Amazon reportedly has Pinkerton agents surveil workers who try to form unions

Post by Exmoor » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 8:50 PM UTC

djsumdog wrote: post #181

_wldu wrote: post #145

In 1920 Appalachia, coal companies owned all the land, the homes and stores. They also paid workers with their own special money (that was useless everywhere else). The security companies they hired where armed and violent towards miners and their families. https://explorepartsunknown.com/west-virginia/coal-minings-d... Today, people can tour these old towns and learn the history of how the coal companies trapped and…

This is where the Tennessee Ernie Ford song comes from, "Sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't call me cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store." There was an episode of South Park last season where they played this song as a backdrop to Amazon workers in a warehouse.

Post by mcguire » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 8:52 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #293

sangnoir wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, do you honestly think such an "secretive, radical union cell" funded by "dark money" would be allowed to exist and interface with corporates? (words in scare-quotes would be how this would be framed by employers and the media - they may or may not throw in foreign funding, Venezuela or China could get name-dropped with zero evidence).

It doesn’t have to be secret, just your membership is secret. It can have open plan offices in a cool neighborhood, pay politicians and all. Just have centralized Emlpoyers information management system where information about employers, like salaries they pay business they do, the good and the bad to work there etc. So when you are getting a job you apply to your not-union and they tell you what to expect and how mu…

Post by mcguire » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 8:52 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #302

Klinky wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's like Glassdoor or Salary.com? That's not a union, that's not HR, that's not armed protection.

Are unions armed protection? Anyway, the idea is to have a coordinator that work on your benefit. Companies, even the large ones are simply people coordinated by the capital owners. The not-union is a coordinator for the people who are not the capital owners but those who deal with the capital owners. The aim is to assist for a fair deal through information, not to extort the capital owners.

Post by mcguire » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 8:55 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #315

sudosysgen wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that being in a "not-union" isn't a protected class, so you could probably get fired for it after your employer sent the "not-Pinkertons" to do some intel. To prevent this, you'd have to get your "not-Union" to either have huge solidarity, or lobby the government to make that a protected class. Maybe if you went for the first you could make a song about it, how about "Solidarity not-for-finite-periods-of…

Why would they fire or investigate you? It’s not like you’re organizing strikes or anything like that. You are simply benefiting of the same knowledge that companies have to have a fairer deal.

Post by wyldfire » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 8:56 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #316

trhway wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>work is just a business deal and wouldn't be possible for employees create some kind of company that deals with the companies they are employed? have you read Godfather?

Please explain?