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Amazon Watch Thread

Marty1 said:
Ok then - an ultra wealth tax, especially for those on course to becoming a trillionaire.
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can they not just arrest trump for tax fraud

and reclaim the money that way

as he is a billionaire

i'm sure the IRS can raise the revenue for missed payments
 
weltweit said:
Sci fi is arriving rapidly, soon miniature flying drones like these will be able to whizz about checking the ID of human subjects.
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Yeah, it’s mental the way things are going. Just seems like surveillance sold as security. All these new tech’s will no doubt be encroaching further into our lives to harvest ever more valuable data on us to be sold to advertisers.
 
Marty1 said:
Yeah, it’s mental the way things are going. Just seems like surveillance sold as security. All these new tech’s will no doubt be encroaching further into our lives to harvest ever more valuable data on us to be sold to advertisers.
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When I saw the mini drone I thought of the sci-fi film "Minority Report" in which police send miniature drones into a building to identify all the people inside.

The future is coming, we better be sure what we want.
 
This is interesting - putting tracking devices in items returned to Amazon (Canada) to see how far they travel and end up.



Unfortunately a lot of Amazon’s returns end up in landfill - and stuff that can be re-sold have significant carbon footprints.
 
Amazon owns Whole Foods.
Whole Foods is forbidding their employees to wear poppies.
The company claims that wearing a poppy is against their uniform dress code.
Canadians are not impressed with the decision.

News of the ban was first reported by CBC News, citing an employee from an Ottawa Whole Foods location who was quoted saying their supervisor compared wearing the poppy to “supporting a cause.”

The poppy, however, is non-political.

It is worn during the lead up to Remembrance Day across the country and by Canadians from all backgrounds, faiths and positions on the political spectrum as a symbol of respect.
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Bezos is going big in India now. He’s recently been holding keynote events and generally patronising the audience. The creepy cunt looked like a viper about to strike a mouse with venom.

He’s also going to invest billions in AWS operations over there.

Another mega billion wealth extraction move by bulldozer Bezos.
 
EU Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager has Amazon in a headlock to the possible tune of $19 billion after charging them with multiple cases of competition abuse:

www.bbc.co.uk

Amazon charged with abusing EU competition rules

The EU says the platform is using data on third-party sellers to gain an unfair advantage.
www.bbc.co.uk

Very important case that I hope the EU secures fully.
 
Amazon Is Facing an Unprecedented Union Vote in the Right-to-Work South
Jacobin. 11.30.2020

Last week, Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, notified the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) of their desire to hold a union election. The 1,500-person bargaining unit would cover “all hourly full-time and regular part-time fulfillment center employees including leads and learning ambassadors.” Should the workers unionize, it would be the first Amazon warehouse in the United States to go union, a momentous advance with significance for the hundreds of thousands of people toiling in Amazon warehouses across the country.
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The Bessemer workers, calling themselves the BAmazon Union, seek representation from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). As the union website states:

Having a union at Amazon would give us the right to collectively bargain over our working conditions including items such as safety standards, training, breaks, pay, benefits, and other important issues that would make our workplace better. Amazon sometimes addresses issues at work but it’s all temporary. A union contract is in writing.
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This seems like it's probably the right thread to post this:
"2,000 pln for everyone" - Polish Amazon workers demand bonus

"On 5 November 2020, Amazon workers from the warehouse located near Wroclaw, Poland (Amazon WRO1) stopped working and demanded "2,000 pln for everyone". In the following days workers from other Polish sites have joined the protest and declare to continue during the upcoming Black Friday.

The Amazon WRO1 warehouse is the only Amazon fulfillment center in Poland that handles bulky, big-and-heavy items. More than a thousand forklift truck operators are employed there, stowing and picking items from high-racks. In total, Amazon in Poland employs 18,000 permanent stuff and additional 10,000 temp workers in its 8 fulfillment centers operating for the amazon.de, online platform for German clients (Amazon does not sell in Poland). This year the agencies have offered an additional recruitment bonus of 2,000 PLN (530$) for the newly recruited, obviously struggling with finding enough labour.

The recruitment bonus caused a big stir among permanent and temp workers working already for several months, as they were not entitled to it. In the warehouses and internet forums a lot of them have been discussing that Amazon only cares about fulfilling orders before Christmas, but not its workers. The union Inicjatywa Pracownicza, who organizes Amazon workers in Poland since 2014, has been pointing out for years that the Amazon business model insures greater workload in high seasons that depend on short-time employment, in the season of the biggest profits for the company."


Not seen anything more recent on how things have gone since then and what if anything happened on Black Friday.
Oh, and for a more UK perspective, see also:
Lockdown Interviews – Amazon worker
Leaflet on current wildcat actions at Amazon Poland
 
Last edited:
Polish Amazon updates:



Polish article here - run through google translate it says:

"You're not paying, we're blocking the lanes." Amazon employees protest

In Wrocław, the crew blocked access to the Amazon warehouse. They want money.

For a long time, employees of a large company have been complaining about working conditions and the amount of earnings. On Tuesday morning, they blocked access to the Amazon warehouse in Wrocław.

