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Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts

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Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts

#141

Post by Pfhreak »

jm4 wrote: post #101
_qwfv wrote: post #3

tl;dr: Email lists with 500+ people must be moderated and have a manager moderate them. (It's unclear if manager means 'manages employees' or 'manages email list'.) This seems pretty draconian to me, if it's true.

Not really. Big email lists like that generate tons of spam. What Amazon is doing is presumably to block unionization efforts, but, frankly, what's surprising is that they didn't have a control like this in place already. I work for a much smaller company than Amazon (without a chance of a union ever forming) and we don't let just anyone blast out emails to hundreds of people. We used to and it drove everyone nuts. P…

Amazon has (had?) a pretty vibrant culture of "*-interest @" mailing lists. Whether it's videogames or whatever, people are used to using those lists and more or less self regulating.

Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts

#142

Post by jimmaswell »

willis936 wrote: post #8
jimmaswell wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would seem like a pretty clear-cut case if these managers denied messages talking about unionizing.

"I'm sorry. Your message about labor rights does not fall in line with Amazon's mission and has been filtered." You wouldn't even need a human to do this.

It would potentially be a slam-dunk lawsuit if it was that explicit.

Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts

#143

Post by grumple »

rochester46 wrote: post #47
grumple wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are on the lower end of big tech salaries. And the vast majority of their employees are warehouse workers, and they are paid very poorly.

This comment seems like it comes from a place that has a warped understanding of what typical pay is. >They are on the lower end of big tech salaries. Amazon pay may be slightly lower than FB, Google, or Netflix. But the $150k entry-level starting pay that most of the corporate workers get is still so so so much higher than the vast majority of companies pay that it's laughable to imply that Amazon doesn't pay them w…

Hmm, looks like their pay is better than last time I looked. Mea culpa.

As for the rest; 17/hour to break your back is not a lot. And people have been lambasting the minimum wage for decades, and companies that pay it.

Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts

#144

Post by maest »

jordache wrote: post #51
redmattred wrote: post #45

Here is the page to cancel your Amazon Prime membership: https://www.amazon.com/mc/pipelines/cancellation

i don't understand this movement. If there is a purity test, to gauge your alignment with the internal company rules associated with every goods + service you rely on, then there needs to be transparency across the entire world economic landscape. Why cherry pick? Just because media decided to bring it to your attention? So you canceled Amazon Prime, everything else in your life was produced by some other entity. Do…

There is a name for what you are saying: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_fallacy

Alternatively, "perfect is the enemy of good".

Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts

#146

Post by pacala »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #67
pacala wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at this scale. Not at the scale where the nobility lives in NYC/SF/Shanghai and the peasants live in a different state or even overseas.

There are plenty of peasants in the places you mentioned. You just don’t see them. Who do you think provides all the basic services?

Correct. The point is that the peasant mass center, so to speak, is today more distant that it's ever been.

Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts

#147

Post by Ididntdothis »

pacala wrote: post #146
Ididntdothis wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of peasants in the places you mentioned. You just don’t see them. Who do you think provides all the basic services?

Correct. The point is that the peasant mass center, so to speak, is today more distant that it's ever been.

Why do you think it’s different now? The wealthy have always lived in a few places from where they could dominate the whole country.

Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts

#148

Post by kevlar1818 »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #145
kevlar1818 wrote: post #132

@dang + HN moderators: Why did you change my link? I originally linked to the ArsTechnica article. And why was it removed from the front page?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23071016

Thanks for pointing that out. I dislike this moderation strategy, but I'll respect it.

Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts

#149

Post by linuxftw »

da_chicken wrote: post #138
linuxftw wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tariffs would have to be so high that sum I disagree. Almost anything made overseas can be made in the US, it's vast place. If you raise tariffs, that's going to hurt the largest international corporations and stimulate the local small to medium sized companies. Prices for goods would go up, but so would the demand for labor. Also, goods would be of higher quality and there would be less disposable consumer-culture…

> Prices for goods would go up, but so would the demand for labor. That's true, but no rational economist or politician believes that tariffs are here to stay. They're a reflection of Trump's ideas rather than a recognized modern economic policy. Even then, Trump's goal was to combat China's policies, not create a long term system of import and export taxes to protect American workers. As a result, there hasn't been…

> Even then, Trump's goal was to combat China's policies, not create a long term system of import and export taxes to protect American workers.

Well, if you consider he canceled the adoption of the TPP, the Paris Climate Accord, and negotiated the MCA agreement, I'd say it was a series of long term changes.

Naturally, there's only so much the executive branch can do in isolation.

> You'd be crazy to invest in US manufacturing since the tariffs look about as permanent as a White House press secretary.

Right, need congress to act.

Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts

#150

Post by innagadadavida »

londons_explore wrote: post #85
redmattred wrote: post #45

Here is the page to cancel your Amazon Prime membership: https://www.amazon.com/mc/pipelines/cancellation

If you are not happy with the way amazon treats it's warehouse workers, you should work to get the law changed, benefiting workers at big and small organisations across lots of jobs. Targeting Amazon just because it's a household brand simply makes an uneven labor playing field - sure, amazon workers might get paid better after your protest, but J J Doe and Sons Glassworkers won't change their ways. Nor will the no-n…

I cancelled my membership because it makes little sense when pretty much all shipping is taking over a week. This is not about getting the laws changed, this is about what tbray wrote in his blog - strong arming the poor employees and not providing a safe working environment. These workers are literally putting their life at risk for you. Why not send a message to Amazon that this is not acceptable?
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