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Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#541

Post by therealdrag0 »

ThunderSizzle wrote: post #279
billy99k wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon warehouse work pays almost $20/hour where I live, which is well above the federal minimum wage and more than almost every other company in the area for this type of work. This is a living wage. "should be replaced with robots" I also think it's funny we are having this discussion. When songwriters and other creators were complaining about piracy in the 2000s, the general response from the tech community was th…

A livable wage is a wage a husband can make to raise a family, including housing, food, transportation, schooling, etc. $20/hr is about $40k/yr. Using 30% towards housing, that means they can only denote $12/yr to housing, or $1k/month. At current interest rates, that translates to a $150,000 house. What can you get for $150? There's nothing in any area I've looked that was actually habitable ever since the governmen…

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen people buying in the 100-200 range on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyers. Nit sure where tho.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#542

Post by therealdrag0 »

harvey9 wrote: post #407
IncreasePosts wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a livable wage? That differs if someone is living with their parents, or if they have 3 kids and are living alone and the sole earner in the family.

My unscientific view is a person working 40 hours a week should at least be able to afford a modest home, fresh food and other ordinary expenses. If a job pays less than that and needs to be topped up by some kind of public assistance then we should think of that as a subsidy to the business rather than welfare to the employee.

There’s many facets to the eco only tho. Why blame Amazon for not paying a livable wage instead of blaming the government and NIMBYs for shitty planning and not building enough housing? If housing and healthcare cost 1/3 of what it does today wouldn’t this be more of a living wage?

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#543

Post by therealdrag0 »

huijzer wrote: post #93
vouaobrasil wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are supporting is local sustainability. The world would be better off with less global trade and more local productions. Local productions means a stronger community and more visibility for business practices, because it's more sustainable. If a global business decides to just toss all the plastic it uses it in its backyard you'll never notice because it's 2000 miles away. If Amazon decides to treat their wo…

This is a common sentiment especially in Germany, but Hannah Richie in Not the End of the World shows multiple studies where the impact of CO₂ from transport is negligible for most foods. Other factors like what we decide to eat play a much greater role. Your plastic example is a reasonable example, but I could also counter that if plastic is the problem then locally isn't necessarily more sustainable. Local farmers…

Plastic SIGNIFICANTLY reduces waste. Freakanomics also pointed out that locally grown can have worse carbon footprint than food shipped around the world.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#544

Post by therealdrag0 »

euroderf wrote: post #439
bufferoverflow wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's equivalent to you making 20% less money. Not many people will choose that.

Behold! Neighborhood businesses wither and die.

When all the business does is order from the catalog shipped from China and stock a shelf it’s not that worrisome when they die.

Businesses that should be able to sustain themselves are things that have additional experiences and services. Food, coffee, sports shops with fittings or lessons, bike shops with repair rooms, art galleries that are fun to browse, clothing stores that you can touch and try on, stuff crafted locally that is tangibly better than something mass produced, etc.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#545

Post by therealdrag0 »

themaninthedark wrote: post #375
cloverich wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which are definitely more efficient than having every individual that needs something hop in a car and drive for 20+ minutes. One delivery person with goods for 100 people in their truck is literally one truck replacing one hundred drivers. It is absolutely much more efficient carbon wise. All of the warehouses and 18 wheelers exist either way, since the local shops still need all the same supplies, although presumab…

They didn't exist prior to Amazon deciding to offer 2day delivery, that's my point. Why else would they invest all that money, when they could use the already existing services that deliver to people's houses fairly quickly: FedEx, UPS and DHL or the slightly slower but goes everywhere every day USPS? Your one person is a truck delivering to 100 homes ignores the fact that at least 80% of the people in those homes ha…

There are studies about this. I don’t know how good they are or what specific scenarios they apply to (urban vs rural vs rural are all different calculations). But what I’ve seen is it’s about 14 items you’d have to buy before going to the store yourself is more efficient than shopping online.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#546

Post by therealdrag0 »

carlosjobim wrote: post #153
cpitman wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That driving and time is amortized across 1000s of deliveries.

The product is delivered the same distance, whether it is from "Producer -> Amazon warehouses -> Customer" or if it is "Producer -> Retail warehouses -> Customer". An Amazon delivery car with a bunch of products to deliver is the equivalent of OP filling up his car with purchases when shopping in town.

