Political Discussion
- Thread starter David A.
- Start date
Meanwhile at Amazon....
Amazon recently told employees at its DCH1 warehouse in Chicago it was closing the facility down. DCH1 has been the site of protests and walkouts. It’s also the home of DCH1 Amazonians United, an advocacy group that has successfully petitioned the company for things like paid time off for part-time workers. According to Motherboard, the company reportedly gave employees two options: they could either take on 10-hour “megacycle” shifts at other facilities, or they could find a new job.
Megacycle shifts are a relatively recent development at Amazon’s delivery stations. They see the company’s warehouse employees work for 10-hours straight in graveyard shifts that usually start in the early hours of the morning and end around lunchtime. Amazon told Motherboard more than half of its last-mile delivery network is already on the model. In moving to the new model, Amazon has also reportedly been phasing out the shorter shifts it offered as an option to its workers previously, a claim the company disputes.
Amazon workers claim the company is forcing them to work grueling 10-hour shifts
Amazon recently told employees at its DCH1 warehouse in Chicago it was closing the facility down. Employees say they're being forced to either take 10-hour graveyard shifts at other facilities or search for a new job.www.engadget.com
Are amazon workers unionized?
Or are they like Walmart and will shut down any store where workers vote to unionize?
I'm 99% sure at least the warehouse workers are not unionized, it's a notoriously terrible work environment that no union would stand for, but they are trying now
techcrunch.com
As an aside, there are a million good reasons not to use Amazon (and I'm guilty of using them to be honest), but my #1 reason why I've shifted a ton of business away from them is the treatment of their operational staff (warehouse and delivery). It's truly garbage level treatment.
Amazon warehouse workers to begin historic vote to unionize | TechCrunch
On Friday, the National Labor Relations Board rejected Amazon’s attempt to delay a union vote set to begin on Monday, February 8. For many, the online
techcrunch.com
As an aside, there are a million good reasons not to use Amazon (and I'm guilty of using them to be honest), but my #1 reason why I've shifted a ton of business away from them is the treatment of their operational staff (warehouse and delivery). It's truly garbage level treatment.
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Alabama warehouse workers are voting soon on whether to Unionize. Amazon does not support worker rights and is working hard to deter Unionization.
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Patient names and colonoscopy results from US hospitals posted by hackers to the dark web
It’s an unusual move for cybercriminals.
www.theverge.com
The latest data breach.
wokeupnew
Well-Known Member
seeing stuff like that pointed out on the regular would be too depressing ha ha ha..
I've been watching this for a while.
Just remember, to everyone that has a good paying job with benefits, companies are having a hard time paying out record salaries to their CEOs and dividends to their investors while also attempting to actually provide services to people/make a profit. These companies have cut blue collar wages and benefits; this was a means test. White collar workers are next, as evidenced by my ever decreasing health insurance benefits.
Joe Mac
Well-Known Member
150 years of struggle for workers to redress the balance and get rights. 40 years of economic vandalism to destroy them. Why are people not angrier?
What drives me nuts is when you have people defend the actions of these companies and their CEO's.
One forum I'm on is made up by a majority of baby boomers who are affluent. Probably a 50/50 split between conservatives and moderate democrats.
When discussing things like the layoffs, stock buyouts and CEO bonuses they tend to defend it with "That's how things work". No question of if it's ethical or not, just that's how things are and that's capitalism.
They further go on to say these companies have a moral obligation to cut costs. The company comes first, so if the cash flow tightens they have to cut the most controllable expense, payroll. They have a moral obligation to hit their numbers. And it's smart business. The same came be said for sending jobs off shore, moving their work force to the gig economy or eliminating jobs with automation.
As for the CEO bonuses, they say they are well deserved. These people work hard and have to make the tough decisions.
How do you even have a conversation with people about this if they just tell you that's the way things are and that's management job and obligation.
wokeupnew
Well-Known Member
After I saw @Joe Mac's comment my thought is that people love the status quo too much. This confirms it. People are fine with corporations bending them over a barrel because we all love the status quo and don't like disruption. Let me have my holiday's with family, vacations, annual raises, shiny new car every 3-5 years, new iPhone, etc. etc. The status quo is why people could not be bothered with disrupting their Thanksgivings or Christmases for a year so we all don't die. The "If Hillary had won, we'd be at Brunch right now!" crowd are a perfect example of this.
