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Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Company's First U.S. Union

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Re: Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Company's First U.S. Union

#11
post #3

They should and should be making no less then $20 an hour to start!

> ... should be making no less then $20 an hour to start!

Why?

A company should have the right to pay whatever they deem appropriate and an individual should have the right to choose to pursue whichever job they wish.

Re: Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Company's First U.S. Union

#12

Along with the unionization at Google, I think it's a good trend to see them happening at big tech companies. As it says in the article: "Unions are a prominent presence at Amazon in Europe, but the company for years successfully fought off labor organizing efforts in the U.S." It's sad that Amazon, along with FB and Google, etc. have managed to squash unions so completely here in the US. There's a lot of propaganda…

Unions in the US and unions is Europe are completely different. In one they cooperate to see that the company succeeds...and in the other they seek to drive up the cost of doing business to the point that shitty products are extremely expensive (GM, Ford).

Unions used to be for protecting the workers and ensuring that companies were getting the very best skillsets when hiring. Now they protect the lazy, promote the well connected and drain efficiency from businesses. Longshoreman are the most shining example of how to destroy businesses...Port of Portland is now shuttered because they intentionally slowed down work to the point of forcing companies to go elsewhere. ILWU was hit with a $19M judgment because of the things it did in Portland.

Re: Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Company's First U.S. Union

#13

Along with the unionization at Google, I think it's a good trend to see them happening at big tech companies. As it says in the article: "Unions are a prominent presence at Amazon in Europe, but the company for years successfully fought off labor organizing efforts in the U.S." It's sad that Amazon, along with FB and Google, etc. have managed to squash unions so completely here in the US. There's a lot of propaganda…

Unions in the US and unions is Europe are completely different. In one they cooperate to see that the company succeeds...and in the other they seek to drive up the cost of doing business to the point that shitty products are extremely expensive (GM, Ford). Unions used to be for protecting the workers and ensuring that companies were getting the very best skillsets when hiring. Now they protect the lazy, promote the w…

The quality of a union is a function of membership engagement and organizational structure. Shitty unions, shitty companies, these are all who is in charge and how they're governed and the transparency available.

Better to admit we need better operating models for unions (and that unions need to work in partnership with management to create sustainable relationships and businesses), rigorous governance and oversight of them, and that that is likely superior to the current situation of labor's collective power to continue to erode over the last four decades. Not only does labor need a seat at the table, employee ownership should be strongly encouraged through policy (this also financially aligns incentives between management and labor, which is a good thing imho).

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Re: Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Company's First U.S. Union

#14
post #3

They should and should be making no less then $20 an hour to start!

I don't even make 20$ an hour after 15 years at my job... when I was 18 I was doing the kind of work Amazon workers do for minimum wage which was 5.15 an hour IIRC. I was happy to have a job and fully understood warehouse work is not a career.

20$ an hour is 2.75x the minimum wage here in Indiana. A significant portion of the people I know don't even gross 41k a year.

Re: Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Company's First U.S. Union

#15

Along with the unionization at Google, I think it's a good trend to see them happening at big tech companies. As it says in the article: "Unions are a prominent presence at Amazon in Europe, but the company for years successfully fought off labor organizing efforts in the U.S." It's sad that Amazon, along with FB and Google, etc. have managed to squash unions so completely here in the US. There's a lot of propaganda…

what I'm astonished by is the degree to which American firms are allowed to sabotage unionisation efforts despite, as I understand it, the US actually having similar protections for workplace assembly as other Western countries.

If you tried interfere with unions here in Germany you'd run up against the law, the media and so on very, very quickly, it's one of the things you don't want to screw with.

Re: Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Company's First U.S. Union

#16

I wonder what percentage of otherwise very liberal Amazon devs read sentences like "The company for years successfully fought off labor organizing efforts in the U.S." and come away thinking "we're definitely the good guys."

Honest question: does the Democratic Party care about labor anymore? It feels like anti-Trumpism, identity issues (race, trans issues, etc.), and immigration have sucked all the oxygen out of the room. I can’t remember the last time I saw a Democrat run with supporting labor as their headline issue.

Re: Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Company's First U.S. Union

#17

I have to imagine unions have a bit of an uphill battle right now, they took some major black eyes in 2020: - Police unions openly declaring war on their own citizens - Teachers unions causing general chaos in school reopening plans I understand that public sector unions are a different beast, but purely from an optics perspective I have to imagine public sentiment for unions can't be very high right now.

Public sector unions are the worst of the union beasts -- a layer of financially interested and un-elected bureaucrats between taxpayers and the services they are paying for.

In California, the teachers union has a grotesque level of influence -- and the quality of the kids' education isn't so special, as a result.

Re: Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Company's First U.S. Union

#19

I have to imagine unions have a bit of an uphill battle right now, they took some major black eyes in 2020: - Police unions openly declaring war on their own citizens - Teachers unions causing general chaos in school reopening plans I understand that public sector unions are a different beast, but purely from an optics perspective I have to imagine public sentiment for unions can't be very high right now.

I've never fully understood public unions to be honest. Unions used to be the best way to protect yourself from a bad employer...but the employer is the government (and to some extent the people). It used to be that public sector workers made less in exchange for better benefits, but in the last few years the war was waged on the public to increase wages to that of "private companies". Now teachers in my state make more than an average BS degree and work 9 months of the year...along with better medical and retirement benefits. They still claim they are underpaid and taxes just keep going up.

Re: Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Company's First U.S. Union

#20

To be honest I find it much more likely Amazon would just shut down the Bessemer, Alabama warehouse, terminate the employment of any workers who joined the union, and open a new warehouse within a 50 mile radius of the current one. edit: since there are labor law repercussions to terminate the unionized workers, they'd likely just shut down the plant in its entirety.

That would cause even more outrage.
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