The key is “filling up his car”. Most trips for most people aren’t like that. There is a tipping point for which it’s more efficient to order online. One study I saw said it takes 14 items before driving yourself is more efficient (of course the calculus is different for every car and route).

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#547

Post by sobani »

aio2 wrote: post #479
rlupi wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guys, you have to fix USA! > Healthcare, decent sized apartment, 5 weeks of paid vacation, free or easily affordable pre school, overtime pay, decent schools and free college, is a good start. This is literally the (by-law) standard of living for people with full time jobs with employment contracts[1] where I grew in Italy... that's not Silicon Valley, but one part of Italy that has been depressed for many years. (It…

Italy and America are different places, with conditions. Just because one is feasible in one country doesn't mean its feasible in another.

Yeah @rlupi, America is far too poor to afford basic living conditions. /s

But seriously, no US state is as poor as Italy, in GDP per capita terms (Mississippi 50K vs Italy 40K).

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#548

Post by billy99k »

azemetre wrote: post #266
billy99k wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon warehouse work pays almost $20/hour where I live, which is well above the federal minimum wage and more than almost every other company in the area for this type of work. This is a living wage. "should be replaced with robots" I also think it's funny we are having this discussion. When songwriters and other creators were complaining about piracy in the 2000s, the general response from the tech community was th…

$20/hr still isn't much money and you can only survive, note I'm not saying thrive here, on that amount in the poor areas in America. There are very few jobs that actually pay well in America nowadays, and the ones that do tend to be congregated in few geographical areas and require extensive schooling. The vast majority of Americans deserve more money. Also check your priors, there are many musicians that do not com…

"There are very few jobs that actually pay well in America nowadays, and the ones that do tend to be congregated in few geographical areas and require extensive schooling"

There are plenty of blue collar jobs that don't require schooling and can make a comfortable living. If you are talking about a job anyone with a pulse can get? This won't ever pay well.

"I know many musicians that would upload their music on private trackers, regardless of what their label wanted or said."

All the indy artists I knew ended up having to get out of the business because they couldn't sell their music anymore (people would just download it and expect it for free) and making money from live performances are mostly controlled by large corporations.

Piracy only hurt independent artists and forced all of them with talent to sign with large labels to make a decent living.

Again, with piracy, you want no protection for the artist (and even justify why taking their music, without asking, is fine). Yet, you want the unions to collude with the government to force corporations to halt all technological advances, so workers don't lose their jobs.

Doesn't make much sense here.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#549

Post by aliasxneo »

AcerbicZero wrote: post #386
aliasxneo wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've gotten a lot of free stuff from Amazon. Shipped duplicate products to me? Just keep the other. Food bottle slightly cracked and leaked in transit? Keep it and we'll send another. I was even able to get another 30% off an already sale price for a Kindle because my old one (>5 years) died, and they couldn't fix it. Not justifying any particular actions on their part, but their customer service has been above and b…

I recall it used to be like that....but I haven't had that level of customer service out of amazon since like, 2017-2018 at the latest. Amazon earned my business back in the day, but they don't seem very interested in it anymore.

Strange, the cracked bottle example was from only a few months ago.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#550

Post by pyrale »

bdangubic wrote: post #524
pyrale wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you just don't like someone doing it more efficiently For some value of "more efficiently". I mean if the most efficient way to work is to have delivery drivers pee in a bottle and warehouse workers develop RSIs, who am I to complain? Someone else's dignity is a small price to pay in order to get a 3% rebate on some commodity.

you have no issues using iphone/pixel/whatever you got based on how those are manufactured? you gonna buy your next phone from a local producer? At least in the USA we have some semblance of a Labor Department etc...

Of course I have, but I also don’t have much choice.

I mitigated it by having my first smartphone last 12 years, and I am now using the company-provided one in order to avoid a second buy. Not ideal, I’ll admit. I hope that, by the time I need a change, I can use a pinephone and convince my company that I only need a rsa otp or a yubikey.

But is that really related to the thread?

> At least in the USA we have some semblance of a Labor Department etc...

Any local alternative to amazon will also have it, and less execs/lawyers whose only job is to make them irrelevant.

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