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

reuters.com

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

#481

Post by zamadatix »

viraptor wrote: post #427
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.

> don't even care if the packages are late because of this, they still get your purchase. Not at this time of the year. If something doesn't have a pre Christmas delivery, it won't be bought in many cases. Or even if it does, people may hear about the strike and not risk it.

It'd be the delivery thad' be late, not the delivery estimate on the order page. The potential impact here would be related to how many newly triggered returns happen due to the gift arriving after Christmas.

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

#482

Post by Retric »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #324
Retric wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More CO2 is produced manufacturing and maintaining those greenhouses than shipping fruit from tropical locations. So no, in this case local production is simply worse for the commons. More broadly things that cost dramatically more are generally worse for the environment in subtle ways.

In the case of bananas, then don't have bananas. Only locally sustainable goods or imports occasionally, not all the time.

Locally sustainable goods becomes really limited very quickly. You don’t just lose foods but technology as most of the periodic table becomes unavailable, even low tech items like salt needs to be imported into most areas.

On the other hand even occasional imports supports global trade and a dramatically higher standard living. The option to decarbonize global trade is exists, ‘local’ is more feel good nonsense than an actual path forward.

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

#483

Post by egypturnash »

int_19h wrote: post #446
egypturnash wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone cheering for automation and AI always says "oh we'll just implement UBI" but none of them ever seem to actually be working to help make that happen; I doubt we will get a glimpse of that until things get bad enough for CEO-murder to be a much more common thing.

UBI at this point is entirely a political decision to be made by the legislators. How do you expect others to "actually be working to help make that happen"?

Give money to people working to persuade lawmakers to make UBI happen.

Get your AI-boosting company to spend some of its money buying lawmakers and telling them to make UBI happen.

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

#484

Post by azemetre »

rascul wrote: post #473
0_gravitas wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

absolutely not, maybe if you're living with parents and not paying for rent or groceries

Or living by yourself or with a spouse, maybe with a kid. Not everywhere is high cost.

Can you please name a single city in the US where you can easily live on $20/hr that isn't stricken with massive poverty?

I find it insulting that you don't think Americans, especially those that work, don't deserve dignity through their labor in having a meaningful life. Especially when they work for one of the richest companies in the world.

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

#485

Post by immibis »

poincaredisk wrote: post #444
nickff wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would union supported/enforced comments count as astroturfing as well? I think it’d be interesting to ban pay for picketing & comments, though I’m not sure it’s enforceable.

As an aside, on Reddit a similar thing is disallowed (brigading other subreddits in an organized way)

Officially, but Reddit enforcement of rules went to shit about the same time as the rest of the internet. Now they allow whatever brings them money and disallow whatever doesn't.

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

#486

Post by Blackstrat »

immibis wrote: post #401
nimbius wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as a union diesel engine mechanic i can guarantee most, if not all these comments are complete PR. I went on strike about ten years ago to protest mandatory overtime and lack of chemical PPE. the minute we authorized the strike, we had news channels from three states covering us and a billboard up the road that demanded an end to the strike by "concerned" truckers was erected in hours. Every day I could count on at l…

I feel that the Luigi Mangione case is making more people aware of this type of dynamic.

[flagged]

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

#487

Post by AnthonyMouse »

zzzeek wrote: post #391
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of leverage workers have is proportional to how hard it is for the company to replace them. Replacing unskilled workers isn't that hard so those workers don't have much leverage. The only real solution is to become skilled workers. Which, almost ironically, is to do the thing the company threatens to do -- find a way to automate work like this, so the people working at the warehouse are robotics technician…

it's likely not the case here but more powerful unions can block non-union scabs from taking the jobs of striking workers (in that this is usually part of the contract the union has with the employer). at scale, unions have a lot more power to affect things but the point is it's not about worker skill when unions are at sufficient power levels

When unions get to be that size is when they get captured by organized crime and other interests, because then they're acting as a de facto government and susceptible to the same corrupting influences but without the (by no means perfect but far better than nothing) safeguards we put on governments in modern democracies.

This is also why corporate monopolies are a fiasco and need to be prevented as well.

The general rule is "prevent any one group from consolidating too much power". If someone's solution is "let our group consolidate a huge amount of power" they're admitting they're the villains.

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

#488

Post by _huayra_ »

65uu6 wrote: post #363
RavlaAlvar wrote: post #134

https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonFC/comments/1hhips1/amazon_te... Interesting to see discussion on Reddit from r/AmazonFC are pretty negative , wonder if these are genuine employees comment for PR team hired by Amazon

reddit is no longer a good place to try and get a pulse on general sentiment. comment section is filled with bots and the front page has the most random content i have ever seen, like occasional random creep shots of celebs that get like 3,000 upvotes that gain more transaction than current events.

I used to use search engines with the "site:reddit.com" keyword to get more genuine reviews about products and services. Now it more than not leads to posts where the top comment is some gpt'ed text with a clear referral link and far more up votes than an obscure subreddit on some niche object would warrant.

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

#489

Post by chaostheory »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #107
chaostheory wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few people would be able to afford much in your local economy.

Well for one, lots of my local economy would just involve trade and helping community members for free, creating local community gardens, etc. Quite a lot can be possible with very little.

Historically, that doesn’t work. It failed in China, North Korea, and in Cuba. It’s a fantasy.

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

#490

Post by kaonwarb »

jedberg wrote: post #346
RavlaAlvar wrote: post #134

https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonFC/comments/1hhips1/amazon_te... Interesting to see discussion on Reddit from r/AmazonFC are pretty negative , wonder if these are genuine employees comment for PR team hired by Amazon

It's interesting, because I know a few warehouse workers, and they all sing the praises of the job (all in the Bay Area). But yet I can see what the conditions are. I feel like every warehouse is a semi-independently run fiefdom and some are run a lot better than others.

Two things can be true: - A particular class of job may be very challenging, or worse - The same class of job may be the best available option for some folks in some regions

And, of course, some folks may have a good experience even while others do not.

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