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Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

theintercept.com

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Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#11

Post by wbsss4412 »

bko wrote: post #9
4oo4 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with that but I think including "pay raise" is a step too far. Employees have the right to discuss pay, via the NRLA. That is not inherently politically loaded language despite Amazon trying to make it so.

Yeah you may be right. I don't know about the specifics or have any opinion about particular words. I just think work should be professional. It's not a family. It's a group of people that get together to get a job done.

There are enough words on the list to get at intent, and it would seem that maintaining professionalism isn’t the only intent of that list.

“Accessibility”, “fairness”, “harassment”, etc are all normal words to use within the context of professional discussion.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#12

Post by bko »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #8
bko wrote: post #6

It sounds like its an internal chat app, presumably meant for business. If people were openly talking about "slave labor" and "vaccine" on any public company slack channels, I would think they'd shut it down at most organizations. I don't think you're allowed to use company time to organize. I don't think its unreasonable to make people work when they're on the clock and remove distractions. Many are used to comforta…

> I don't think its unreasonable to make people work when they're on the clock and remove distractions. I find that generally the kind of person who says such things is the kind of person who has a comfortable job where they can post memes on slack or comment on social media during the working day.

I would bet if you did a survey and asked whether you think it's appropriate to post spicy memes and organize against your employer on the company's time and systems you'd see a clear correlation with income levels. The lower the income the more bizarre they would consider that behavior

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#13

Post by scarmig »

sbinthree wrote: post #2

Whatever the corporate equivalent is of a late stage authoritarian dictatorship.

So much of what we call "capitalism" is just creating authoritarian planned economies in the miniature and shrugging our shoulders and saying that it's all "private" so rights like free speech don't apply. And both factions of the elite who run the country like it that way.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#14

Post by 4oo4 »

wbsss4412 wrote: post #11
bko wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah you may be right. I don't know about the specifics or have any opinion about particular words. I just think work should be professional. It's not a family. It's a group of people that get together to get a job done.

There are enough words on the list to get at intent, and it would seem that maintaining professionalism isn’t the only intent of that list. “Accessibility”, “fairness”, “harassment”, etc are all normal words to use within the context of professional discussion.

Yep, it's a lazy attempt at enforcing an Amazon Newspeak.

Coming soon: Amazon removes the SQL `Union` clause from all its products.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#15

Post by mc32 »

sbinthree wrote: post #2

Whatever the corporate equivalent is of a late stage authoritarian dictatorship.

The old, it’s a private company so they can set their own rules (see all the responses to Twitter censorship accusations).

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#16

Post by iamdamian »

For anyone who is concerned about the level of authoritarian control companies like Amazon have over employees, you might find the book Private Government worth a read: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691176512/pr...

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#18

Post by kotaKat »

bko wrote: post #6

It sounds like its an internal chat app, presumably meant for business. If people were openly talking about "slave labor" and "vaccine" on any public company slack channels, I would think they'd shut it down at most organizations. I don't think you're allowed to use company time to organize. I don't think its unreasonable to make people work when they're on the clock and remove distractions. Many are used to comforta…

It's not even a "chat app". It's some "shout out" social network system.

Amazon FC employees already have access to Chime and there's no message filtering there. I've seen the "u word" dropped back and forth on it myself.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#19

Post by TheCoelacanth »

mc32 wrote: post #15
sbinthree wrote: post #2

Whatever the corporate equivalent is of a late stage authoritarian dictatorship.

The old, it’s a private company so they can set their own rules (see all the responses to Twitter censorship accusations).

They can set their own rules, within the bounds allowed by law. It appears to me that they would only be allowed to make this restriction if they prohibit all non-work conversation: https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/em...

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#20

Post by tenebrisalietum »

iamdamian wrote: post #16

For anyone who is concerned about the level of authoritarian control companies like Amazon have over employees, you might find the book Private Government worth a read: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691176512/pr...

Why would you use a work-provided chat app to discuss things the company may not like? For example, do you not expect your employer to know if you're browsing for another job over company provided Internet on company provided laptops?

If they were spying on the guest Wifi, that's another thing.

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