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Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

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Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#181

Post by bombcar »

BbzzbB wrote: post #170
bombcar wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is amusing because the official name of Mexico is “ Estados Unidos Mexicanos” which is “états-uniens” also.

Which is something I've heard for the first time in this thread. I understand it's true, but isn't it a bit of a legal formality? When you go thru Mexican customs, it says Mexico, not Estados Unidos Mexicanos or United Mexican States (from the North). The passport says Mexico in bold on top and the full formal name on the crest. The U.N. seat's plate says Mexico. Americans tend to even abbreviate their country to the…

They don't, partially because "that name" is already taken by the so-called America.

Arguably their name translates as "United Mexican States" whereas the USA has "of America" in it, nobody calls it the "United American States".

My petition to rename the USA to solve this by labeling everything MURICA has stalled in committee it seems.

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#182

Post by virgulino »

philwelch wrote: post #148
alecco wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"America" was originally what is now called South America. Mercator then called "America" both North and South. Then common use in English forced "America" to mean United States of America only. Schoolchildren in the rest of the countries are told "America" is a continent united by a continuous mountain range going from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. I guess this will go away once education is globalized and homogenized…

Yeah, sorry, if North and South America are all one continent, then Europe, Asia, and Africa are all one continent, too. In fact the Darien Gap is completely impassible, very much unlike the Urals or the Sinai.

>Yeah, sorry, if North and South America are all one continent, then Europe, Asia, and Africa are all one continent, too. In fact the Darien Gap is completely impassible, very much unlike the Urals or the Sinai.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent

North America and South America are treated as separate continents in the seven-continent model. However, they may also be viewed as a single continent known as America. This viewpoint was common in the United States until World War II, and remains prevalent in some Asian six-continent models. The single American continent model remains the more common view in France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, and Latin American countries.

The Darien Gap is "impassable" only because it is a protected forest and therefore roads and railways are not allowed.

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#183

Post by gedy »

chmod775 wrote: post #174

Meta: Right now there's thirteen top level comments on this story, and only one of them isn't heavily downvoted, flagged, or dead. At least some of the comments on this story objectively shouldn't be flagged, because they're made in good faith by reputable accounts, while most comments could be taken straight from Facebook. On a five hour old submission with 200 votes you'd normally expect some worthwhile discussion,…

This mirrors real life interactions with union organizers in my family (as workers). Anything less than rah rah the union you get shunned and ostracized as some business shill. These bullying tactics are why I avoid unions.

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#184

Post by missedthecue »

photochemsyn wrote: post #180

The general issue with the largest employers in the neoliberalized countries (Amazon, Walmart) relative to the outsourced sectors (manufacturing mainly) is that wages are now much lower for the blue-collar worker, who is now doing service/shipping (~$15/hr -> ~$30k/yr) rather than manufacturing (~$30/hr -> ~$60k/yr). Amazon employs about one million people in the United States, and unionization and collective bargain…

Amazon net income is less than $30B. They also do not pay dividends.

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#185

Post by effingwewt »

chmod775 wrote: post #174

Meta: Right now there's thirteen top level comments on this story, and only one of them isn't heavily downvoted, flagged, or dead. At least some of the comments on this story objectively shouldn't be flagged, because they're made in good faith by reputable accounts, while most comments could be taken straight from Facebook. On a five hour old submission with 200 votes you'd normally expect some worthwhile discussion,…

No post body was provided.

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#186

Post by n4r9 »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #168
mabbo wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadians do not refer to themselves as "American" in the same way that the Irish don't refer to themselves as "British" despite living in the "British Isles". If you insist on calling a Canadian "American", you'll quickly find they stop inviting you to social events. Because we're polite, but a bit passive aggressive. Edit: grammar fixes.

I agree with your main point, but I'm not sure the analogy totally works. People sometimes confuse "British" with meaning from Great Britain or from the U.K. I would guess that plenty of Irishmen would take exception to having their island treated as a de facto part of the U.K.

Isn't that exactly why the analogy works?

"British" means someone from the UK or an overseas territory/dependency. Therefore the Irish are not British and are rightfully miffed when called as such. Even though Ireland is in the (poorly named) British Isles.

"American" means a citizen or national of the USA. Therefore Canadians are not American and are rightfully miffed when called as such. Even though Canada is in (slightly less poorly named) North America.

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#187

Post by missedthecue »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #51

The linked piece is pretty biased, describing a text message and literature as "harassement"; have you seen the tatics the unions use to recruit and try to certify?

It's Jacobin. It would be like trying to prove the corporate tax is too high by linking to cato.org

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#188

Post by effingwewt »

gedy wrote: post #183
chmod775 wrote: post #174

Meta: Right now there's thirteen top level comments on this story, and only one of them isn't heavily downvoted, flagged, or dead. At least some of the comments on this story objectively shouldn't be flagged, because they're made in good faith by reputable accounts, while most comments could be taken straight from Facebook. On a five hour old submission with 200 votes you'd normally expect some worthwhile discussion,…

This mirrors real life interactions with union organizers in my family (as workers). Anything less than rah rah the union you get shunned and ostracized as some business shill. These bullying tactics are why I avoid unions.

Lol ah, yes, Amazon is the good guy here and magically it's now the union organizers who are harassing employees.

Just when I thought my eyes couldn't roll any harder.

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#189

Post by missedthecue »

dools wrote: post #34

Unions and vaccines are similar in that they are a collective action against which people only complain due to their effectiveness. That is to say, all the libertarians complaining about unions and vaccines can do so comfortably only because they have never been exposed to the horrors they helped to prevent .

People "only" complain due to their effectiveness? OPEC is also a union, have I no grounds to complain about them? What about when meat packing companies cartelize together to raise their incomes?

Competition is a good thing whether in labor or oil or chicken markets.

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#190

Post by mrep »

missedthecue wrote: post #184
photochemsyn wrote: post #180

The general issue with the largest employers in the neoliberalized countries (Amazon, Walmart) relative to the outsourced sectors (manufacturing mainly) is that wages are now much lower for the blue-collar worker, who is now doing service/shipping (~$15/hr -> ~$30k/yr) rather than manufacturing (~$30/hr -> ~$60k/yr). Amazon employs about one million people in the United States, and unionization and collective bargain…

Amazon net income is less than $30B. They also do not pay dividends.

And that is basically all AWS. Retail has actually lost money in the past 3 quarters.
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