Not many Americans want to upend their lives to change theirs or improve their lives for the better. Gutting of workers rights has not helped. There are people who want to fight for better wages, rights, etc. However, when they go through the "appropriate channels" for doing that they likely get nothing accomplished and/or lose their jobs.
People are fine with that because Capitalism gives the average person just a little bit of hope that maybe one day, they too can be a millionaire. It won't happen, but people like leaving that option open. You move into different forms of government where higher incomes are taxed heavier and more areas of government are subsidized, and that window of becoming a millionaire for the average person gets smaller and smaller.
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Joe Mac
Well-Known Member
The problem is what is the normal person anymore? Below 50 do they even exist anymore? The middle is being squeezed out of existence and we have ever increasing numbers of people living below the poverty line. And this isn’t just America and the American dream this is happening globally, corporations such as Amazon and the larger multi nationals are effectively our governments now and we’re all sleepwalking into it in a blur or consumption. Is a job even worth it if you’re not able to live of it?
Yeah, it seems like the opinion of those less than 50 don't really matter. That they are wrong or don't know what they are talking about. They just need to work harder and smarter and make the right decisions and they too can accumulate the same wealth as the generations before. The majority of law makers, participating voters and corporate managers are made up by this group of people over the age of 50.
The boomers generation was the generation of robbing the next generation for their own financial gain. There is a book out there on this subject. And I'm interested in picking it up to read.
Speaking of status quo. All the blue collar workers in my family would totally be against medicare for all. They work in construction and have a good union. Their healthcare is free with their company / union cover 100% of the tab and they have far superior insurance to me. No deductibles, co-pays of only $10 compared to my $40. All they hear when they hear talk of MFA is higher taxes and loosing their healthcare. They like what they have and don't want to see any changes to it.
The boomers generation was the generation of robbing the next generation for their own financial gain. There is a book out there on this subject. And I'm interested in picking it up to read.
Speaking of status quo. All the blue collar workers in my family would totally be against medicare for all. They work in construction and have a good union. Their healthcare is free with their company / union cover 100% of the tab and they have far superior insurance to me. No deductibles, co-pays of only $10 compared to my $40. All they hear when they hear talk of MFA is higher taxes and loosing their healthcare. They like what they have and don't want to see any changes to it.
wokeupnew
Well-Known Member
it's more of an idea than it is a reality.
We force kids to go to college because that's what their parents did to get good paying jobs. But now there's no good paying jobs and congrats you now have over $50,000 in debt.
Or if you don't go to school there are no jobs that will pay you enough to live off of so you need to work 3 jobs to pay for your apartment.
Saving for retirement? LOL
Got hurt and need medical care? LOL
The boomer generation have royally fucked most of the world for years to come.
When it comes to schools, the boomers will then blame you for that $50,000+ in debt when you voice your opinion about it. Tell you that you made a poor decision to barrow more than you could afford to payback. And that it all comes down to life choices.
Savings for retirement? My father and uncles all have nice pensions. You don't get pensions anymore and they are considered archaic. They cost companies and the government too much money and were not sustainable. Oh, and being squeezed makes it harder for us to start / save a requirement. More than half of Americans today don't have any retirement savings. Those that do like me, can only afford to put about 5% of our paycheck away each week towards a 401K and not the recommended 15%. Hell, if my wages stay stagnant at around 75K until I require (if I retire at the age of 67 which is the legal minimum now, for my parents its 65 to be eligible for social security and medicare) and I continue to contribute 5% and have 5% company math the estimated payoff of my 401K is 36k a year. How the hell are you supposed to live off of that. I fear I will not have a retirement.
