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Workers at Amazon's main Italian hub, German warehouses strike on Black Friday

reuters.com

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Re: Workers at Amazon's main Italian hub, German warehouses strike on Black Friday

#41

Post by dsacco »

eriken wrote: post #33
oblio wrote: post #4

Now that's something I haven't heard about in the US for a few decades: strikes. I'm partly kidding, but have there been any major strikes in the US lately?

This happens way more in the south of europe than in the north, where unions realize that competitiveness trumps wages.

> where unions realize that competitiveness trumps wages.

It seems like you’re sneaking an assertion in there. Can you clarify your point a bit? What is the relationship between competition and wages, and why is one better than the other for unions?

Re: Workers at Amazon's main Italian hub, German warehouses strike on Black Friday

#42

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

consz wrote: post #20
soneca wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is in Brazil for the last ~5 years. And we don't even have Thanksgiving here. It is just one more made up date to create advertising campaigns. Started as a shy e-commerce thing here. Then became a huge e-commerce thing. Then a huge all commerce thing. I am seeing "Black Friday" promotions everywhere, from financial services to beauty treatments. A common joke here is that it is "Black Fraud - pay 50% of the doubl…

Doesn't the same thing occur in the US? I was under the impression it's always been set up so that there isn't any actual deals, just the appearance of it.

It's also an opportunity to drop stock you don't want before the end of Q4.

My impression (about the retail version, say 15-20 years ago) was that it was companies offloading stock they wanted off their books at something of a discount ahead of the holiday season, since it let the companies close out their books for the year and customers get a little bit more for the holidays. It was a win-win in a lot of ways.

Then the disgusting marketing/accounting shenanigans took hold and made it shitty, particularly the online version. It's still possible to find genuine deals, mostly because retailers do still have stock they want to offload.

Re: Workers at Amazon's main Italian hub, German warehouses strike on Black Friday

#44

Post by didsomeonesay »

eriken wrote: post #33
oblio wrote: post #4

Now that's something I haven't heard about in the US for a few decades: strikes. I'm partly kidding, but have there been any major strikes in the US lately?

This happens way more in the south of europe than in the north, where unions realize that competitiveness trumps wages.

Denmark and Norway beg to differ...

Re: Workers at Amazon's main Italian hub, German warehouses strike on Black Friday

#45

Post by Mountain_Skies »

consz wrote: post #20
soneca wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is in Brazil for the last ~5 years. And we don't even have Thanksgiving here. It is just one more made up date to create advertising campaigns. Started as a shy e-commerce thing here. Then became a huge e-commerce thing. Then a huge all commerce thing. I am seeing "Black Friday" promotions everywhere, from financial services to beauty treatments. A common joke here is that it is "Black Fraud - pay 50% of the doubl…

Doesn't the same thing occur in the US? I was under the impression it's always been set up so that there isn't any actual deals, just the appearance of it.

That happens to some extent but many jurisdictions have laws regulating the practice of increasing prices just to cut them as an advertised discount. For national retailers who do nationwide campaigns, the hassle of structuring deals in a way that is compliant with all state and local laws would be significant.

Re: Workers at Amazon's main Italian hub, German warehouses strike on Black Friday

#46

Post by Sujan »

Great way to make sure in the near future Amazon will send packages to Italy from France, Austria, Slovenia or Switzerland - the countries sharing a border with them.

(Same happened - and is happening - in Germany. Staff at logistics centers started to strike (in small numbers). Totally unrelated Amazon started shipping from Poland and Czech Republic)

Re: Workers at Amazon's main Italian hub, German warehouses strike on Black Friday

#48

Post by ginko »

eriken wrote: post #33
oblio wrote: post #4

Now that's something I haven't heard about in the US for a few decades: strikes. I'm partly kidding, but have there been any major strikes in the US lately?

This happens way more in the south of europe than in the north, where unions realize that competitiveness trumps wages.

Our office cantina here in Norway was closed for a good 2 months or so last year because of a striker of the restaurant and hotel worker's union.

Re: Workers at Amazon's main Italian hub, German warehouses strike on Black Friday

#49

Post by dullgiulio »

eriken wrote: post #33
oblio wrote: post #4

Now that's something I haven't heard about in the US for a few decades: strikes. I'm partly kidding, but have there been any major strikes in the US lately?

This happens way more in the south of europe than in the north, where unions realize that competitiveness trumps wages.

This needs to be backed up by data. Depends on how politics work between workers and companies. In Italy there is no system like the German Work Council inside companies, thus strikes happen more often (the negotiations are sometimes more confrontational.) But I wouldn't generalize from this.

Re: Workers at Amazon's main Italian hub, German warehouses strike on Black Friday

#50

Post by Kurtz79 »

pjc50 wrote: post #24
erikb wrote: post #14

Is there a Black Friday in Italy? I thought this would be a purely American thing.

American things become global things when they're marketed heavily enough. This is the kind of thing people mean when they say "cultural hegemony".

The biggest "cultural hegemony" is basically capitalism, though.

Companies have all the interest in having such events adopted locally, since it translates in more sales for them.

But yes, Halloween and Black Friday rank among the more recent and successful American imports in EU, just a few years ago they were virtually unknown.

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