<story><title>Amazon instructs New York workers “don&apos;t sign” union cards</title><url>https://www.engadget.com/amazon-alb-1-anti-union-signage-alu-004207814.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>q1w2</author><text>&amp;gt; if what is published from time to time on media is actually true&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s a big IF.  Unions were invented after the onset of the industrial revolution to combat truly unsafe work conditions in industrial settings where worker&amp;#x27;s dying was common.&lt;p&gt;OSHA did away with all that.&lt;p&gt;The current generation of &amp;quot;bad work condition&amp;quot; complaints is around getting adequate bathroom breaks.</text></item><item><author>jaclaz</author><text>I may be wrong, but besides and before the wage increases, it seems to me like the priority would be for decent working conditions, if what is published from time to time on media is actually true, the biggest issues are about lack of (normal, decent) pauses or rest periods, continuous summoning for increases in productivity, total control on the workers, etc.</text></item><item><author>photochemsyn</author><text>Realistically an Amazon-wide union is the only way Amazon workers are going to get decent wage increases.  If the USA is going to allow manufacturers to outsource the majority of well-paid (~$30&amp;#x2F;hr avg) manufacturing jobs to Mexico and China, without having any cross-border capital flow penalities (neoliberal globalism in a nutshell), then the major employers like Amazon and Walmart are going to have to double their wages.&lt;p&gt;Yes, that means less for the executives and shareholders.  They may have to sell some of their properties, oh dear.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hellotomyrars</author><text>What rock are you living under? Plenty of the documented absolute nightmare of working for Amazon in their warehouses is corroborated by their own internal analysis. Unions are for more than just making sure people don&amp;#x27;t die when doing their job. The union I am a member of more than doubled the wages of its members after its first 12 years of existence. Crucially it also ensures twice yearly cost of living adjustments. It is the only way for labor to have a meaningful negotiating position. There are shitty unions out there, but there are a lot of shitty employers too. Amazon&amp;#x27;s internal reporting shows they&amp;#x27;re going to exhaust the labor pool in several areas because they&amp;#x27;ve cycled through everyone who could possibly work at the warehouses and fulfillment centers. People aren&amp;#x27;t leaving Amazon because they aren&amp;#x27;t allowed to use the bathroom. They&amp;#x27;re leaving Amazon because it is dehumanizing and miserable. Funny how the people who make the lowest wages have to put up with the most shit.</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon instructs New York workers “don&apos;t sign” union cards</title><url>https://www.engadget.com/amazon-alb-1-anti-union-signage-alu-004207814.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>q1w2</author><text>&amp;gt; if what is published from time to time on media is actually true&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s a big IF.  Unions were invented after the onset of the industrial revolution to combat truly unsafe work conditions in industrial settings where worker&amp;#x27;s dying was common.&lt;p&gt;OSHA did away with all that.&lt;p&gt;The current generation of &amp;quot;bad work condition&amp;quot; complaints is around getting adequate bathroom breaks.</text></item><item><author>jaclaz</author><text>I may be wrong, but besides and before the wage increases, it seems to me like the priority would be for decent working conditions, if what is published from time to time on media is actually true, the biggest issues are about lack of (normal, decent) pauses or rest periods, continuous summoning for increases in productivity, total control on the workers, etc.</text></item><item><author>photochemsyn</author><text>Realistically an Amazon-wide union is the only way Amazon workers are going to get decent wage increases.  If the USA is going to allow manufacturers to outsource the majority of well-paid (~$30&amp;#x2F;hr avg) manufacturing jobs to Mexico and China, without having any cross-border capital flow penalities (neoliberal globalism in a nutshell), then the major employers like Amazon and Walmart are going to have to double their wages.&lt;p&gt;Yes, that means less for the executives and shareholders.  They may have to sell some of their properties, oh dear.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>SantalBlush</author><text>OSHA did away with all that &lt;i&gt;on paper&lt;/i&gt;.  In reality, OSHA compliance varies considerably across manual labor jobs.  Here&amp;#x27;s how:&lt;p&gt;Suppose you&amp;#x27;re a manager&amp;#x2F;foreman.  You never  outright tell your staff to ignore safety regulations; you simply give them a huge workload with a deadline and set of equipment that make it  impossible to feasibly accomplish the workload within compliance.  Your workers catch on that in order to get the job done, they need to ignore the safety regs.  As a manager, you look the other way as they ignore the rules.  If an injury happens on the job, you then blame the worker for ignoring the safety regulations, which of course you instructed them to follow.  Follow up by giving them a drug test so you might even be able to get out of paying them workers comp.&lt;p&gt;This is how it works in the real world.  Source: seen it, done it.</text></comment>