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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”

#101

Post by mistermann »

eftychis wrote: post #96
uncomputation wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say you’re a father. You need to support your family, and there’s an Amazon Fulfillment Center in town. It pays a whole dollar an hour better than the local fruit packing warehouse, which is a huge difference. Amazon is providing me a valuable opportunity! Except now, I’m working myself to the bone trying to fulfill my package counts, peeing in bottles, shitting in bags, constantly stressed about if I can not only me…

These working conditions should simply be illegal in the U.S. (and the countries it is not already). There is no way around that. If society doesn't demand that then good luck to all of us. I am simply surprised again and again people haven't "broken" and keep putting up with this.

My understanding is that people voted for this, that's what I'm told anyways.

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

#102

Post by ryandrake »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #85
heavyset_go wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Negotiations exist between two parties in a contractual relationship. Employment isn't a take it or leave it deal, it's give and take between two parties where terms of employment are decided by negotiations between both of them.

You mean like how I freely negotiate and accept the contract that describes CPUs backdoors (Intel Management Engine) in one of two computer CPU manufacturers in the world?

Or your cellphone contract, or apartment lease, or the terms of use for every web site, or End User License Agreements. They're all totally "meeting of the minds" mutually agreed upon between parties of equal power, open to negotiation by skilled end-users... LOL! Most contracts/agreements that end users are subjected to are far from freely negotiable. They are take-it-or-leave-it rule-making written by some company's legal counsel and enforced by the courts. Agree or don't do business with.

I've never been presented with an employment agreement where any of the terms could be negotiated. Salary and benefits? Yes, sometimes. But other terms? No way. I always try, but in every case, you get a stern message from corporate legal basically saying "Sign it unmodified or GTFO." I don't know who these HN Captains of Industry are who negotiate the terms of their employment, but that's the exception, not the rule. Maybe at the VP+ level, these things are negotiable (parties are more equal in power), but at the "5th grunt from the left" level, no way.

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

#104

Post by avidphantasm »

When I was in grad school my advisor was in China for a few months. Any emails where air quality was discussed seemed to end up black-holed. Similar messages using pig latin versions of the same phrases seemed to make it through just fine.

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

#105

Post by heavyset_go »

eftychis wrote: post #96
uncomputation wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say you’re a father. You need to support your family, and there’s an Amazon Fulfillment Center in town. It pays a whole dollar an hour better than the local fruit packing warehouse, which is a huge difference. Amazon is providing me a valuable opportunity! Except now, I’m working myself to the bone trying to fulfill my package counts, peeing in bottles, shitting in bags, constantly stressed about if I can not only me…

These working conditions should simply be illegal in the U.S. (and the countries it is not already). There is no way around that. If society doesn't demand that then good luck to all of us. I am simply surprised again and again people haven't "broken" and keep putting up with this.

> I am simply surprised again and again people haven't "broken" and keep putting up with this.

Rates of deaths of despair suggest that people have broken, they just don't have the leverage to significantly change things.

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

#106

Post by s1artibartfast »

Please keep in mind this is a rewards program text box, not a chat app.

The program itself may be stupid, but I don't know any company that would allow these terms in internally visible recognition.

My company uses manual review for recognition, but I would expect a call from my manager if I sent a public kudos "Great job fighting for union pay raises for the slave labor at our company"

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

#107

Post by Aunche »

arcticbull wrote: post #91
ars wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> working their employees to death (literally in the case of the tornado) According to people who live in the area this isn't true. Amazon's response to the tornado was what everyone in that area does.

Well if thats the case then a lot of places are working employees to death and should all stop. Amazon clearly has the budget to look after its employees. Noblesse oblige and whatnot.

You clearly have some preconceived grudge towards Amazon or any big employer. They didn't die because they were "working to death." They died because the building collapsed. They deserve scrutiny for that that, but so do the building codes.

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

#108

Post by heavyset_go »

ryandrake wrote: post #102
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like how I freely negotiate and accept the contract that describes CPUs backdoors (Intel Management Engine) in one of two computer CPU manufacturers in the world?

Or your cellphone contract, or apartment lease, or the terms of use for every web site, or End User License Agreements. They're all totally "meeting of the minds" mutually agreed upon between parties of equal power, open to negotiation by skilled end-users... LOL! Most contracts/agreements that end users are subjected to are far from freely negotiable. They are take-it-or-leave-it rule-making written by some company'…

This is the point of unions, because atomized workers don't have much leverage by themselves to negotiate with an entities that have already consolidated their interests and power in the form of corporations. Unions help workers consolidate their interests and power in order to leverage them against the consolidated interests and power of their employers and negotiate better terms of employment.

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

#109

Post by Sebguer »

Ah, of course, Dave Clark, the man who was famously known as "the Sniper" because he'd lurk around warehouses to catch people that were taking breaks, and also was directly behind Amazon deciding to pick a fight with Bernie Sanders.

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

#110

Post by iddan »

sega_sai wrote: post #103

It's an interesting full circle from capitalistic company to soviet style censorship.

It’s a classic example of the Horseshoe Effect [0]: extreme capitalism and extreme soviet communism are closer to each other than to social-democracy for instance [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory
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