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Amazon asks workers sheltering at home to return or request leave

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Re: Amazon asks workers sheltering at home to return or request leave

#191

Post by strikhedonia_ »

whywhywhynot wrote: post #186
bhupy wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By requiring others to do that for you and paying them pennies for what value they're providing. The median wage of an Amazon Warehouse worker is about $60,000 / year, which is above the median wage in the US[1]. The 25th-percentile wage for the same worker is $53,000 — still higher than the median wage, and this is an entry level position that requires no college eduction. Amazon also provides 401(k) matching for…

The first number is so laughably far away from reality. Do you have any idea how many hours a week you would have to work to make $60k at $15/hr? Does the average warehouse worker make double the starting rate or work 70 hour weeks? As someone who works in the industry I do agree however that they do an okay job taking care of their people compared to others. But nobody is going to write an article about how shit it…

The Paysa number is probably correct... For the tiny minority of workers in Amazon Warehouses who are salaried. If we look at actual wages (not just salaried employees) it would be far lower.

Terribly naive to include that point in the argument.

Re: Amazon asks workers sheltering at home to return or request leave

#192

Post by catach »

bhupy wrote: post #181
catach wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key part, from an Amazon warehouse worker perspective, is that they're not extending the unlimited unpaid time off option. Huge loss in scheduling flexibility.

From the press release: “If any team members are unable or unwilling to work a scheduled shift, they can use unlimited unpaid time off through the month of April without penalty, and we are supportive if someone chooses to stay home.”

Yes, but not after April.

Re: Amazon asks workers sheltering at home to return or request leave

#193

Post by dsr_ »

bhupy wrote: post #181
catach wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key part, from an Amazon warehouse worker perspective, is that they're not extending the unlimited unpaid time off option. Huge loss in scheduling flexibility.

From the press release: “If any team members are unable or unwilling to work a scheduled shift, they can use unlimited unpaid time off through the month of April without penalty, and we are supportive if someone chooses to stay home.”

Unlimited unpaid time off... for the next seven days. Even a cable company would blush at using "unlimited" like that.

Re: Amazon asks workers sheltering at home to return or request leave

#194

Post by kevindong »

vadym909 wrote: post #188
bhupy wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of 2019, Amazon employed 798,000 employees, so we're looking at almost 1 million people, earning $15/hour at a minimum, with 401(k), health, vision, and dental benefits. Absolutely nuts.

I'd be really surprised if these were real- '401(k), health, vision, and dental benefits'. Anyone can offer 401k without matching, medical without contributing to the premium.

Amazon publishes this page detailing the benefits + their per-paycheck costs [0]. The prices for the coverage received seem very reasonable.

[0]: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/landing_pages/benefitsoverview-us

Re: Amazon asks workers sheltering at home to return or request leave

#195

Post by snowwrestler »

uoaei wrote: post #42
mc32 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Policies take time to develop as people develop understanding of the situation , then there’s availability and putting policy into practice.

Amazon has by now spent millions of man-hours on addressing COVID-19 -- meetings, designing splash banners, etc. They are a very big company who pays big money for top talent. Amazon is not the scrappy upstart it was 15 years ago. Let's hold them accountable according to what they are capable. Edit: it would seem obvious in retrospect that if most major governments have action plans in case of global pandemic, a glob…

I've had some opportunity to have insight into corporate pandemic planning over the years.

It's important to understand that U.S. corporate planning for a pandemic has assumed a certain level of urgency and competency from the federal response.

This has been reasonable, as the federal government has for the last 20 years, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, taken potential pandemics very seriously, and responded aggressively to them.

The federal response to the 2019 novel coronavirus has completely failed to live up to these expectations and the result is that everyone is scrambling to catch up. Corporations and states are following their playbooks... but those playbooks were not written in terms of "let's be ready to fill in for the federal government when they fall on their faces." The whole point of the federal government is to be a backstop for everyone else in the face of huge national threats.

This is one reason you're seeing Republican lawmakers be so willing to pump money out of the government: they know the government screwed up the early response, and so it is fair that the government should pay to help mitigate that.

Re: Amazon asks workers sheltering at home to return or request leave

#196

Post by AnthonyMouse »

gwright wrote: post #166
literallycancer wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean they would quit because they can afford to. In a better world no one would have to do the shitty jobs.

