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Amazon illegally fired activist workers, Labor Board finds

nytimes.com

271–280 of 416 posts

Re: Amazon illegally fired activist workers, Labor Board finds

#272

This case is something to keep in mind anytime Amazon comments on any labor matter, be it minimum wage, visas, diversity, work conditions, contractors, anything at all. Amazon is not commenting on those issues with anything in mind other than its own interests.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21228324/amazon-whole-foo...

"Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, is using a heat map to track stores that may be at risk of unionization"

"a “diversity index” represents the racial and ethnic diversity of every store. Stores at higher risk of unionizing have lower diversity"

https://trak.in/tags/business/2020/10/31/h1b-visa-ban-google...

In October 2020 Google, Amazon & 44 Tech Companies Sued the US Govt Over the H1B Visa Ban

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/data/h-1b...

European countries make up only 2.8% of the H1B intake.

Re: Amazon illegally fired activist workers, Labor Board finds

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately it's not physically possible to be neutral on this issue. It's not analogous to never giving people change on the street because you donate to soup kitchens and mutual aid orgs (or whatever). If you don't support unionization, you are effectively undermining it. This isn't meant to be some kind of woke purity test. It's just the facts of how a market operates. Every individual that is willing to work wi…

Absolutely not. Not increasing its power is not undermining it. It's neutrality. Stop changing definitions to suit your political goals. We have enough "with us or against us" going on driving violence to let more slide.

"Violence", you say? What violence is that? Is it taking place in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Korea, or maybe somewhere else, where we don't yet admit we have troops fighting?

Oh, sorry, you were talking about people having heart attacks while climbing the steps of the capital building. Never mind, carry on. Americans complaining about violence is like plants complaining about oxygen.

https://thegrayzone.com/2019/01/15/us-military-160-countries...

Re: Amazon illegally fired activist workers, Labor Board finds

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more leverage you have as an individual, the less relevant a union is for you.

> The more leverage you have as an individual, the less relevant a union is for you. If this was true, why are the highest paid and in-demand stars and directors in Hollywood all still dues paying members of their unions?

Probably because California is NOT a right-to-work state, and all studios that matter have agreements with all the unions (guilds) that make their productions union-only jobs. So, even if you are Tom Cruise, Dwayne Johnson, or Scarlett Johansson, you have to join the union in order to get work.

* Yes, there are small studios and some other ways of avoiding this if you only want to film in certain states, but if you want to earn the big bucks, you have to join the union.

Re: Amazon illegally fired activist workers, Labor Board finds

#276
post #244
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>80% "men". Whiners gotta whine.

Right, forgot -- men eat shit whenever they're asked and never fight for their or others' rights.

No, more like, instead of whining, men just quit jobs that suck aka "take this job and shove it".

And/or fire problem workers..

Re: Amazon illegally fired activist workers, Labor Board finds

#277

This case is something to keep in mind anytime Amazon comments on any labor matter, be it minimum wage, visas, diversity, work conditions, contractors, anything at all. Amazon is not commenting on those issues with anything in mind other than its own interests.

Why would it be any other interests. Amazon provides us with goods and services. And that's our only interests. Those useless crybaby activists could find another job if they don't like it.

Re: Amazon illegally fired activist workers, Labor Board finds

#278
The National Labor Relations Board has no teeth at all.

The NLRB does not have the authority to impose any penalties or punitive damages on the employer, Amazon, but it can order Amazon to cease and desist from the unfair labor practices and to take affirmative action to remedy the violation. It can also require back pay and reinstatement for those two employees who have been wrongfully terminated. And that's all it has the power to do.

This ruling does not mean much at all to the world's richest company.

Re: Amazon illegally fired activist workers, Labor Board finds

#279
post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was careful to explain my reasoning in my post, but maybe it wasn't stated clearly enough. Consider a company for which programmers are fungible, and 5 programmers are required to keep the company running at full efficiency. If one programmer quits in protest over union-busting activity, all it takes is one other equivalent programmer on the labor market to agree to take the job. The existence of 1,000 other pro-un…

> You're either a scab or you're not; that's definitional, not rhetorical. No, I'm an unaffiliated potential worker. Scab is a derogatory term. It's not surprising unions are losing support with that attitude. You're thinking you have a right to the job and that by not supporting you I'm taking it away. You don't though and from my point of view a union is a threat of violence (try crossing a picket line) and is one…

We don't have to imagine. This very article is about employees who were illegally fired for not kowtowing to the right opinions. These politics do control your job, whether you want them to or not.

Re: Amazon illegally fired activist workers, Labor Board finds

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently saw a post (maybe here on HN?) about a study where participants had the ability to choose between a strict-no-cheating game environment and a mostly-cheating-allowed game environment. Cheaters self-selected into the latter because it allowed them to cheat, even though they knew that others were also trying to cheat. Hopefully I'm paraphrasing/remembering correctly.

In business environment terms, I see anyone who takes a "you're either with us or against us" position as promoting a "mostly-cheating-allowed game." You're gonna let things slide for people on "your team" much more than you would if everyone is for themselves. That's one of the more convincing arguments against traditional unions, to me.

It works both ways. When management form an elite club focused on exploiting workers, this induces sides. Workers who didn't care about unionisation are provoked by management to collectivise. Then these workers learn that collective action actually produces results, so the polarisation between "sides" increases.

Concluding that you're "against traditional unions" just places you on one of the sides.

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