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Unions are needed pretty much everywhere, but I'm curious how something as big as Amazon would crush any union. How did we let workers rights get this bad? I d

Unions are needed pretty much everywhere, but I'm curious how something as big as Amazon would crush any union. How did we let workers rights get this bad? I don't have prime anymore, and have stopped buying from Amazon all together because I know the person who put my item in the box is being treated like they're trash. It's extremely immoral and peak exploitation.

krapp 8y ago
>How did we let workers rights get this bad? We (by 'we' I mean Americans) despise anything that smacks of socialism, and "workers' rights" smacks of socialism.
- sjg007 8y ago
  It didn't use to be this way.
- klenwell 8y ago
  Worse than that, the very term "workers' rights" has been co-opted to mask the exploitation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law
- ggm 8y ago
  It's pretty ubiquitous. Union membership in Australia has been in a continuous decline since I arrived in 1987 and there are huge residual resentments to the union movement which I think are overplayed, but alas real. In ICT, I think the 'somebody elses problem' syndrome is pretty huge. Amazon ICT staff get really good pay and conditions and don't appear to feel strong solidarity with the warehouse workers. Google smart people get huge fringe benefits, the gardeners and food and cleaning staff are on contract and somehow 'don't count' but even worse, some ICT staff in Google are indirect hires through third companies, and even they get shat on (from what i read) and nobody much cares. TL;DR I think a lot of people have forgotten what solidarity means.
- Waterluvian 8y ago
  I genuinely do appreciate the qualification. Too often does the internet feel like it's by Americans for Americans. Then I'm left there with "b-b-but you make it sound like the whole world works that way!" moments.
dv_dt 8y ago
Amazon has been union busting for a while now. http://time.com/956/how-amazon-crushed-the-union-movement/ http://time.com/956/how-amazon-crushed-the-union-movement/ Strong, well funded interests have been systematically dismantling all possible legal supports for unions in the US for decades, and have especially recently been landing all sorts of rollbacks.

krapp 8y ago

>How did we let workers rights get this bad? We (by 'we' I mean Americans) despise anything that smacks of socialism, and "workers' rights" smacks of socialism.

sjg007 8y ago
It didn't use to be this way.
klenwell 8y ago
Worse than that, the very term "workers' rights" has been co-opted to mask the exploitation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law
ggm 8y ago
It's pretty ubiquitous. Union membership in Australia has been in a continuous decline since I arrived in 1987 and there are huge residual resentments to the union movement which I think are overplayed, but alas real. In ICT, I think the 'somebody elses problem' syndrome is pretty huge. Amazon ICT staff get really good pay and conditions and don't appear to feel strong solidarity with the warehouse workers. Google smart people get huge fringe benefits, the gardeners and food and cleaning staff are on contract and somehow 'don't count' but even worse, some ICT staff in Google are indirect hires through third companies, and even they get shat on (from what i read) and nobody much cares. TL;DR I think a lot of people have forgotten what solidarity means.
Waterluvian 8y ago
I genuinely do appreciate the qualification. Too often does the internet feel like it's by Americans for Americans. Then I'm left there with "b-b-but you make it sound like the whole world works that way!" moments.

dv_dt 8y ago

Amazon has been union busting for a while now. http://time.com/956/how-amazon-crushed-the-union-movement/ http://time.com/956/how-amazon-crushed-the-union-movement/ Strong, well funded interests have been systematically dismantling all possible legal supports for unions in the US for decades, and have especially recently been landing all sorts of rollbacks.