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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”

#141

Post by arcticbull »

refurb wrote: post #128
arcticbull wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Seems pretty clear you’d hate Amazon no matter what they do?

Honestly I like a ton of what Amazon does. AWS is great. Their shopping platform, I'm broadly a big fan of. I'm not a fan of union busting, employee smooshing and pee bottles. The latter two I suspect would go away if they stopped doing the first, but I digress. I didn't think that'd be contentious but here we are.

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

#142

Post by lupire »

mdorazio wrote: post #86
_dain_ wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"just quit and get another job" -- this is frictionless-plane-in-a-vacuum thinking. people have all kinds of life circumstances that means they can't act like perfectly rational economic agents, especially when they are poor. turn it around: why doesn't amazon just respect its worker's basic human dignity?

> why doesn't amazon just respect its worker's basic human dignity? Because that directly conflicts with making the highest profit possible (still legally). What’s sad in these discussions is that it’s both true that Amazon is a terrible employer and that it often pays more than alternatives for many workers. This seems like a failure of policy (ex. Enforcing living wage standards) and American business well-being at…

If Jeff Bezos wants to work his staff until their bodies break and delivery trucks crash, the least they can do is the same to his body.

Eat the rich.

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

#143

Post by dh2022 »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #129
waterhouse wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the conditions are that bad, are they really worth the extra dollar per hour? Seems like the fruit packing warehouse is a better choice for most people. Worse employment conditions will always come with a pay premium under competition.

Depends how badly you need that dollar.

I worked lots of minimum wage jobs. None of my co-workers would have peed in bottles / shit in bags / stress themselves out for 1 more dollar / hour. Me neither.

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

#144

Post by lupire »

jasd wrote: post #98
mdorazio wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why doesn't amazon just respect its worker's basic human dignity? Because that directly conflicts with making the highest profit possible (still legally). What’s sad in these discussions is that it’s both true that Amazon is a terrible employer and that it often pays more than alternatives for many workers. This seems like a failure of policy (ex. Enforcing living wage standards) and American business well-being at…

I don't understand why we expect Amazon to do the right thing vs we should expect in this case all retailers to do the right thing? Unfortunately as consumers we are always looking for the best deal or the lowest price on everything. Which means retailers need to cut costs every way possible which in turn leads to sucking every ounce out of workers. Let's assume that Amazon did end up making things way better for the…

Jeff Bezos's $200B says he's not paying the most he can while still surviving in business.

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

#145

Post by gruez »

scarmig wrote: post #13
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.

I think you missed the whole "capitalism" vs "planned economies" comparison entirely. The advantage of capitalism over planned economies isn't that it's democratic or whatever. It's that in capitalism, individual companies are allowed to fail if they perform poorly, whereas in a command economy it takes the entire country down.

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

#146

Post by lupire »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #106

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"

That's why it is illegal for management to interfere with labor organizing. Because they will abuse their power wherever they can.

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

#147

Post by lupire »

klyrs wrote: post #34
DennisP wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because union organizing is protected by law? It doesn't count as working so Amazon can get away with this as long as they prohibit all non-work conversation, but if they're specifically targeting union organizing then it looks like they're breaking the law: https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/em...

I'm amused by the implication that they're willing to break the law (specifically forbidding discussion of unions) and inadvertently impede work conversation (forbidding code snippets that include a union type).

It's an app for factory workers, not programmers.

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

#148

Post by Aunche »

arcticbull wrote: post #117
Aunche wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've nothing against big employers, I think the more resources a company has, the bigger their responsibility is to their employees to keep them safe at work.

The fact remains that they were not working while the tornados struck, yet you claim that they were being "worked to death". Sounds like a preconceived grudge to me.

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

#150

Post by mellosouls »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #139
mellosouls wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know any company that would allow these terms in an internally visible recognition. Certainly not the case at every organisation; unions have a strong presence in some long-established private industries and public sector organisations, including general communications.

Do those companies have recognition programs where where you can reward people for union topics?

That's very different to the quote which claimed no supported visible presence.
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