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Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

latimes.com

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Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#201

Post by pope_meat »

gruez wrote: post #181
techrat wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except all Amazon has done was taken a group marginalized by the prison system (war on drugs) and is taking advantage of their position (drug testing vulnerable or felon status due to drug arrests) and putting them in a situation where they are at the absolute mercy of Amazon if anything were to happen. (Get T-boned by someone who ran a red light? We'll drug test you and fire you for cause even if you were sober at t…

>This is an extension of prison labor. You lost me with that hyperbole. I fail to see how you can equate voluntarily working for a company earning at least minimum wage and other benefits, as "prison labor".

It's amazing we have so many volunteers for some of the worst jobs around. Happy volunteers, voluntarily working. You can see it on their faces, at 8:37pm pulling packages out of a van and running to a door, happy little contractors, happily volunteering.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#202

Post by antattack »

spfzero wrote: post #183
bpodgursky wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon delivery contractors are often outbid by school bus companies. Drivers who work for those can make more than $20 an hour and be home for dinner. Amazon contract drivers typically earn $17 an hour and often work late into the night to keep up with demand. I mean, sure, Amazon can raise their wages to compete, and then we run out of... school bus drivers? I'm not sure that's any better. At a point, you either…

School bus drivers are carting human lives around, not inanimate packages, so I guess it's good that they make more. It's a different job and the pay should reflect that.

School bus drivers should be making double of what they are actually making just for increased liability alone.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#203

Post by __blockcipher__ »

tbrownaw wrote: post #189
honksillet wrote: post #137

One underappreciated aspect of this. They will ignore marijuana at time of hire. But they will absolutely test you if there is ever an accident or if you are injured at work (even if you just strain your back picking up a heavy object) before you see an occupational health doctor. If you come back positive in the course of injury, they won't cover your workers compensation bills. They'll fire you (for being intoxicat…

Is that not a different kind of test, for current presence rather than past use?

No, cannabis is quite unique in that thc metabolites get stored in the fat, and there's not really a way to just check for acute intoxication. I've had friends who were heavy, heavy users who took 1.5 months to clear up. (Casual smokers can clear up in a few days or 1-2 weeks at most)

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#204

Post by ffhhj »

junon wrote: post #190
ineedasername wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct... but not really relevant especially if Amazon is still screening for other drugs.

Anecdotally, I have never met nor heard of anyone mixing anything with weed except for tobacco, sometimes . So how is this "correct"?

Doesn't mean some won't do it, or that they will tell you.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#205

Post by ghoward »

antattack wrote: post #202
spfzero wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

School bus drivers are carting human lives around, not inanimate packages, so I guess it's good that they make more. It's a different job and the pay should reflect that.

School bus drivers should be making double of what they are actually making just for increased liability alone.

I've learned how to drive school buses, and I absolutely agree with your opinion. My first day on the job was my last (well, I drove a bit the next day before refusing to drive in a situation I was not comfortable in); it was just way too stressful thinking about those kids and how any mistake I make could hurt them.

Edit: clarified my actual quit story.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#206

Post by robocat »

ineedasername wrote: post #186
techrat wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except all Amazon has done was taken a group marginalized by the prison system (war on drugs) and is taking advantage of their position (drug testing vulnerable or felon status due to drug arrests) and putting them in a situation where they are at the absolute mercy of Amazon if anything were to happen. (Get T-boned by someone who ran a red light? We'll drug test you and fire you for cause even if you were sober at t…

This is an extension of prison labor. Work in prisons is often not optional, and if it is the inmate may not earn "good behavior" time if they choose not to work. It also averages something like $0.60/hour across the country. I don't think $17/hour & mandatory sobriety are anything close to prison labor, but I will grant you that it isn't consistent or fair to fire someone that tests positive for marijuana if they we…

> It also averages something like $0.60/hour across the country

Is that equivalent to disposable income? What percentage of people in the US are left with $24 (or less) disposable after 40 hours minimum wage?

I had a friend who was left with NZD20 to spend on themselves after a full week of work (after food, shared rent, power, and other true expenses; non-smoker with zero savings of any kind).

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#207

Post by ffggvv »

mikewarot wrote: post #168

>One solution is to raise their wages. But that can happen only if Amazon agrees to pay its delivery partners more for their services, which the company can be slow to do. It's not a labor shortage, it's just a correction in the price of labor

well see how much of a shortage there is now that it’s september and they don’t get more to sit at home and smoke weed than to work

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#208

Post by ghoward »

tyrfing wrote: post #144

One large brown delivery company also rarely drug tests. Drivers of school buses, semi trucks, and similar have federally mandated drug testing, non-CDL delivery drivers don't. Particularly when liability is transferred to contractors, the surprising part is that this wasn't the encouraged policy from the start. Also, any shortage is entirely self inflicted from offering poor wages.

> Drivers of school buses, semi trucks, and similar have federally mandated drug testing, non-CDL delivery drivers don't.

False, at least where I am.

I learned to drive school bus, and they drug tested my class before we were allowed to test, and every month, there were random drug tests.

I quit after 1.5 days because of the stress and the constant push to get kids to school on time over safety.

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#209

Post by voz_ »

ffggvv wrote: post #207
mikewarot wrote: post #168

>One solution is to raise their wages. But that can happen only if Amazon agrees to pay its delivery partners more for their services, which the company can be slow to do. It's not a labor shortage, it's just a correction in the price of labor

well see how much of a shortage there is now that it’s september and they don’t get more to sit at home and smoke weed than to work

Your response smacks of implication that the labor price is fair, and that the minimum living handouts people were getting are somehow wrong?

Re: Amazon’s answer to delivery driver shortage: Pot smokers

#210

Post by Anon4Now »

inetknght wrote: post #173
bserge wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take full advantage of the system. Smart. These people might never suffer no matter what changes, unless maybe there's some sort of purge.

Who and why do you want to suffer?

I read that as "these people" == Amazon, not the pot smokers.
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