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Workers at Amazon's Main Italian Site To Hold First Strike on Black Friday (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Workers at Amazon's main distribution hub in Italy are planning their first ever strike for Friday, trade unions said, threatening to disrupt one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Like the rest of Europe, Italians in recent years have embraced the U.S. tradition of Black Friday, a day of heavy discounting by retailers on the day after Thanksgiving. Unions said in a statement more than 500 Amazon workers at the Piacenza site in northern Italy had agreed to strike following a failure to negotiate bonuses with the company. Workers have also decided not to do any overtime until Dec. 31, covering the peak season for the online retailer which hires temporary workers during this period.
What a wonderful group. Conspire to harm their employer when they are most needed.
As well they should, if their employer is a shitheel.
Why would you trust such a group with your business? Such children!
This is Amazon, it's not about trust, it's about control. And only children still believe the fairy tales about the business owners being benevolent keepers of society.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This is capitalism, where everyone is supposed to be selfish, worry about his own interests, and screw the other. Their employer isn't some special snowflake who deserves protection from the government.
Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
While the naive believe that unions are really out to protect the workers, rather than enrich the union bosses.
I think some of them might be, but I'm not astoundingly pro-union. I am, however, in favor of the right to unionize. If you tell people they can't associate freely, you're violating a natural right. I'd rather have protections for all workers than any unions at all, but since governments don't seem to be able to see their way to protecting workers more than corporations, I see unions as a necessary evil. I do not consider this contradictory to the idea that we should eliminate them going forwards, since it is not acceptable to simply replace them with nothing.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Reality check: the only way to get what you want is to force the issue.
Employers want to pay their employees as little as possible. Every dollar they pay an employee is a dollar they can't keep. They don't set wages based on what is morally right or benevolent; but based on what they have to pay according to law or labor market economics.
If you have a rare and valuable skill, employers will make all kinds of noble gestures towards you. But when you have a general skillset that most people have or can easily get, you are not getting a dime more than you can force them to pay you.
If workers don't keep striking, they won't keep getting a decent wage. The moment they stop raising a fuss is the moment their pay stagnates, their working conditions start to deteriorate, and their hours start going up.
It is *also* true that unions become self-serving predators as well. It is unfortunate, but inescapable, given that everyone involved in a union has the same "I want more for me" incentives that the greedy employers have.
It is not pretty, but it is human. You fight for what you want, or you don't get it.