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What is strange to me is that after a series of such incidents workers don't go out on protest or something, given this is happening in the US.
by mapcars 7y ago
What is strange to me is that after a series of such incidents workers don't go out on protest or something, given this is happening in the US.
- foxhop 7y agoAmazon actively, proactively, and reactively busts all forms of labor organization, including unions. Hourly wage workers do not have the time, or runway to protest. The deaths are only witnessed by a handful of workers, as their zones are spread very far out in these enormous warehouses. Word of mouth flows very slowly as a result. During their shifts, workers are lonely and interact with more robots than other humans.
- krapp 7y ago>During their shifts, workers are lonely and interact with more robots than other humans. To be fair, some of us prefer it that way.
- macintux 7y agoBetween the costs of health care and the general indebtedness of many, risking your job in that way is a tough sell, especially since it would only be effective in large numbers. I also suspect that if you’re working in a hellish warehouse, it’s probably more of act of desperation than a career choice.
- gridlockd 7y agoDespite all the bad press, an Amazon warehouse worker job is still one of the better jobs you can get, at that level of employability.
- thedaemon 7y agoNo.
- gridlockd 7y agoOkay, then why aren't all these workers quitting their hated jobs in droves? Why would they care if they get fired, when they can just get another, even better job? If there were better jobs readily available to them, then Amazon would have no power over these workers.
- SolaceQuantum 7y ago"Why would they care if they get fired, when they can just get another, even better job?" Have you considered... they cannot get an 'even better job'? I highly recommend reading "Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy". It details the lives of people working at TaskRabbit, Uber, AirBnB, and KitchenSurfing. It might also help explain the choices of why people are taking 'bad work' (that there isn't 'better work'.)
- ThrowawayR2 7y agoThat's exactly the point the parent poster was making.
- kube-system 7y agoAmazon get a lot of attention due to their size. Similar workplaces with less media and regulatory scrutiny often pay less and have more safety issues. Anecdotally, the people I know who work at an Amazon warehouse tell me that the safety protections there are better (and pay higher) than the other options they had.