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Amazon Workers in Europe Stage 'We Are Not Robots' Protests on One of Its Busiest Shopping Days (techcrunch.com)
Some of Amazon's workers in Europe are protesting against what they call unfair work conditions, in a move meant to disrupt operations on Black Friday. From a report: They've timed the latest protest for Black Friday, one of the busiest annual shopping days online as retailers slash prices and heavily promote deals to try to spark a seasonal buying rush. In the UK, the GMB Union says it's expecting "hundreds" to attend protests timed for early morning and afternoon at Amazon warehouses in Rugeley, Milton Keynes, Warrington, Peterborough and Swansea. At the time of writing the union had not provided details of turnout so far.
Protests are also reported to be taking place in Spain, France and Italy today. Although, when asked about strikes at its facilities in these countries, Amazon claimed: "Our European Fulfilment Network is fully operational and we continue to focus on delivering for our customers. Any reports to the contrary are simply wrong." The demonstrations look intended to not only apply pressure on Amazon to accept collective bargaining but encourage users of its website to think about the wider costs involved in packing and despatching the discounted products they're trying to grab. In a statement on Wednesday announcing the Black Friday protest, Tim Roache, the GMB's general secretary, said: "The conditions our members at Amazon are working under are frankly inhuman. They are breaking bones, being knocked unconscious and being taken away in ambulances. We're standing up and saying enough is enough, these are people making Amazon its money. People with kids, homes, bills to pay -- they're not robots."
Protests are also reported to be taking place in Spain, France and Italy today. Although, when asked about strikes at its facilities in these countries, Amazon claimed: "Our European Fulfilment Network is fully operational and we continue to focus on delivering for our customers. Any reports to the contrary are simply wrong." The demonstrations look intended to not only apply pressure on Amazon to accept collective bargaining but encourage users of its website to think about the wider costs involved in packing and despatching the discounted products they're trying to grab. In a statement on Wednesday announcing the Black Friday protest, Tim Roache, the GMB's general secretary, said: "The conditions our members at Amazon are working under are frankly inhuman. They are breaking bones, being knocked unconscious and being taken away in ambulances. We're standing up and saying enough is enough, these are people making Amazon its money. People with kids, homes, bills to pay -- they're not robots."
Yeah, I hate "black Friday" (who ever gave it that name, anyway? What, gonna wear no socks and shoes?).
I've joined the alternate "Buy Nothing Friday".
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Sounds like every other warehouse. This is not news. Amazon workers must either be sensitive snowflakes or extortionists.
I wasnâ(TM)t going to indulge in Black Friday shopping, but I think I will buy something from them just to stick it to the workers. Thank the Streisand effect, idiots.
...Black-Friday Listed.
See what I did there? Ha!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"People with kids, homes, bills to pay -- they're not robots". No, but if they keep up the protests they'll surely be replaced with them.
installing more robots.
;)
Just my 2 cents
I'm not going to put up with any whining form the proletariat delaying my package deliveries.
Fire all of them and replace them with people more willing to express some gratitude for even lower salaries.
This seem like the **one** day that you **wouldn't** want to go to a store, but it's the busiest shopping day of the year?
... to give your employer more incentive to replace you even faster now.
Fucking hell people...
I tend to rant.
... as robots displace human workers in many industries, are companies beginning to think of the workforce more in terms of robots, and treat humans more like robots?
When you work for the largest retailer on the planet that has a long history of abusing employees, yes, you are a robot. That's your choice. Work someplace else if you don't like it.
If everybody did that, then Mama Amazon might have to pay people a reasonable amount, treat them like humans, and maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't be so goddamned big.
I don't respond to AC's.
Go back to the Fox News website, twit...
It's interesting that they compare the Amazon warehouse square footage to a nearby Tesco grocery warehouse - by the area of the building.
How many people work in each, and how many hours per day do people work there? How healthy were those employees when they started work? Amazon is pretty well-known for hiring just about anyone, including people with known health problems. Does the grocery store warehouse even hire pregnant women at all for production jobs?
Amazon warehouses are often 24/7 environments, while most grocery warehouses close for several hours per day (or reduce staff drastically overnight). That's probably also an issue.
How busy is the Tesco warehouse? Do they have a few hundred thousand different items to pick, wrap, and ship to thousands of different addresses per day, like the Amazon location, or are they like a normal grocery distribution center that sends out a few dozen trucks during a normal work day? The packaging difference alone probably doubles or triples the Amazon workforce right off the bat.
