Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season • Hacker News Board

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

#381

Post by amelius » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 6:11 PM UTC

bdangubic wrote: post #239

amelius wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 are skeptical but we __do__ have antitrust laws, even though people in power probably opposed them in several ways at different points in time.

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

#382

Post by spamizbad » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 6:12 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #357

spamizbad wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's funny is even if you hate unions, surely the demographics who frequent HN at least has a solid grasp of the capital investments and R&D costs necessary to "replace them with robots" - We are talking about delivery station roles here. You gotta build something that, amortized, can do it for less than $500/day in a climate where Wall Street is putting pressure on tech stocks to control costs. Have at it. We hear…

> We heard this same argument about automation in food service. Have you been to a fast food joint lately? Even at peak traffic they have maybe three people working when they used to have 7-10. Now you walk in and you have to order from the kiosk, which is literally the iPhone app on a vertical touch screen. You don't even talk to a human until they hand you the food.

That might be what you see but during your rush shifts you're looking at 10+ at places like McDonalds with 6-7 during less busy shifts and those 6-7 people are busting their asses. Churn has also jumped way-up post-COVID. A bunch of once-reliable food service workers moved up the labor value chain and left the industry and this has left the F&B industry with some pretty major staffing problems.

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

#383

Post by IncreasePosts » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 6:13 PM UTC

pm90 wrote: post #373

SoftTalker wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone deserves the opportunity to earn a livable income, but not all jobs can or should be paying a "living wage." Some jobs by their nature are part time and some people only want to work part time.

That doesn’t seem like a contradiction. Full time jobs should offer livable wages, part time could offer less. However, you can’t do some shenanigans like force workers to be part time by making them work less than 40 hours a week just so they don’t get classified as full time.

What is a livable wage? That differs if someone is living with their parents, or if they have 3 kids and are living alone and the sole earner in the family.

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

#384

Post by GreedIsGood » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 6:13 PM UTC

ActionHank wrote: post #198

rsanek wrote: post #152

10k is about 0.7% of their total employee count. I wonder if this will have any effect.

It will have more business people asking about robots, other than that I doubt it will. Amazon don't even care if the packages are late because of this, they still get your purchase.

Of course Amazon cares. They measure fulfillment time religiously.

Amazon is amazingly well run.

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

#385

Post by webdood90 » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 6:14 PM UTC

sterlind wrote: post #360

webdood90 wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The vast majority of Americans deserve more money. This is pedantic but I strongly dislike when people say anyone deserves anything. I support an equitable system that allows citizens to move up in economic class (which we don't currently have) but I don't subscribe to the idea that everyone inherently deserves anything.

That puts you at odds with the tradition of natural rights. The Declaration of Independence says everyone deserves life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I think it's an intellectually dishonest interpretation of my reply

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

#386

Post by AcerbicZero » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 6:15 PM UTC

aliasxneo wrote: post #181

asah wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I've gotten a lot of free stuff from Amazon. Shipped duplicate products to me? Just keep the other. Food bottle slightly cracked and leaked in transit? Keep it and we'll send another. I was even able to get another 30% off an already sale price for a Kindle because my old one (>5 years) died, and they couldn't fix it. Not justifying any particular actions on their part, but their customer service has been above and b…

I recall it used to be like that....but I haven't had that level of customer service out of amazon since like, 2017-2018 at the latest.

Amazon earned my business back in the day, but they don't seem very interested in it anymore.

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

#387

Post by skeeter2020 » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 6:17 PM UTC

ActionHank wrote: post #198

rsanek wrote: post #152

10k is about 0.7% of their total employee count. I wonder if this will have any effect.

It will have more business people asking about robots, other than that I doubt it will. Amazon don't even care if the packages are late because of this, they still get your purchase.

they truly don't care. I had an order that was supposed to be delivered tuesday by 8pm (delivery guarantee!) but at 8:10 switched to "now arriving Dec 27th". The person I chatted with gave me a $10 amazon credit and refused to even acknowledge my (much more expensive for them) solution that since all the items in my order were showing "delivery by Dec 19th" they should resend everything Prime. They still have my money even if I don't have Christmas presents, and I need to go through the hassle of returning it - when I eventually get it.

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

#388

Post by skeeter2020 » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 6:18 PM UTC

GreedIsGood wrote: post #384

ActionHank wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will have more business people asking about robots, other than that I doubt it will. Amazon don't even care if the packages are late because of this, they still get your purchase.

Of course Amazon cares. They measure fulfillment time religiously. Amazon is amazingly well run.

if they really cared the would not have gotten Puralor to deliver my order in the middle of a Canada Post strike.

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

#389

Post by UltraSane » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 6:19 PM UTC

GreedIsGood wrote: post #384

ActionHank wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will have more business people asking about robots, other than that I doubt it will. Amazon don't even care if the packages are late because of this, they still get your purchase.

Of course Amazon cares. They measure fulfillment time religiously. Amazon is amazingly well run.

Amazon is only well run for the shareholders and executives. It is not well run for the people filling the boxes. It seems down right sadistic. Like the executives don't even see them as people.

And they sent me a 43" Samsung TV when I ordered a 42" LG OLED. How the hell can their many billions of dollars of IT investment not automatically scan the barcode on the box or weight the box or use computer vision and notice this error before they sent the wrong TV out?

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

#390

Post by skeeter2020 » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 6:20 PM UTC

spamizbad wrote: post #301

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.

What's funny is even if you hate unions, surely the demographics who frequent HN at least has a solid grasp of the capital investments and R&D costs necessary to "replace them with robots" - We are talking about delivery station roles here. You gotta build something that, amortized, can do it for less than $500/day in a climate where Wall Street is putting pressure on tech stocks to control costs. Have at it. We hear…

Fast food - like McDonalds - have followed through with this. They now have a single human register and much smaller kitchens, and 1/2 their business is take out. It's not all automation; a lot of it is factory prep and shifting the work on to customers & gig workers.