Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm stupid, but why does unemployment cause violent crime?
Unemployment -> desperation -> crime
True, also add extra time on your hands. Poverty + boredom.
Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama
631–640 of 1001 posts
Re: Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama
#632Earlier quoted context omitted.
Personally, it came from working for a massive union (government, not US) for many years. The downsides are real: hard to fire bad performers, your merits don't matter at all (the guy doing the bare minimum job description gets the same raises as you), wayyy too much focus on seniority (for promotions, vacation selection, etc), and overall just too many rules (for example, "unlimited vacation" works great with my cur…
> hard to fire bad performers In the jobs that I do, "bad performance" is super subjective and very hard to measure. It's also the common canard to use from the managerial class to get rid of someone they don't like. > your merits don't matter at all They don't either in the non-union corporate world either. They pay as little as they can get away with. They'll assign as much work as you can possibly do, and then pil…
> not showing up to work at all. That's unlimited, and we all know you'd get fired if you did that
You can also take the fixed PTO allocated by the company, and then elect to not do any useful work the rest of the time either. What's your solution to that? And why can't this solution work in an unlimited PTO environment?
Note: I don't think that unlimited PTO is a good fit for all industries (it certainly isn't), but your position seems to be that unlimited PTO is never a good fit, which I disagree with.
Re: Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama
#633Earlier quoted context omitted.
No objection that most of EU is better than the US in these regards, but Amazon warehouse workers get some of the best healthcare insurance that I’ve ever seen in the US. Similar to what the top-level-commenter pointed out, I guarantee that the warehouse jobs in Bessemer provide among the best healthcare available in the town. The US as a whole is awful at providing healthcare, but healthcare is a particular area whe…
I'm an Amazon warehouse worker in North Carolina. As far as health insurance, I pay 100% of the first $1500, then 10% of the next $15,000 (so $3000 total), then 0% of anything over $16,500. I wouldn't call that astonishing, but it is the minimum $0 monthly premium plan. Also, I'm generally happy at work. I basically feel well paid and well treated.
Not defending insurance plans in the US whatsoever because I despise their deductible structures but that’s actually pretty good.
Re: Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama
#634Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Europe there are a lot of social benefits that mitigate this. - Health care - Worker protections - Required time off - Sick time - Maternity leave etc. Here its $15. And you're on your fucking own. If you compare it to completely underdeveloped or dictatorial economies... Sure I guess its way better. But the US shouldn't be comparing comparing itself to that. Its like saying "This engineer is horrible, but he's no…
Free healthcare - yeah I had to go to a hospital in Romania - I'd take my Alabama private hospital any day.
That likely has more to do with Romania than the free healthcare.
Re: Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama
#635Earlier quoted context omitted.
$15 an hour is more than you can get in almost any place in Europe or the world for unskilled labor, what are you talking about?
In Europe there are a lot of social benefits that mitigate this. - Health care - Worker protections - Required time off - Sick time - Maternity leave etc. Here its $15. And you're on your fucking own. If you compare it to completely underdeveloped or dictatorial economies... Sure I guess its way better. But the US shouldn't be comparing comparing itself to that. Its like saying "This engineer is horrible, but he's no…
> Here its $15. And you're on your fucking own.
You've been mislead by propaganda. They have healthcare, protections, etc.
Re: Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama
#636Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In the jobs that I do, "bad performance" is super subjective and very hard to measure. It's also the common canard to use from the managerial class to get rid of someone they don't like. Are you serious? This line of thinking is exactly why I'm against union. It is really not that hard to tell who are the bad performers. There will be false judgement, but the rate is low. If you want to avoid any false results, wel…
"It is really not that hard to tell who are the bad performers." That sounds like an entitled viewpoint. Imagine how it feels to be someone of a different skin color or hair style or manner of speaking and living in a society where, as a middling performer, any boss you have can fire you for "poor performance" with no other explanation required. Without that life experience, perhaps it is hard to view that situation…
> a different skin color or hair style or manner of speaking and living i
Yeah, right. It's all about racism. As for volumes of research on performance management and management in general, they are just charade by white supremacists, right? Oh, and what about Asian people, in particular Indians, going all the way to CEOs and college principals and high-ranking government officials? Let me guess, they are white? If you think so, well, let's just say some people are racists to the bone, no matter how "progressive" they say.