In your mind what has happened to those "shitty jobs"?

The ideal thing is for them to be automated, which makes things cost less. Then people have the money they didn't spend on paying unskilled workers to spend on something else, which creates demand for something else. The suppliers of the something else need workers to make it, so they hire the people who lost their jobs.

In many cases the new jobs require more skills, so the employers either have to train them or pay them enough to pay off student loans, so that's what they do. This is what has been happening for decades. The percentage of unskilled workers in the economy has been decreasing without a corresponding increase in unemployment.

Re: Amazon asks workers sheltering at home to return or request leave

#197

Post by greendude29 »

bhupy wrote: post #190
greendude29 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:( I'm still flabbergasted at the need to compare to the EU or European states. No where in my original comments did I bring them up, or was thinking of them. Your snide metaphor also doesn't work since the EU does not override the nation-state model. The EU parliament only exerts some powers over EU nations. The Health department of Germany cannot made decisions on behalf of the health department of France. I unders…

> Your snide metaphor If you can’t take it, then don’t dish it out. > The EU Parliament only exerts some powers over EU nations The same holds true for the Federal government of the US. The 10th Amendment ensures this. Similar to the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, EU law overrides Member State law (E.g. GDPR). > The Health Department of Germany cannot made decisions on behalf of the health department of Fra…

> We can do this all day, but it’s pretty clear that your argument doesn’t have any legs.

It certainly doesn't once you begin to ignore facts. Coming up with literal parallels is not a good argument. No wonder you can keep it going all day.

In either case, I'm going to stop because I still don't know why we're comparing the US and the EU. I didn't start the comparison, and it has no bearing on the subject.

Period.

Re: Amazon asks workers sheltering at home to return or request leave

#198

Post by jachee »

Rapzid wrote: post #179
bonestamp2 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most low skill jobs are not that shitty though. I mean, the pay might not be great but most of the actual work isn't that bad. There are exceptions of course and I've heard amazon warehouse jobs are awful. But, I worked a bunch of low skill jobs in high school and college and I actually enjoyed it most of the time. The teamwork and comradery are way better than any highly skilled jobs I've had.

> Most low skill jobs are not that shitty though. I mean, the pay might not be great... They are shitty for a number of reasons, but that is certainly near the top of the list. Lack of agency and respect may top my personal list.

Many are outright exploitative.

Fast food comes immediately to mind: I once got disciplinary action one summer, because I came in to work too much, and crossed over 80 hours in a two-week pay period, thus earning overtime.

Coworkers had called out, so I got called in. Did my job, then got punished and unscheduled because I worked "too much".

All so a mega-franchiser (who owns most of one particular national chain's stores across a large region) could ultimately avoid supporting (no one was scheduled more than 39.5 hours a week to avoid them becoming "full-time" and requiring benefits, scheduling wasn't handled in a timely manner, etc.) the people who do the essential work for their survival, day in and day out, keeping massive profits for themselves.

It really pisses me off, and these are just a few of the reasons it's shitty.

Re: Amazon asks workers sheltering at home to return or request leave

#199

Post by bhupy »

whywhywhynot wrote: post #186
bhupy wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By requiring others to do that for you and paying them pennies for what value they're providing. The median wage of an Amazon Warehouse worker is about $60,000 / year, which is above the median wage in the US[1]. The 25th-percentile wage for the same worker is $53,000 — still higher than the median wage, and this is an entry level position that requires no college eduction. Amazon also provides 401(k) matching for…

The first number is so laughably far away from reality. Do you have any idea how many hours a week you would have to work to make $60k at $15/hr? Does the average warehouse worker make double the starting rate or work 70 hour weeks? As someone who works in the industry I do agree however that they do an okay job taking care of their people compared to others. But nobody is going to write an article about how shit it…

Do you have access to more reliable numbers?

Re: Amazon asks workers sheltering at home to return or request leave

#200

Post by jachee »

dmoy wrote: post #154
auiya wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CDC says it's still rising.  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/case...

Sorry I'm not seeing anything in there that's saying number of deaths per day is rising. Can you help me navigate to where that is shown?

Try here: https://public.tableau.com/views/COVID-19PublicDashboard/Cov...
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