And last... it looks like the Amazon site calls an ambulance for just about anything. Does Tesco do the same, or do they just stand around and stall until they're forced to, hoping the employee will decide to wander over to the hospital after work?
They don't have Thanksgiving on Thursday, so Friday is just a regular work day.
They should just be thankful to have jobs at all. If they want to make more than warehouse workers, they should start their own businesses. Or go get computer engineering degrees. What a bunch of entitled snowflakes, sheesh.
Insufficient IQ, social intelligence or organizational ability to do the aforementioned? Tough noogies, shoulda picked better parents and circumstances. They should STFU and GBTW - my packages aren't going to deliver themselves.
The nerve of those people, trying to get better pay and working conditions out of a huge, wealthy corporation, owned by the richest man in the world.
The article is bullshit. We don't have the concept of Black Friday over here.
This is the first year that anyone in Europe has ever heard of it, who isn't closely following US culture.
And why have they heard of it? Because Amazon spammed us with that shit like crazy!
And now some dumbass local stores try to follow.
So I say this as loudly an clearly as I can: THERE IS NO BLACK FRIDAY IN EUROPE. Period.
If you say there is, you automatically stop being a member of any European society. We will not talk to you, and consider you a freak.
gweihir KNOWS u IMPERSONATE me https://it.slashdot.org/commen... c6gunner proves it https://linux.slashdot.org/com... he forgot to SUBMIT as AC & using his registered 'lusrname' instead (because he tried to mock me both BEFORE & after I FAIRLY challenged him to show he's done better work - he had ZERO).
& NO WAY I'd "cry" like you "playing victim ne'er-do-wells" on /. (TROLL /.ers, not all) OR post on hosts offtopic.
YOU HELPED ME https://science.slashdot.org/c... (& you quit trying to make me look bad trying to "tell lies" on hosts as "ME" IN YOUR IMPERSONATIONS of me e.g. https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... as regards Intel speculative execution attack? Hosts PREVENT 'EM)
APK
P.S.=> I KNOW the 2nd to last link above's KILLING YOU - YOU ACTUALLY HELPED ME getting me to see if hosts stop more than portsmash (& Meltdown + Spectre too) & "lo & behold" - hosts WORK on 'em - U LOSE (& U STOPPED TRYING IT in your impersonations of me) .... apk
You are soo well-trained in being raped in the ass, and then only blaming yourselves.
NO, if you can only pick between starving and working at Amazon, that is NOT A CHOICE.
And if you disagree, you are literally openly supporting and enabling mass-murder! Because that is what that is!
I don't know what laws you have in your fascist (what you call "neocon") country, but here in Germany, failure to render assistance is a major crime, and can be (and often is) treated equivalent to murder! Because that's what that kind of callous psychopath behavior, that is such a big American tradition, is.
We all knew this was going to end right? It's an unsustainable business. Race to the bottom.
Amazon runs so close to the edge that it is uniquely vulnerable. A two-day strike would fill their warehouses with unfiled received merchandise.
But your job can be done by one...
Protest, go ahead. See where it gets you in the long run.
First, let me say that everybody deserves to be treated well and have a good life. The question is how that can be achieved. The classical ideal of getting everybody a job they can live on is not going to cut it anymore.
The reality of the situation at Amazon (and other places) is that humans are a temporary solution, because they are indeed not robots. They will be replaced by robots as soon as that is cost-effective, a state not far in the future for most of them. Hence the tag-line they use may be about the worst they could have chosen. Don't get me wrong, they have a legitimate issue here, but they are barking up the wrong tree.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Europe is just as capitalist as the US, what are you going on about?
What differentiates some European countries from the US is the welfare state, and the countries that do it well have better quality of life than the US could ever hope to achieve. But even the famed and desirable Nordic model is still based on capitalism.
You're asking the wrong question.
The real question is, why are Americans so glad to be shat upon?
I don't know the safety record of Amazon vs comparable companies. That would be interesting to find out.
What I DO know is that "we are not robots" is kind of a dumb thing for the union boss to say to a company considering replacing workers with robots. The union is basically saying "you'd be better off replacing us with robots". Bad choice of words.
