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Amazon workers on Staten Island vote to unionize

nytimes.com

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Re: Amazon workers on Staten Island vote to unionize

#581

Post by refurb »

Bilal_io wrote: post #558
refurb wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of the republican working class party has always been more of a clever rhetorical strategy than a reality. I find this a funny criticism considered when Trump won a big swath of non-college graduates (presumably blue collar workers) he was ridiculed for having the “dumb” vote.

No, he was ridiculed for [loving] the dumb vote, because he said so . https://youtu.be/Vpdt7omPoa0

Well that was amazingly dishonest of you.

He said he loves the “poorly educated”, he never said “dumb”, you did, which I think says more about you than Trump.

Re: Amazon workers on Staten Island vote to unionize

#582

Post by Jach »

ineedasername wrote: post #373
google234123 wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cartel is a pretty strong word for what happened and the fact that wages remained high is likely not an anomaly. E.g. Hedge funds which make similarly large amounts of money have paid their employees just as well for many years.

The FAANGs had soft agreements to work together on labor by not hiring each other's workers. That seems to fit the definition of a cartel: "group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market" I suppose we might argue that even the FAANGs together aren't large enough to constitute the full market. Other companies compete over the workforce of…

Notably the F did not take part in the collusion.

Re: Amazon workers on Staten Island vote to unionize

#583

Post by bushbaba »

bdefore wrote: post #265
vikingerik wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, when COVID occurred there was little room for teachers to get a say This may have been a positive. The teachers and their unions are only motivated for them to stay home and "safe", forever. It's the customers (parents) who need the leverage to get the teachers to actually deliver the service they're getting paid for, rather than trying to hide from their job indefinitely as many would be happy to do. Unions…

This is uncaring towards those working hardest on the challenges of education. Teachers more than those in most occupations are driven by care for their customers - their students. The low pay and hard work drives many of them away. Righteous parents even more.

Teachers pay can actually be good considering benefits, hours worked, time of, and benefits. There’s hover paying jobs, but also lots of worse career choices

Re: Amazon workers on Staten Island vote to unionize

#584

Post by chelical »

cycomanic wrote: post #422
gruez wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unlike Mexico, New York City does not need to maintain its borders or enforce a monopoly on the use of force and a supreme law -- because New York City is not a Westphalian state, it is just a municipal government covering a few hundred square miles! you'd think that's the case, but it seems fairly normal for countries to have more police officers than soldiers[1][2]. Just looking at g8 countries: soldiers police o…

But that was not what he was saying. His argument was that just because NY has such a high GDP does not mean they need to spend that much on their police force. The number of police (+soldiers) you need is more a function of the number of citizens and area. Just taking your numbers above. The NY police has 50,000 police for ~8.5 M people. Germany has ~280k police for 80 M people, and that number likely includes borde…

NY deals with more violent crime than Germany tbf.

Re: Amazon workers on Staten Island vote to unionize

#585

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

parineum wrote: post #530
Retric wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. So, the question is if you want lower spending etc, who do you vote for? It’s not obvious. Take a corporate tax loophole, is that spending and or a form of economic control? Foreign ownership of US companies compounds this, is it giving money to foreigners or good economic policy etc.

> Take a corporate tax loophole Tax policy you disagree with isn't a loophole.

Forward carried interest is a loophole created for the express purpose of letting the wealthy occupy a lower tax bracket. It has no other public benefit.

Re: Amazon workers on Staten Island vote to unionize

#586

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

truffdog wrote: post #550
zeruch wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The idea of the republican working class party has always been more of a clever rhetorical strategy than a reality." Always? No. But certainly since the 1970s.

The Republican party was the party of big business before the end of the civil war.

It also used to be the party of civil rights when Democrats were the ones engaged in voter suppression.

Re: Amazon workers on Staten Island vote to unionize

#588

Post by WalterBright »

Retric wrote: post #519
lliamander wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither of the two parties represents anything close to a small-government platform.

I agree. So, the question is if you want lower spending etc, who do you vote for? It’s not obvious. Take a corporate tax loophole, is that spending and or a form of economic control? Foreign ownership of US companies compounds this, is it giving money to foreigners or good economic policy etc.

Paying less taxes is not government "spending". A person's income is not government property that the government generously allows the person to keep some of it.

Re: Amazon workers on Staten Island vote to unionize

#589

Post by nessguy »

bobsmooth wrote: post #503
nessguy wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the idea of unions more than the reality. My first job was earning minimum wage working full-time at Safeway. After working there for about 9 months I quit because I didn't want to pay union dues to join the union. I was already only making minimum wage, it wasn't like the union was improving my salary. The required hour long lunch breaks might have been thanks to the union, but I hated having to take hour lon…

>It left a bad taste in my mouth. Buy better food? I don't understand how a person can eat their food and digest it in 30 minutes.

Nowadays when I work downtown I'll sometimes take a leisurely lunch that involves walking to a restaurant, ordering food, waiting for it, eating it, and then returning. That can take me up to an hour if things are really slow.

Back then I worked in the Safeway deli. I'd often make a sandwich for myself and set it aside, walk around the counter and buy it when lunch started, and then finish eating in 15-20 minutes. And then I'd be stuck sitting around in the break room with nothing to do waiting out the remaining 40 minutes.

Sure I usually read books or watched tv on a little Archos media player. But I would have rather finished work earlier and done that in the comfort of my home.

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