dude, we tried this. Now people in the US can't have reasonable arguments in public without wanting to kill one another. People somehow gets "cancelled" now, because some 20s-something wanted to "move fast" without thinking of the consequences.

Maybe it's time we try "slow and steady" and see if the world actually ends up more equal and diverse, instead of the opposite, which is the direction we're heading now.

And for the record, if unions hadn't existed, you'd still be slaving away 6 days a week (minimum), 10 hours a day, your children would be working instead of going to school and everything labor related would certainly have been worse. Worth considering since you seem to hold the opinion that "all unions are bad" just because the US is shitty at creating and maintaining unions.

Re: How Amazon Crushes Unions

#119

Post by gavin_gee »

For any business running at scale, this is a math problem. if the cost of human labor rises, more investment will be made to remove humans from the process and replace them with technology. Amazon was one of the great employers through Coronavirus. Perhaps people should think one step ahead.

Re: How Amazon Crushes Unions

#120

Post by capableweb »

psychlops wrote: post #41
TurningCanadian wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's in the union's interest to keep the company alive too.

In my experience, the union's interest is more in keeping the union alive.

Which business and union are you talking about specifically?

As unions usually live on either/and employee dues and government grants, making sure both the company and the industry overall is doing well is in their best interest, as otherwise the union will certainly not be alive.

So would be useful to see an example of a union NOT wanting good for the company/industry as that would be an outlier compared the the rest of them.

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