Capitalism does not imply the existence of a random day of special offers in shops tied to a holiday that is only celebrated in one country.
Found the whining nazi faggot. Get a rope.
As long as they're not Eurobots. Those shits just stay there, do nothing, whine and act smug. Then they shit themselves and hide as soon as someone raises their voice.
I've quit jobs that I didn't like. Is that frowned upon in the EU?
Surely some of our European betters are up to the task of starting an online catalog business, one that will obviously be superior in all ways. Yet....
so it's not really a legitimate threat. The real question is will we start taxing robots when the time comes or will we just turn into some kind of dystopia where only a few folks who own robots have food and shelter? Got me, I'll be dead though.
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Nice work, fellas
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
In their mind it does.... :)))) Also boogie men and creepy crawlers.
Aww, that's cute and completely shows a lack of understanding of how the world works.
So the US cuts its defense budget by 90%. That means no more money to maintain any form of nuclear deterrent. So that would mean
that all of our Minuteman missiles are closed down, our Ohio class subs are scrapped, and our B52s are sent to the boneyard.
But wait, China and Russia didn't follow suit with us. They now have zero reasons to fear the US retaliation for anything.
Want to invade Taiwan? Go for it. Want to attack Japan? sure! Never mind that we are treaty obligated to protect Japan, South Korea,
Philippines, and all of Western Europe. Fuck those guys right?
10% of the military budget would not allow for a single ship in the Navy, perhaps a few brigades of soldiers, and a couple of wings
of aircraft. Why even keep that around? It wouldn't be able to defend the US or project beyond our borders. There would
no longer be a point in having a military.
I am constantly in shock at how reckless the extreme left is about this subject. Is there extreme waste in the military?
Absolutely. Are the things that need to be resolved? You bet. But saying instead, lets defend the military? That shows how
much lack of knowledge you really have on how this world operates.
10% budget wouldn't allow for a single ship? so 100% of budget allows less than 10 ships?
You don't fucking know, you're just talking out of your ass.
It doesn't cost 700 billion dollars to defend America. It costs 700 billion a year to occupy multiple countries, prop up terrorist states like Israel and Saudi Arabia, and overpay for exotic weapons we only need because we need to stay one step ahead of last year's model, which we've sold to anyone with money.
"Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
Better quality of life for the lazy stupid incompetent leeches of society. Much worse for the hard working innovators who drive the economy but are dragged down by the rest of your useless socialist sludge.
Get a job. And no, posting on /. about how great it is to steal money from your betters is not a job.
I guess it depends on how you define past... It was like that last year, it's always been that way.
You got me into this! You were the ideologue! I'm only a poor assassin! - Twenty evocations, Bruce Sterling
"The conditions our members at Amazon are working under are frankly inhuman. They are breaking bones, being knocked unconscious and being taken away in ambulances. We're standing up and saying enough is enough, these are people making Amazon its money. People with kids, homes, bills to pay -- they're not robots."
I have a sneaking suspicion this quote came from somebody who has never been inside an Amazon warehouse, or any warehouse at all.
Warehouses in general are dangerous places, accidents happen, especially when you have a workforce of hundreds of thousands. I'd be interested to see a study researching if Amazon warehouses are actually *more* dangerous than other warehouses, because I've worked in several and I'd be willing to bet the Amazon ones are safer.
Someone mod this guy up
I tend to rant.
I was disappointed the post failed to work in a Kerblam! man reference, Doctor Who's Differing Approaches Find A Shared Fear In The Future Of Amazon.
Again you show how little you understand. What is last year's model? The F-35? It first flew in 2006 and is just now getting to numbers where it could pick up the slack from shortages in other air frame types. Or maybe you mean the F22? It was canceled after only procuring 195 of the estimated 600 we needed. Those were built from 1996 to 2010. Certainly not last year's model. Or maybe you mean the B52 that have been flying for over 60 years. Oh wait, how about the sub force? Nope can't be them since they have lost years of operational time od to not being able to to be repaired and maintained. Nope can't be those since they have lost
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/25031/navy-attack-subs-lost-more-than-two-decades-worth-of-operational-time-to-maintenance-delays
The cost of a single ship is not the ship itself. Its the ship, its maintenance, its crew (the largest expense), its shore facilities, the crew to man those facilities, and all tithe other expenses that go into putting a single ship to sea.
