5 ms·

I still don't understand in what way Amazon warehouse workers are being treated worse than an average American warehouse worker working for someone other than A

I still don't understand in what way Amazon warehouse workers are being treated worse than an average American warehouse worker working for someone other than Amazon.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago
I've had friends who worked in Amazon warehouses. They've all been puzzled by the news stories about bathroom break issues and unreasonable performance targets, because it doesn't match their experience at all. When a company reaches Amazon's scale, I have no problem believing that someone, somewhere, was mismanaging a team. I don't believe it's the norm though. As for recent events, the complaints seem to be that Amazon didn't implement enough COVID-19 countermeasures early enough, and that their implementation of COVID-19 policies hasn't had perfect coverage. From https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/10/21216172/amazon-coronavirus-protests-response-safety-jfk8-fired-covid-19 https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/10/21216172/amazon-coronavir... > Smalls, 31 years old and father of three, had worked at JFK8 since it opened in 2018 and Amazon warehouses in New Jersey and Connecticut before that. It’s a good job, he says, with good benefits, and he hadn’t had any complaints. But in early March, he became concerned about what would happen when the virus reached the warehouse with its 5,000 employees. You can read more anecdotes in the article. I fully believe the managers involved in those incidents should be fired, but I'm still not convinced that those negative anecdotes are the norm across all of Amazon.
- katbyte 6y ago
  And then you hear story after story about mass infections at meat processing pants where the employee conditions sound far worse, but that doesn’t make the news like this ️
- projektfu 6y ago
  There’s a lot of heterogeneity because of contractors. Many of the egregious violations known were are contracting facilities, often in depressed towns where the line to get a job is long and the workers feel powerless.
kerkeslager 6y ago
I still don't understand why people keep bringing this up as if it matters. Other companies doing the wrong thing doesn't make it okay for Amazon to do the wrong thing. Also, it's worth noting that Amazon is the industry leader here. If Amazon cuts cost at workers' expense, then other companies have to cut costs as well, and it's probably going to be in the same way. To some extent, other companies mistreat warehouse workers because Amazon mistreats warehouse workers.
- unreal37 6y ago
  Amazon has a $15 minimum wage, right? Do other companies follow them? Clearly, it's fun to pick on Amazon and not as fun to pick on <insert company name you've never heard of here>.
  - refurb 6y ago
    Amazon is a target for the same reason multinational corporations are targets for lawsuits - money. Amazon has lots of it and meat packing plants don't.
  - kerkeslager 6y ago
    First, let's not pretend that Amazon is somehow doing a great thing by paying their workers $15/hour when Jeff Bezos is making almost $9,000,000/hour[1]. You're proposing that workers should be grateful that Amazon lets them eat their table scraps. Second, just because Amazon does one thing slightly better than its competitors, does not excuse them mistreating their workers in other ways. Third, you didn't address the point of my previous post, which is that other companies doing the wrong thing doesn't excuse Amazon doing the wrong thing. Fourth, before you continue your ad hominem attack where you accuse me of singling out Amazon unfairly because "it's fun", you should know that I've personally been involved in a (unsuccessful) political campaign to prevent a Walmart from being built in my early 20s, for similar reasons. This isn't me picking on poor little Amazon, it's a consistent stance on protecting worker rights against any employer, which I've held for decades. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/what-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-makes-every-day-hour-minute-2018-10?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/what-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-m...
tharne 6y ago
They're not. I worked in warehouses when I was younger. It's awful work regardless of the individual employer. Similar to how MacDonald's was in the hot seat many years ago for basically the same practices as every other fast food place under the sun. Whether or not it makes sense to single out the leader in a given industry, I don't know, but that always seems to be what happens.

I still don't understand in what way Amazon warehouse workers are being treated worse than an average American warehouse worker working for someone other than Amazon.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago

I've had friends who worked in Amazon warehouses. They've all been puzzled by the news stories about bathroom break issues and unreasonable performance targets, because it doesn't match their experience at all. When a company reaches Amazon's scale, I have no problem believing that someone, somewhere, was mismanaging a team. I don't believe it's the norm though. As for recent events, the complaints seem to be that Amazon didn't implement enough COVID-19 countermeasures early enough, and that their implementation of COVID-19 policies hasn't had perfect coverage. From https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/10/21216172/amazon-coronavirus-protests-response-safety-jfk8-fired-covid-19 https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/10/21216172/amazon-coronavir... > Smalls, 31 years old and father of three, had worked at JFK8 since it opened in 2018 and Amazon warehouses in New Jersey and Connecticut before that. It’s a good job, he says, with good benefits, and he hadn’t had any complaints. But in early March, he became concerned about what would happen when the virus reached the warehouse with its 5,000 employees. You can read more anecdotes in the article. I fully believe the managers involved in those incidents should be fired, but I'm still not convinced that those negative anecdotes are the norm across all of Amazon.

katbyte 6y ago
And then you hear story after story about mass infections at meat processing pants where the employee conditions sound far worse, but that doesn’t make the news like this ️
projektfu 6y ago
There’s a lot of heterogeneity because of contractors. Many of the egregious violations known were are contracting facilities, often in depressed towns where the line to get a job is long and the workers feel powerless.

kerkeslager 6y ago

I still don't understand why people keep bringing this up as if it matters. Other companies doing the wrong thing doesn't make it okay for Amazon to do the wrong thing. Also, it's worth noting that Amazon is the industry leader here. If Amazon cuts cost at workers' expense, then other companies have to cut costs as well, and it's probably going to be in the same way. To some extent, other companies mistreat warehouse workers because Amazon mistreats warehouse workers.

unreal37 6y ago
Amazon has a $15 minimum wage, right? Do other companies follow them? Clearly, it's fun to pick on Amazon and not as fun to pick on <insert company name you've never heard of here>.
- refurb 6y ago
  Amazon is a target for the same reason multinational corporations are targets for lawsuits - money. Amazon has lots of it and meat packing plants don't.
- kerkeslager 6y ago
  First, let's not pretend that Amazon is somehow doing a great thing by paying their workers $15/hour when Jeff Bezos is making almost $9,000,000/hour[1]. You're proposing that workers should be grateful that Amazon lets them eat their table scraps. Second, just because Amazon does one thing slightly better than its competitors, does not excuse them mistreating their workers in other ways. Third, you didn't address the point of my previous post, which is that other companies doing the wrong thing doesn't excuse Amazon doing the wrong thing. Fourth, before you continue your ad hominem attack where you accuse me of singling out Amazon unfairly because "it's fun", you should know that I've personally been involved in a (unsuccessful) political campaign to prevent a Walmart from being built in my early 20s, for similar reasons. This isn't me picking on poor little Amazon, it's a consistent stance on protecting worker rights against any employer, which I've held for decades. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/what-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-makes-every-day-hour-minute-2018-10?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/what-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-m...

tharne 6y ago

They're not. I worked in warehouses when I was younger. It's awful work regardless of the individual employer. Similar to how MacDonald's was in the hot seat many years ago for basically the same practices as every other fast food place under the sun. Whether or not it makes sense to single out the leader in a given industry, I don't know, but that always seems to be what happens.