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Amazon Sends ‘Vote No’ Instructions to Unionizing Employees

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Re: Amazon Sends ‘Vote No’ Instructions to Unionizing Employees

#181
post #43
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got instructions from more than one party this past fall on how to fill out a ballot and mail it early and etc.

It wasn't your boss telling you how to do that though. The direct power imbalance is pretty different, I think.

Not unless your boss knows how you vote.

Re: Amazon Sends ‘Vote No’ Instructions to Unionizing Employees

#182
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why pay your employees when you can pay a consultant to show how to keep your employee costs low? /s

My father used to work at a facility that actually paid non-union employees more than union employees. It was at a remote location, so any sort of strike would have cost tons of money with no way to get replacements in. Any time the union negotiated a raise, the company gave the non-union employees a bigger raise, because the extra cost was worth not having to worry about a strike shutting everything down.

So in other words, all workers at the company still benefitted from having a union.

Re: Amazon Sends ‘Vote No’ Instructions to Unionizing Employees

#183
I hope enough people vote yes.

The way FC workers are treated is not ok. It's the main blemish on a company I otherwise respect. "Other companies treat FC staff like shit too" is not an excuse.

Disclaimer: Work for Amazon (corp / tech side). Opinion my own, obviously.

Re: Amazon Sends ‘Vote No’ Instructions to Unionizing Employees

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm genuinely not sure if this is sarcasm or not. Teen Vogue is certainly surprisingly serious, but my standard for "solid journalism" involves some attempt at neutrality and objectivity as opposed to hyper-partisan ideology marketed to children. To be quite clear, the overall modern media landscape is highly partisan and sensationalist; Teen Vogue mostly only stands out in that they're marketing their divisive ideol…

I assure you it is not sarcastic at all.

Thanks for clarifying.

Re: Amazon Sends ‘Vote No’ Instructions to Unionizing Employees

#186
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you taken a look at a public health insurance exchange recently? Buying your own health insurance is a terrible deal. I'm self-employed so have had to deal with this myself. Nothing solidifies deep disdain for any politician who doesn't support Medicare for All faster than looking at that webpage of health insurance plans.

There are a lot of reasons health insurance is way too expensive, but one of them is that many individuals are shielded from the true price because it's provided through their employer. This essentially removes downward price pressure from individuals. Having insurance tied to employment is bad for workers. It makes switching jobs far more difficult and stressful, and makes losing your job that much more of an issue.

Normally people create downward pressure on prices by not buying the product when it becomes overpriced. However with healthcare there is a captive market. Are you not going to get a cast put on a broken leg because the doctor wants to charge too much? Are you going to just opt out of cancer treatments and die?

Healthcare is an area where market forces are inherently perverted because people often don't have a choice of not buying the service. This is why every sensible country uses a socialized system instead. Not only does it provide better service, but without the perverse market incentives and multiple layers of middlemen infesting the system it is much less expensive.

Re: Amazon Sends ‘Vote No’ Instructions to Unionizing Employees

#188

I am of the firm belief that Unions are a thing that are extremely good in theory, but rarely work out in practice. They kill innovation, profits and skills and turns a competitive workforce into a mediocre one. :-(

Innovation and profits aren’t the only things that matter in life. Unions are the result of the same movement that gave us things like 40-hour workweeks and two day weekends.

Re: Amazon Sends ‘Vote No’ Instructions to Unionizing Employees

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is one group (union activists) allowed to take such action but the other group isn't? I am not sure I see anything "scummy" in this.

They are allowed to. That is why they did. Just as I am allowed to call them scummy for it

You know what they meant. Why is one scummy and the other not?

Re: Amazon Sends ‘Vote No’ Instructions to Unionizing Employees

#190

Detailed, 6 step instructions on how to open a ballot and mark no? Thanks, amazon. This is almost as scummy as asking the city to change traffic lights so union organizers have a harder time talking to workers in between shifts. https://www.al.com/business/2021/02/jefferson-county-now-say...

Also reference Amazon's "Do it without dues" site: https://www.doitwithoutdues.com/

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