Amazon Warehouse Employees Push To Unionize, "We Are Not Robots"

[appalachiablue]

'We are not robots': Amazon warehouse employees push to unionize. Workers announced launch of union push in response to working conditions as company says it does not recognize allegations. The Guardian, Jan. 1, 2019. Excerpts:

As Amazon’s workforce has more than doubled over the past three years, workers at Amazon fulfillment center warehouses in the United States have started organizing and pushing toward forming a union to fight back against the company’s treatment of its workers. Amazon’s global workforce reached more than 613,000 employees worldwide according to its latest quarterly earnings report, not including the 100,000 temporary employees the company hired for the holiday season.

Just a few months after Amazon opened its first New York-based fulfillment center in Staten Island, workers announced on 12 December the launch of a union push with help from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. "Amazon is a very big company. They need to have a union put in place,” said an Amazon worker who requested to remain anonymous. “They overwork you and you’re like a number to them. During peak season and Prime season, they give you 60 hours a week. The same day I worked overtime, I got into a bad car accident because I was falling asleep behind the wheel.”

“If an employee is a picker, they want that person to pick up 400 items per hour.” To keep up with that hourly rate, workers cannot take bathroom breaks or they risk Tot (time off task points) that could be used to justify job termination. "If you get injured, they don’t treat you well, they don’t care,” said 24-year-old Hibaq Mohamed, who has worked at the Shakopee, MN facility for over two years. “During summertime, we don’t get enough AC, in the winter we don’t get enough heat." Hafsa Hassan, 21 claimed managers create a hostile work environment that prevents workers from seeking proper medical treatment, taking bathroom breaks, or reporting safety issues.

Amazon said it “did not recognize” these allegations. “We work hard every day to ensure all of our employees are treated fairly and with dignity and respect,” the company said. Amazon fulfillment centers aren’t the only part of Amazon where workers started organizing efforts in 2018. The online retail giant bought Whole Foods in August 2017 for $13.7bn. A little over a year later, workers launched Whole Worker, a unionizing effort in response to changes made by Amazon...More,

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/01/amazon-fulfillment-center-warehouse-employees-union-new-york-minnesota



Shakopee, Minnesota Amazon workers and community members demonstrate against working conditions.

[guillaumeb]

1. Amazon is a plantation company.

Bezos lives in the large house.

[LisaM]

2. How can people buy from them, knowing these things?

I just don't get it.

[guillaumeb]

3. Price as the #1 factor.

But low prices come at a high cost.

WalMart, Amazon, many other huge companies, all rely on a low wage workforce.

[LisaM]

5. Price isn't the factor for a lot of people I know.

They do it for their own convenience, and nothing more. Yet they think of themselves as progressive.

[appalachiablue]

11. Price, convenience and trendy/hip. In terms of labor,

their practices are the opposite of 'progressive.'

[guillaumeb]

12. That convenience comes at a price.

And in my view these people are ignoring the larger implications of their choices.

[LisaM]

15. It certainly does.

I don't even know how to pick my battles over this. Many people I know just argue that change is inevitable (no matter that the changes being forced on Seattle, where I, and many of my friends live, are happening too fast, leading to huge income inequalities, evictions, homelessness, the loss of many historic buildings due to a build-at-any-cost mentality, traffic nightmares, and a huge stretch in our resources).

This doesn't even begin to get into the human cost at the warehouses around the country, the anti-union activities, and so on.

How can getting something in two days be that important?

[guillaumeb]

17. Well, many people work long hours for adequate, at best, pay.

And I understand that it can be easier to have something arrive at the door. Bezos, and the Walton family, know this, and take advantage if it.

And neither is supportive of any sort of collective action because they see unions as a threat to their own power and money.

[LisaM]

20. I understand that completely - but I have friends who are addicted to it.

They use it for everything. I even have one friend who goes out to the package lockers, so it's not even being delivered to her house! Of course we all need things sent to us directly from time to time, but I know people who hardly buy from anywhere else, and that, I think, is the real problem. They don't need to do this. Even as they see it wiping out businesses they used to love, they still do it.

[guillaumeb]

21. Addictive?

Interesting. Like playing a game where all of us lose except for the very rich.

[LisaM]

22. Yeah, I have a friend who told me the other day they have an Amazon addiction.

I also found out a few months ago that there is also a problem with people doing drunk shopping! Now, people often spend more money than they should while drinking, but the one click makes it really easy to do this.



https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/25/you-could-be-an-online-shopping-addict-heres-how-to-tell.html



https://grow.acorns.com/my-online-shopping-addiction-was-costing-me-hundreds-a-month/?gsi=Xm6KSRs2



https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/confession-im-addicted-to-amazon-prime-192175

[appalachiablue]

23. Unfortunately, shopping is an addiction for some- online, catalog, in-store

whatever as long as the credit card/pymt. works. It provides a thrill or rush for some, pumps feel good brain chems.

Boredom, temptation, bad habits, addictive behaviors....

Just saw your *links.

[appalachiablue]

10. Truth, sorry to say. I hope these workers see positive change.

[guillaumeb]

13. Unions are a great answer.

Workers united have far more power than individuals alone.

And workers who are united and voters have even more power.

[appalachiablue]

14. Unions, democracy in the workplace. Good luck to these

Amazon workers who have some leverage now. With automation it's a race against time.

[whathehell]

4. This is something the Democratic Party should be getting behind..

in a loud and public way.

.

[appalachiablue]

9. For sure. There are some on the progressive side who

support labor issues but it should be more, and visible.

[whathehell]

16. Traditionally, labor & economic issues were at the very heart of

Last edited Wed Jan 2, 2019, 10:50 PM - Edit history (1)

the Democratic Party....Some of the Third Way types de-emphasized them, and the party has suffered for it ever since. imo.

[appalachiablue]

18. Absolutely, huge change, loss of solidarity w labor, unions in 35+ yrs.

FDR achieved so much with help- unionization, minimum wage, the wkend, more rights and protections.

What a shame so many Americans are unaware of US labor history.

Fortunately Canada still has high union jobs- 31.8 % in 2015 as shown in their No. 1 Middle Class rank.

[alwaysinasnit]

6. The high cost of Amazon

https://www.salon.com/2014/02/23/worse_than_wal_mart_amazons_sick_brutality_and_secret_history_of_ruthlessly_intimidating_workers/

https://www.propublica.org/article/amazon-says-it-puts-customers-first-but-its-pricing-algorithm-doesnt

https://www.wired.com/story/why-hard-escape-amazons-long-reach/

[appalachiablue]

19. Impt. articles on Amazon, TY.

[akraven]

7. I won't buy from them.

We don't have a lot of "expendible" cash, but we buy locally or do without. We don't buy from Amazon or WalMart. I'll pay double to avoid them, and prefer to shop at union shops when they're available.

[appalachiablue]

8. Likewise, used Walmart only once and it's no more Amazon.

We used it briefly for movie DVDs in a gift rush, and for convenience but no more. I'll pay more for books, etc., to try to keep other businesses alive. It's enjoyable and healthy for communities to have choices. Like many other places, my suburb now has only one bookstore and lost its video stores and others in the last 10 years.