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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

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good one. Now explain why unionized European programmers don't get paid nearly the same as un-unionized American ones. Is it because of fascism or something?

I don't think European programmers are unionized? I'm in the Netherlands, and while there are some small upstart unions for software engineers, there has been no collective bargaining action (certainly not at any significant scale). I'd be happy to be disproven (go unions!), but I haven't heard of other countries that have unionized programmers.

Here's Finland's union for programmers (and other STEM jobs)

https://www.tek.fi/en/about-tek

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#152
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, imagine a website publishing opinion pieces with diverse viewpoints, some of which you find repulsive... I fail to see how that is relevant for this particular article.

The founder of the magazine defended the Berlin Wall and the killing of the surrendered Romanov children.

Killing the Romanov children makes a lot of sense if you're trying to end a regime whose legitimacy is passed down by blood

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#153
post #134
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That Canada is also located in America, and if someone from Canada identifies "America" with the US they are belittling their own country? I mean, the sentence wouldn't have been less understandable if they had used "US-style" instead of "American-style"?

I feel your gripe, in Québec we sometimes make a point of saying "états-uniens" (rather than "américains") which rolls of the tongue smoothly, but United Statians doesn't ring as well in English. What good word is there to call Americans other than Americans? I've never heard someone use another term in English. However if it's belittling Canada, it's certainly belittling the other 55 countries of the Americas that s…

"US Citizen" or "from the US" tends to get used if trying to avoid the word American or be more specific. But "American" is definitely much, much more common.

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#154
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you please elaborate in what way exactly the union "binds you to lowest performing co-worker"? As it stands your accusation is both vague and a classic anti-union scaremongering buzzword.

The lowest performing worker gets paid the same as a high performing one. Not very difficult to understand his point

How does collective bargaining imply uniformisation of pay? I still don't see the connection.

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#155
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I'll highlight that the scope of my comment was deliberate, precise and narrow. The broader issue of unionization brings in other factors but we're talking about Amazon warehouse workers here. These workers by their nature are highly replaceable. Replacebility is built into the system. It's desirable for the company. It's horrible for people and completely unnecessary. What are you? Some star performer who can pack t…

There are definitely 0.1x box packers, and I claim to be at least 1x. I don't want them on my team or in my union!

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good one. Now explain why unionized European programmers don't get paid nearly the same as un-unionized American ones. Is it because of fascism or something?

Base salary or total compensation? Do you have any data or reason to believe "unionized European programmers don't get paid nearly the same as un-unionized American ones?"

https://qubit-labs.com/average-software-developer-salaries-s...

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#157
post #134
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That Canada is also located in America, and if someone from Canada identifies "America" with the US they are belittling their own country? I mean, the sentence wouldn't have been less understandable if they had used "US-style" instead of "American-style"?

I feel your gripe, in Québec we sometimes make a point of saying "états-uniens" (rather than "américains") which rolls of the tongue smoothly, but United Statians doesn't ring as well in English. What good word is there to call Americans other than Americans? I've never heard someone use another term in English. However if it's belittling Canada, it's certainly belittling the other 55 countries of the Americas that s…

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

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#158
post #2

Quoted post unavailable.

Would you say more? Are you speaking as a Canadian?

We have alternative words that fully qualify the US.. and I’m probably the only one on HN I’ve ever observe to use them (and I’m from the US): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonyms_for_the_United_States...

(BTW the reason I use US-American is that I’ve learned from my Latin American friends that they also consider themselves American. My Canadian friends do not..)

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's incorrect but widely assumed that if someone says "America" they mean the USA. What's funny about it?

There's nothing incorrect about the fact that "American" refers specifically to the USA. Compare this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans > Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.

>There's nothing incorrect about the fact that "American" refers specifically to the USA. Compare this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans > Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.

Also from wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American :

American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America"

And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americas :

The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America.

Re: Amazon is intimidating and harassing organizing workers in Montreal

#160
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's incorrect but widely assumed that if someone says "America" they mean the USA. What's funny about it?

That Canada is also located in America, and if someone from Canada identifies "America" with the US they are belittling their own country? I mean, the sentence wouldn't have been less understandable if they had used "US-style" instead of "American-style"?

In English at least 'Canada is also located in America' is not correct. It should either be 'Canada is also located in the Americas' or 'Canada is also located in North America'.
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