Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 560 posts

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#231

Post by bigstrat2003 »

bdangubic wrote: post #105
amelius wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This should be illegal.

what kind of a law would you put in place here to make this illegal? and who would it cover? amazon has a business, yes? and if you want to do business with amazon you have to abide but those rules. you can also just NOT do business with amazon - sell your shit at another place, done deal. too many times here on HN we see people say what you say - let's just add mooooooar laws (these would have to be FEDERAL to make…

The conditions under which you can do business are governed by law. For example, you can't require that employees enter into a contract for eternal servitude, even though that too could be explained away as "if you want to do business with the company you need to follow their rules". So why exactly would a pricing scheme like this be uniquely difficult/undesirable to outlaw? It seems pretty straightforward to me.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#232

Post by ghaff »

ndileas wrote: post #193
AndyMcConachie wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting to me that some people really see fast-delivery as an important feature of e-commerce. In the 20+ years I've been buying stuff online I think maybe less than 5% of the time I have cared about how fast I get something delivered. Then again I don't have a business that relies on things getting to me fast. I'm just a guy who buys crap online for myself and my family. If I'm getting a book or some electr…

Fast delivery not a daily need for most people, but the dopamine hit is huge, and it makes people buy more stuff. I think an underappreciated factor of amazon's success is how it makes normal people feel like they're the boss, who can slam their fist and get immediate action. Personally, I feel similarly to you, that most of the time the difference between one day and 1-3 weeks shipping is negligible. However, I thin…

Another factor is that, while I travel less than I used to, I do like the schedule deliveries around being at home. Although package theft is not really a factor where I live, I also don't want my mailbox getting overstuffed or a package potentially sitting out in the elements for a week. As a result, I don't lke to order things with an indeterminate delivery if I might have travel coming up. (Which used to be a LOT.)

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#233

Post by VoodooJuJu »

atomicnumber3 wrote: post #217
driverdan wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you care about providing your credit card number to order something? You're not liable for fraud and most banks will replace the card quickly. In 25 years of having credit cards and using them extensively online I've had them compromised only a few times. It's really not something to worry about.

"not punching in my credit card number to random sites" Not sure about OP, but for me it's about convenience. My pet peeve is credit card forms. Do you know what % of websites I've used that have at least minorly broken credit card forms? It's literally 99%. Random common issues that are annoying but can be fixed: - autocomplete doesn't work at all - autocomplete only fills in half the fields - autocomplete only fill…

Can you name some specific sites where this is an issue for you? I've had nothing but good experiences buying online, in the US at least.

Every single site I've bought from has the same boring and functional checkout experience, whether it's Stripe Checkout, Google Wallet, or Shopify. They're practically all the same, and they all work fine.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#234

Post by ternnoburn »

bmicraft wrote: post #63
spondylosaurus wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they specifically calling for a boycott, though? Or just striking? (Because if it's the latter, getting orders that go unfulfilled may actually help their cause.)

So what you're saying is we should order a bunch of stuff and then cancel at the first sign of a delay in fulfillment so amazon loses more by waiting it out?

No, what they are saying is, "ask the workers what they want, and do that. Don't make assumptions."

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#235

Post by Glyptodon »

asah wrote: post #172
a12k wrote: post #102

I’ve found that the rise of Apply Pay as a payment mechanism on random sites has been helpful in getting me off of Amazon. Often it’s just as easy to order something direct if they have Apple Pay (or ShopPay, but I have other issues with them) and the same price as Amazon. Plus discoverability is awful on Amazon anyways. Still don’t get the Whole Foods return ability when not shopping from Amazon, but not punching in…

For me, Amazon cuts delivery times, improves reliability and makes returns 10x easier.

Ease of returns is probably the main feature that makes my household have some degree of Amazon preference.

But that's increasingly offset by an inability to find quality products.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#236

Post by maxk42 »

WillAdams wrote: post #145
nielsbot wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is going to do that anyway. May as well stand up for your share of the profits.