Re: Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama
#637Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why are you comparing absolute dollar amounts? Is the cost of living the same every where?
Good point, it's even cheaper in Bessemer AL than basically anywhere in Europe, too
energy is cheaper in the US: electricity and gasoline (half price or cheaper). Groceries are significantly cheaper (food is of lower quality, but at least cheaper). Sales tax is around 20% in Europe vs 4% in Alabama. Property tax is a quarter of what it is generally in Europe...I can go on and on. If you are not a felon, you own a car and are healthy, life is pretty easy in the US, even for a low wage worker.
Re: Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama
#638Earlier quoted context omitted.
> hard to fire bad performers Why do you care about this as an employee? You get nothing when somebody else makes the company more money.
I guess to some extent it's about some aspect notion of "fairness". Another concern would be if their poor performance spills over into my own role and that prevents me from pursuing more interesting tasks that are more aligned with my growth/interests. More practically, if I'm working at a place where my team has fixed head count I'd rather us have the ability to replace someone who's not contributing to the success…
This can definitely be a burden, though on the flip side of the coin if the team is constantly churning due to cooking under a performance magnifying glass all the time, you still end up with lots of newbies who only just get up to speed enough to contribute for a bit before moving on because it's miserable. So sometimes it's better to deal with the problem you know, and just move them out of the critical path.
Re: Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama
#639Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, you're not kidding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessemer,_Alabama#Economy "Crime increased following the rise in unemployment and social disruption from the decline of manufacturing industries in the area. As of 2019 Bessemer ranks first in terms of violent crimes for US cities with 25,000 or more people." Population has fallen from its peak in 1970 of 33k to 26k today. Thanks for the reference. EDIT: Also hom…
I'm stupid, but why does unemployment cause violent crime?
You’re not stupid you’ve just never had to deal with a real actual problem in your life.
Unemployment is a cause of or certainly concomitant with having very high stress and a very poor outlook on the future. In a town like Bessemer the thought process is something like “I don’t have a job, I’m not going to get one, I have no money, and this situation is not going to change.” And it’s not just you thinking this, you see your friends and family having the same problems. You reach out for help but after a while the good graces of others run out. So do unemployment checks.
After a few months you get evicted, so no one else will rent to you, and you are either homeless or at least not in control of your living situation. A slum lord may be involved. The food bank (which was already not a great source of food) is now useless since you need a kitchen to make most of the raw supplies they hand out.
The stress and pressure to take care of ones self and ones family under these conditions often leads so serious mental health issues, drug use, and domestic violence. For some it leads to other crimes like stealing, mostly stealing food or stealing things to buy food and drugs. You see your friends falling victim to these issues, getting arrested, dying of exposure, or losing themselves to mental illness. Prospects don’t look good.
Re: Amazon workers vote against unionizing in Alabama
#640Earlier quoted context omitted.
No objection that most of EU is better than the US in these regards, but Amazon warehouse workers get some of the best healthcare insurance that I’ve ever seen in the US. Similar to what the top-level-commenter pointed out, I guarantee that the warehouse jobs in Bessemer provide among the best healthcare available in the town. The US as a whole is awful at providing healthcare, but healthcare is a particular area whe…
I'm an Amazon warehouse worker in North Carolina. As far as health insurance, I pay 100% of the first $1500, then 10% of the next $15,000 (so $3000 total), then 0% of anything over $16,500. I wouldn't call that astonishing, but it is the minimum $0 monthly premium plan. Also, I'm generally happy at work. I basically feel well paid and well treated.
This is pretty much the same insurance that full-time SWEs at Microsoft receive at Redmond HQ (well, one of the two options, with the other one being tied to Kaiser specifically, but most people I know take the one that's similar to yours). 100% of the first $1.5k, 10% until you hit the total of $3k, and then everything is free. $0 monthly premium as well. That's the one I have myself at the moment.
Glad to see someone like you list the real numbers, because I keep hearing "good insurance" when it comes to Amazon warehouses, but this is the first time I saw someone actually point out the specifics. Also glad to hear that Amazon warehouse workers receive health benefits on par with full-time SWEs (not being sarcastic here, I genuinely am happy to hear this is the case).