Amazon raises minimum wage for US and UK employees

[8ball]

My concern is that Jeff Bazos may have to make painful sacrifices to his lifestyle because of this.

I can't see how he could possibly make a dent in his fortune in his lifetime, short of constructing a Death Star.

 

[DotCommunist]

not getting a pass from me until they end their aggressive anti-union policies. A recent management training video used the phrase “Unions are lying, cheating rats”:

https://gizmodo.com/amazons-aggressive-anti-union-tactics-revealed-in-leake-1829305201

during the 'you can say almost anything you like about unions, as its free speech' bit. Nice.

raising the cost of a Prime membership by $20 and blaming it on this pay raise

snidey fuckers, 'look what the union made us do, dear customers.'

 

[salem]

tbh if the choice is between more actual £ per hour at the end of the month or some vague hard to quantify bonus or stock option that might come at the end of the year I'd take the hourly wage. How many of the minimum wage agency workers running around the warehouse were going to get a bonus or stock options anyway?

 

[8ball]

snidey fuckers, 'look what the union made us do, dear customers.'

This would have related to a raise they had planned anyway. It makes no sense to raise prices beyond their market-optimal rate in order to absorb a cost. It's exactly the same as when they say shoplifting would necessitate price increases.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Their click and collect service (rather than shit delivery when you’re out anyway) is why I use them. Although I see some other firms are catching onto this now. Plus the vast majority of companies exploit their workers and hate unions etc. It’s impossible to be completely ethical in your purchases under capitalism in some misguided liberal protest against it.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Their click and collect service (rather than shit delivery when you’re out anyway) is why I use them. Although I see some other firms are catching onto this now. Plus the vast majority of companies exploit their workers and hate unions etc. It’s impossible to be completely ethical in your purchases under capitalism in some misguided liberal protest against it.

I'm sure most people who boycott Amazon will be using phones and wearing clothes made by people working in much worse conditions in China.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I'm sure most people who boycott Amazon will be using phones and wearing clothes made by people working in much worse conditions in China.

Exactly. Taking the moral high ground (which is impossible to do across the board) by doing an individualist consumer protest against a megacorp which will have zero effect.

 

[MickiQ]

I can't see how he could possibly make a dent in his fortune in his lifetime, short of constructing a Death Star.

i think he wants to be President of the US but rather than running for election he is planning on getting enough money to just buy it.

 

[8ball]

Their click and collect service (rather than shit delivery when you’re out anyway) is why I use them. Although I see some other firms are catching onto this now. Plus the vast majority of companies exploit their workers and hate unions etc. It’s impossible to be completely ethical in your purchases under capitalism in some misguided liberal protest against it.

Convenient, that.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Convenient, that.

As will be your unethical choices, no doubt.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

A mate of mine works every year at the distribution centre in Dunfermline - usually October to January. He's understandably chuffed to go from £8 to £9.50 p/h in his first week back!

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

i think he wants to be President of the US but rather than running for election he is planning on getting enough money to just buy it.

A traditionalist, I see.

 

[8ball]

As will be your unethical choices, no doubt.

<not sure how many levels of irony are in play..>

 

[Duncan2]

This is really too strange-its like water running up-hill?(a reply to Hooded Claw post)

 

[MickiQ]

A traditionalist, I see.

If you go by value of assets (rather than GDP) Amazon is worth roughly about the same as Turkey, Israel or Greece. Bezos personally is worth about the same as Egypt, Angola or Nigeria.
This is insane just how rich does this fucker plan on getting??

 

[stavros]

Does the Competition Commission in the UK have any jurisdiction over companies like Amazon?

Note that I expect very little of pretty much all corporate watchdogs, so I appreciate that any positive answer would be fairly meaningless.

 

[MickiQ]

Does the Competition Commission in the UK have any jurisdiction over companies like Amazon?

Note that I expect very little of pretty much all corporate watchdogs, so I appreciate that any positive answer would be fairly meaningless.

Yes but only with regards to competition within the UK, so even with the best will in the world (and there isn't much of that) it's actual power is limited.
Amazon is a big enough employer and investor to be able to force local councils and govt bodies to negotiate rather than dictate and has shown a willingness to use that muscle (it's not the only company to do that of course).

 

[cybershot]

Despite minimum wage increase, some Amazon workers say losing stock options and bonuses means they will make less

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I don't think that anyone who has heard anything about working conditions at Amazon, would be shocked by this report that shows that Amazon's injury rates are 4 times that of other, similar workplaces:

Amazon’s famous speed and technological innovation have driven the company’s massive global expansion and a valuation well over $800 billion. It’s also helped make Amazon the nation’s second-largest private employer behind Walmart, and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, one of the richest humans on Earth. Now an investigation by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting has found that the company’s obsession with speed has turned its warehouses into injury mills.

Reveal amassed internal injury records from 23 of the company’s 110 fulfillment centers nationwide. Taken together, the rate of serious injuries for those facilities was more than double the national average for the warehousing industry: 9.6 serious injuries per 100 full-time workers in 2018, compared with an industry average that year of 4.

While a handful of centers were at or below the industry average, Reveal found that some centers, such as the Eastvale warehouse, were especially dangerous. Dixon’s was one of 422 injuries recorded there last year. Its rate of serious injuries—those requiring job restrictions or days off work—was more than four times the industry average.

Ruthless Quotas at Amazon Are Maiming Employees

Amazon is expanding the number of warehouses it has, to improve delivery times. They're opening up one in central Nebraska, and have been advertising on tv for workers. If you have to run 30 second advertisements for workers in a poor rural area, there's something wrong with the employer. The only other entity I know that does that here, is the state prison system--a system so badly run that they've had riots, and several federal judges have slapped the state with fines and injunctions.

Meanwhile in Nomadland:

Living in cars, working for Amazon: meet America's new nomads | Jessica Bruder

 

[teqniq]

This is from 2018 it's well worth a watch if you are interested:

 

[GarveyLives]

Amazon launches anti-union charm offensive ahead of UK workers’ vote

​