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If you look at how populists and populist movements have been characterized in American media, there is a clear difference in how it was presented in the 1930's media. Just look at the literature from this time to see how everything was progressing forward in the "great society". Around the 1960's, people were sick of all of the government intervention, particularly the war on poverty. It was around this time that populism became a dirty word and private companies were doing things quicker, cheaper and easier than government programs. This was the world that the boomers came of age in. They didn't create the doctrine of late stage capitalism, but they definitely cemented in their values--private corporations are always better than the government; the individual as an economic engine insures equality for all--as long as you work for it; don't worry about the problems of the next generation because by then we will have science to fix all of it; everything in this life works, as long as you can get 7% earnings from the stock market yoy. The problem with this model is that the assumptions of economic growth are supposed to be based on individual products, not on higher and higher interest payments. The problem with this model is exactly what our parents aren't talking about--it sucks for people living in this world.
Our parents were fine with corporate optimization because there was still enough populist laws on the books that they still were able to go to college, buy a house, save for retirement, pay medical expenses, and even have some money to go on vacation. I'm on the tail (and I mean tail end) of Gen-X, so much so that in some definitions, I'm the first of the millenials, and I'm positive that my generation was the last generation that was able to go to college on the relatively cheap--or at least with a lot of scholarships available. X-ers lost their houses in record numbers in 2008 (moreso than boomers or millenials), and only about half of my friends have retirement savings that they could possibly retire on one day. The other half joke about how they will die at their desks. I have had to decide what medical appointments I really need because medical procedures have gotten so expensive that a large number of people cannot afford to be treated. IMHO, people are starting to get mad. People are starting to realize that if we continue on this path, things will be unlivable for our children; heck, they might be unlivable in 10 years. I have seen my benefits slowly being whittled away and I constantly am amazed at people without insurance; how can they afford any of it? In short, this no longer works for most people.
And here's where I'm at right now. Most people are not getting their needs met. While I can see us attempt to keep this train on the track for another decade or so, but with the social security trust fund being bankrupt around 2032 (was 2035 but Covid has moved this timeline up), I'm not sure what justification they can give to people about why we should continue on this path. There were things that we got wrong in the 1930's but we completely threw the baby out with the bathwater when we decided that all government intervention was wrong, and the answers are all there for us with Free Market Capitalism! (though what we have is no where near a free market) People are already pushing back which is why you are seeing the amount of civil unrest that we are--this is a symptom of inequality. We are starting to look at populist policies because relying on a few people with a vast amount of power to treat people ethically is delusional.
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Finally, a bit of common sense...
Joe Mac
Well-Known Member
I‘m hoping that the insanity of trying to cut and tax our way out of the 07 recession was the final straw. If they’re insane enough to try and do that again post COVID something will break. The major worry is how our countries are going to enact corporate governance when the corporations are setting large swathes of government policy.
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Some politicians are smart enough to realize that everything that is happening now is partially due to 2007-2009 recession. But I don't think enough of them learned their lesson because all of them are part of a socioeconomic class that was able to rebound easily from the recession, and don't understand the implications the recession had on the wealth of regular people. I think that's why they are trying to pass a massive spending bill to keep our airlines afloat, because it worked for the banks in 2008. I think people are getting fed up with CEO and billionaire bailout, especially when a small financial misstep can wreck the normal person's credit. The smallest regular misstep could land them in jail--and some people are in jail right now because of an inability to pay a ticket or bail themselves out. This is definitely making me the most angry. It's the whole do as we say, not as we do; and if they mess up they get bailed out, but if we mess up, it follows us for a minimum of 10 years and we lose a lot of opportunity because of bad credit or jail time (even if there was no conviction).
As for the governance, the last thing most of these billionaires want to do is rule in the spotlight. My guess is that it will be more of the same where they get someone else to do their dirty work--and who better to do that than politicians? I'm most concerned by Amazon and Google's most recent stunts where they are suppressing union activity. Amazon is making their workers go on supershifts and people at major pharmacies (Walgreens and CVS) are complaining over their work conditions because they are required to keep up with their other job duties while also vaccinating people. Uber and Lyft got away with taking away worker protections. As I see retail jobs get worse and worse and companies blatantly violating human rights, I know that it's not long before my benefits vanish too.