The thing is, it used to be standard for full-time employees to get a full stock share, but that was bargained away --- anyone know the rationale?

I do not know the rationale, but this is the flip side of collective bargaining: if someone makes a bad deal on my behalf I can no longer deal directly with my employer.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#237

Post by [deleted] »

benterix wrote: post #225
atomicnumber3 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"not punching in my credit card number to random sites" Not sure about OP, but for me it's about convenience. My pet peeve is credit card forms. Do you know what % of websites I've used that have at least minorly broken credit card forms? It's literally 99%. Random common issues that are annoying but can be fixed: - autocomplete doesn't work at all - autocomplete only fills in half the fields - autocomplete only fill…

> [5 complaints about autocomplete] Maybe it's just me, but why would you want too have autocomplete for CC forms enabled? Personally, on these very rare consciously chosen occasions where I decide to give my CC number to another entity, I prefer to copy it from my banking site and never save it anywhere, neither locally nor in a cloud.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#238

Post by dawnerd »

a12k wrote: post #102

I’ve found that the rise of Apply Pay as a payment mechanism on random sites has been helpful in getting me off of Amazon. Often it’s just as easy to order something direct if they have Apple Pay (or ShopPay, but I have other issues with them) and the same price as Amazon. Plus discoverability is awful on Amazon anyways. Still don’t get the Whole Foods return ability when not shopping from Amazon, but not punching in…

Shopify has helped a lot too. Having all my info on their platform with a checkout that’s familiar really helps. Plus their app to track everything is nice - although could do without all the spam.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#239

Post by bdangubic »

amelius wrote: post #150
bdangubic wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what kind of a law would you put in place here to make this illegal? and who would it cover? amazon has a business, yes? and if you want to do business with amazon you have to abide but those rules. you can also just NOT do business with amazon - sell your shit at another place, done deal. too many times here on HN we see people say what you say - let's just add mooooooar laws (these would have to be FEDERAL to make…

Are you saying that antitrust law is nonsense? The laws of our economy are not there to serve a few large companies. They are there to serve us, people, most of all. Do you think that markets will collapse if we had more fair rules for big companies?

> Are you saying that antitrust law is nonsense?

Not nonsense of course but if what Amazon is doing is breaking any of the antitrust laws we have in place there is a machinery for that already - the government can take this up if they feel like Amazon is breaking antitrust laws. The problem is - whatever "issue" someone has with something amazon is doing it inevitably ends up here on HN as "oh that should be illegal..." you start putting every little thing you don't like into some federal laws and pretty soon you are China... it is a fine line to walk on...

> The laws of our economy are not there to serve a few large companies. They are there to serve us, people, most of all.

In some theory maybe - not in any reality... this sounds more like the way China is organized, not United States :) I personally wish this was true...

> Do you think that markets will collapse if we had more fair rules for big companies?

This depends - who is making the rules?! This is always easier said than done - you think that whatever "rules" you put in place is what "everyone/majority/..." wants but of course you'd be wrong. And again - who is making the rules? The politicians who spent over 70% of their fundraising for their next election... and during those fundraisers the donors are ... well not me and you but Amazon, NRA... and they will get their way... The system is stacked against you and you can talk fantasy like "oh the economy should work for the little guy..." or reality...

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#240

Post by billy99k »

okokhacker wrote: post #223

I’m not sure why the general sentiment here is that Amazon workers do not deserve a living wage and should be replaced with robots. All the best to the union, I sincerely hope they meet your demands.

Amazon warehouse work pays almost $20/hour where I live, which is well above the federal minimum wage and more than almost every other company in the area for this type of work. This is a living wage.

"should be replaced with robots"

I also think it's funny we are having this discussion. When songwriters and other creators were complaining about piracy in the 2000s, the general response from the tech community was that this was the future and you didn't deserve to earn a living.

My response is the same.

Post reply on HN