- Not only has Amazon decided not to increase the wages of most employees in Poland this year, but it also paid us the lowest Christmas bonuses in years. Only after the global, mass mobilization and actions of employees in warehouses, Amazon offered us an additional Christmas bonus. The Polish crew was once again treated as cheap labor. We received less than half of the amount paid in Western countries: in Poland PLN 600 (EUR 130), and in other countries EUR 300 - they explain in the position sent.

Trade unions add that they are still demanding 2,000. PLN for each serial Amazon employee. They emphasize that they are key employees who deliver essential products mainly to Western Europe in a pandemic.

- What do we get in return? The company has made a fortune on us and once again we are treated like cheap labor. We earn much less, and prices in other countries are not much lower. Food in Poland is 30% cheaper than in Germany and only by 25%. cheaper than in Spain. We live badly, and the reason is companies such as Amazon, which does not pay us as much as our work is worth - write unions

On Tuesday afternoon, the Amazon Press Office issued a position:

"It's a series of misleading phrases from misinformed or self-interested groups that use the Amazon profile to popularize their own goals. Amazon supports its employees, customers and communities, ensures safe working conditions, competitive salaries and an attractive benefits package. " - comments the company.

It complements that Amazon offers competitive salaries and an attractive non-wage benefits package. “We provide our employees with long-term development opportunities and verify salaries annually to stay competitive in the industry. This year, a wage increase was introduced for people who have been working at Amazon for at least 24 months, up to PLN 22 gross per hour for entry level employees and up to PLN 27 gross per hour for team leaders, with compensation from September 1, 2020. " - we read.

The company also calculates that in the next year, all current employees of logistics centers, fulfilling customer orders, will receive an increase related to the length of service or a change in the hourly rate.

"The salary of an entry-level employee who has been employed for over 2 years and comes to work according to the schedule, will amount to PLN 3992 gross. A person who has just joined our team will earn PLN 3629 gross with a bonus for attendance. " - the company declares and adds: "In addition, all employees fulfilling customer orders received a bonus of up to PLN 1000 gross in July."
 
I noticed this morning that Jeff Bezos ex-wife has been very busy donating some of the cash that she got in the divorce settlement:

MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has donated more than $4bn in the past four months to hundreds of charities and aid organisations, including food banks fighting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Scott, who has a personal net worth of more than $60bn (£44.5bn), pledged to give away much of her wealth after her divorce settlement with Bezos last year.

In July, Scott said she had donated $1.7bn to 116 charities. On Tuesday, the 50-year-old said she had decided to “accelerate” her donations this year, and in the past four months had given a further $4.15bn to 384 organisations across the US and Puerto Rico, taking her total donations this year to $6bn.

MacKenzie said she took a “data-driven” approach to selecting the recipients of donations. However, her team paid “special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital”.

She added that some of her donations aimed to fulfil basic needs, such as food banks, emergency relief funds and support for the most vulnerable. Others focused on long-term issues that the pandemic has exacerbated, such as debt relief, employment training and education for “historically marginalised and underserved people”, as well as civil rights groups and legal defence funds
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MacKenzie Scott: ex-wife of Jeff Bezos gives away $4bn in four months | News | The Guardian

I'm glad she's doing that, but really don't think wealth should be that concentrated in the first place. I tried to look up her net worth and didn't find a reliable number. The one that came up the most was $65 billion. So $6 billion is a respectable percentage, if true. Someone had to step in because there's going to be a lot of hungry and homeless people soon.
 
Amazon has turned a middle-class warehouse career into a McJob
Bloomberg. 17 December 2020
Many Amazon warehouse employees struggle to pay the bills, and more than 4,000 employees are on food stamps in nine states studied by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Only Walmart, McDonald’s and two dollar-store chains have more workers requiring such assistance, according to the report, which said 70% of recipients work full-time.

As Amazon opens U.S. warehouses at the rate of about one a day, it’s transforming the logistics industry from a career destination with the promise of middle-class wages into entry-level work that’s just a notch above being a burger flipper or convenience store cashier.
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A Bloomberg analysis of government labor statistics reveals that in community after community where Amazon sets up shop, warehouse wages tend to fall. In 68 counties where Amazon has opened one of its largest facilities, average industry compensation slips by more than 6% during the facility’s first two years, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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“Bloomberg's conclusion is false—it violates over 50 years of economic thought, and suspends the law of supply and demand,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
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Bloomberg journalists marxists all of them.
 
To be fair there are not so many skills required of warehouse people in these days of robots and automated picking.

Years ago I visited the Corby warehouse of RS Components, which was humungously massive, and the levels of automation even back then were astounding.
 
weltweit said:
To be fair there are not so many skills required of warehouse people in these days of robots and automated picking.

Years ago I visited the Corby warehouse of RS Components, which was humungously massive, and the levels of automation even back then were astounding.
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Deskilling is the problem. That and that the productivity gains are not shared with the workers.
 
How much of a soulless piece of shit do you have to be in order to work as a spokesperson for Amazon, of all companies? They're not even good at it, I love how the best they can come up with is "economic thought" (i.e. religious dogma) and "laws" that have been outright contradicted by material reality.
 
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