The largest part of the US military budget is the people. Their salaries, their healthcare, their retirement. So with your enlightened plan, we would put all of those people out of work. The entire defense industry, the current civilian workers for the DoD, the military itself. We are talking upwards of 3 million employed people. Genius plan there.
So in your enlightened estimation, how much does it cost to defend America? what exactly do we need?And lets be clear. the money we supply to Israel, doesn't come from the Dod budget. Neither does the weapons we supply to KSA.
Before you talk about exotic weapons research what China and Russia are doing. There are fast becoming peer states with the ability to prevent the US from achieving its goals around the world. I am not talking about expansion. I am talking about simple things like protecting Taiwan, and Japan. Preventing China from going further into taking their nine dash line or even beyond.
What's equivalent in UK to the USA's OSHA?
Amazon was inspected 142 OSHA inspections since Dec 2013, according to OSHA (https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.html)
University 732
Elementary 425
Walmart 369
Target 218
Mall 74
Google 6
JC Penny 4
Facebook 2
Newegg 2
Ebay 2
Only if happiness comes from money, which it usually doesn't.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
they're not robots
Hmm, good point.
Smithers, order some more robots!
Instead we have this insanely expensive nuclear deterrent that we are unwilling to actually deploy along with the even more expensive expanse of conventional forces.
Clearly you have never had a management position nor higher education. Budgets do not scale linearly. Blue water naval ships do not constitute 100% of forces. Naval ships are not the first concern, particularly today. There are fixed overhead expenses which will eat a larger percentage of the budget if the budget is reduced.
Look at what happened in the south china sea. Look at what happened in Crimea. Every time the US is sufficiently distracted, more area of the earth is gobbled up. Cut the US military budget by 90%, and you cut the parts of Europe and southeast Asia which are not under military occupation by a similarly large figure.
Nobody else is defending global trade routes. Without them, international commerce will largely stop. Go read some security papers by the EU, UN, independent think tanks. Whatever you trust the most. They will tell you the same story which is why you won't be getting what you want and the world will be safer for it.
Stick to the grunt work of command line management and leave serious concerns to people that can reason and argue without emotional rhetoric.
In the UK ALL full time employees are entitled by law to something like 27.5 days off per year. So, although they are complaining, UK Amazon employees have it a lot better than US Amazon employees. And, the UK I think has the second worse days off count in Europe. Of course that does not make what companies like Amazon are doing any better but let's put into perspective how much WORSE the US blue collar workers are than their EU counterparts.
Has there been a threat big enough yet to justify using nuclear weapons?
I would say that is a good indication that they have worked as a deterrent.
What if we suddenly got rid of them all but none else did? What would happen then?
This is a broken window fallacy. All those people can find plenty of employment in other industries. Other industries that can provide useful benefits to society, and not spending millions of dollars to blow up goat herders in a desert.
...they'rer not.
They are people. Who agreed to work a job. They're also people who can quit said job if they don't like the working cvonditions, or the pay, etc.
This is why unions are bad for business.
If they don't like things, leave, find another job. If enough people do that, the business will start finding itself understaffed and will need to correct.
Free markets, yay!
Oh, wait' it's in mostly-socialist-EU
Fuck the EU
I work in a North American Amazon FC and frankly, for warehouse work, it's pretty easy, working four-tens at $15/h with great benefits. Sure it's not for everybody, but it's hardly inhumane.
I'm not even going to speculate on the 'black friday' implications for facilities in Europe, where a protest for that unique American tradition would be totally pointless. I'm kinda skeptical.
Workers:"We are not robots!"
Amazon Management:"But you can be replaced by them."
Has there been a threat big enough yet to justify using nuclear weapons?
No, but we used two of them anyway, because we had them and we wanted to see what they would do.
It's the same reason the authors of the 2a feared a standing military. Just look at what we do with it...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
And i'm sure amazon is working hard to correct that problem. If workers want to keep their jobs they need to provide reasons why they are more valuable than machines. Refusing to work is not a very good reason to employ people vs. developing machines that can accomplish the same task.
The article is not bullshit, and yes, the media and retailers push black friday as a thing in Europe. It spent 2-3 years growing in the UK and has spent a year or two lessening in significance, but it's still a thing.
A shitty thing, but stop burying your head in the sand and pretending otherwise. Maybe in your little corner of the continent it doesn't happen but Europe's a big place.