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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."
installing more robots.
;)
Just my 2 cents
Step one: close your borders so you don't have floods of people willing to work low wage jobs.
Step two: cut back welfare/social programs so when you do work you don't have to pay 60-70% of your wages in taxes.
Step three: cut back on government interference and regulations (and the vast numbers of over paid bureaucrats that go with them) so there will be more jobs than people.
Step four: if you don't want to work like a robot you better start learning how to repair robots. In other words get a better job. No one owes you a job for life that comes with everything you need to get by.
Corporate greed has no boundaries.
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.
Step 5: Cut the military's budget by 90% so that we can afford to send everyone to college. Then maybe we can all get some of those high-tech jobs this economy is supposed to be running on, instead of importing H1-B visas.
"Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
Step one: implement a truer free market by reducing barriers to employees switching jobs
1a) untether health insurance from the employer by granting universal coverage, with the current premiums going to fund national healthcare instead of for-profit companies increasing the cost of coverage
1b) increase social welfare so employees working for abusive employers feel comfortable quitting, and not fearful for starving their families
Step two: Encourage business to return to passing on profits to the employees who make the profits happen
2a) Increase taxes on corporate profits
2b) Cap executive salaries and bonuses based on a multiplier of the lowest 10% of employee salaries
2c) Tie minimum wage to employee productivity so that gains are shared by the employees that generate that productivity
Step three: Create an environment where people can get a better job
3a) Eliminate for profit higher education providers who cannot show comparable results to a state backed university
3b) Provide curriculum to all students based on science and fact, and not religion
3c) Require school board members to have degrees in education and years of actual teaching, along with an equal representation of fields e.g. if comp sci is offered, the school board must have a member in that field
I'll stop there for now.
Cutting our military budget by 90% would put us down near Ghana and Nigeria. U.S. military spending is huge simply because the U.S. economy is huge.
Calls to slash military spending made sense in the 1950s and 1960s. But currently it's just slightly above the world average. If you account for Japan and NATO (whom we're obligated to defend by treaty), it's pretty much at the world average.
BTW, the biggest budget items are Social Security, and Medicare/Medicaid. They're the programs whose growth is bursting our budget, and what we need to get under control if you want to pay for everyone to go to college. Even if you completely eliminated 100% of military spending, entitlement growth in the next 20 years or so would eat up all that savings. Like it has already eaten up the savings from cutting the military budget from the 1950s/1960s.
I highly recommend you read the CBO long-term budget projections to understand what exactly is causing excessive growth in government spending.
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
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.