Slashdot Mirror
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
... to give your employer more incentive to replace you even faster now.
Fucking hell people...
I tend to rant.
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.
Black Friday was traditionally when retailers stopped operating with red ink and switched over to black ink. Not sure why they don't use black ink year around.
Not even close to the busiest shopping day of the year compared to Singles Day.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
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.
In Europe Black Friday is not a thing, despite desperate attempts to pretend it is by US companies.
Amazon runs so close to the edge that it is uniquely vulnerable. A two-day strike would fill their warehouses with unfiled received merchandise.
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.
And little benefit. These things take time to resolve, Amazon is not going to jump in mud day and make promises. So customers wait an additional day and management makes a note to address concerns in a statement.
Reminder, this hurts Amazon in no real way. Computers are still taking orders and processing payments. They may not lose any sales. You have to be prepared to strike for a meaningful time to force action.
Customers may not notice, as these days are heavy package traffic, a delay of 1 or 2 days may seem normal. Getting people to consider the employees before they click is the only real benefit here, with the free publicity. The impact will be minimal.
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.
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
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
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.
Look at European vs US incarceration rates. Who's the free world again? Most of Amazon's products are also made in China, one of the least "free" countries. Tax and ban away!
Company automates. Use of robots starts being taxed to hell and back, at an appropriate rate to alleviate the social costs of such. Or maybe, just maybe, regulations are passed to shut this company out of the EU market...
Workers:"We are not robots!"
Amazon Management:"But you can be replaced by them."
Care to comment on what happens when people are on strike about bad working conditions with a company that is going the robotic route?
The same thing that happens if they don't strike, the company replaces its workers with robots as quick as possible.
Right. Somewhere in the bowels of this thread, I noted how the New York City Dockworkers successfully kept automation away from the Docks there. They won.
The result - New docks were built in places like New Jersey. Other than cruis ship pickup and discharge, there is pretty much nothing left. Time moves on.
One way or the other, those warehouse jobs are going to go away - probably faster if the employees whine too much about it.
Now I'm no European citizen, and maybe they think differently, but if Amazon working conditions were way out of line - I'd do my best to get a job elsewhere. Seems the logical approach when the job is going away, either way.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.