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Amazon Workers in Europe Strike During Prime Promotion Event

posted by martyb on Sunday July 22 2018, @12:52AM   
from the prime-opportunity dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Amazon workers from Spain, Germany and Poland have walked out on strike over demands for better working conditions, choosing to do so on the same date as the retail giant's big promotional push.

Workers demand a fairer conditions[sic] and an increase in salary of 1.5% from Amazon, whose founder and CEO Jeff Bezos' net worth was calculated this week to top $150bn after the company's market valuation hit $888bn.

"The message is clear - while the online giant gets rich, it is saving money on the health of its workers," Germany's Verdi services union said in a statement, following five years in which Amazon has refused to enter into collective wage negotiations over the 16,000 workers employed in the country.

(source)

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Original Submission

• Long story short Long story short (Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Sunday July 22 2018, @02:57PM (2 children)

  by Gaaark (41) on Sunday July 22 2018, @02:57PM (#710770) Journal

  When there was competition, there was higher pay and higher job enjoyment.

  --When there were 50 restaurants to choose from, the restaurants had to compete against each other. Try to produce better meals, have better service, lower prices, happier employees.
  --When there are less restaurants to choose from, they competed less because you had less choice so why should they bother with better meals etc.

  --Out of those 50 restaurants, one or two employers might like the 'family' of employees they have, and so pay them a bit more. Now you have happy employees who have a stake in the business: they like their employer, they like their job more and know that going elsewhere will mean they might get a shitty job with a shitty employer at less pay.

  BUT NOW
  --big mega corps is pushing out the small employer and putting downward pressure on wages and upward pressure on productivity.
  ----'family' atmosphere? Fuck that. "Get to work or your fired."

  --mega corps knows you'll do the job because if you fuck up at McDonalds, no other McD's will employ you and that's half the jobs in your town (hypothetical) so you are less employable.
  --mega corps knows you'll accept whatever pay they give you because they are the biggest employers in your area.

  Long story short:
  --WE NEED MORE COMPETITION, NOT LESS.
  --MEGA CORPS KNOWS THAT LESS COMPETITION IS BETTER FOR THEM SO THEY LOBBY TO KEEP MERGERS HAPPENING.
  --EXECUTIVES KNOW THAT LESS COMPETITION MEANS MORE PROFITS FOR MEGA CORP AND SHAREHOLDERS AND THEMSELVES even at the expense of the shits below them

  WE NEED MORE COMPETITION, NOT LESS.
  WE NEED MORE COMPETITION, NOT LESS.
  WE NEED MORE COMPETITION, NOT LESS.

  --
  --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+4
  Insightful=3, Interesting=1, Total=4
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		5

• Re:Long story short Re:Long story short (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 23 2018, @04:15AM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 23 2018, @04:15AM (#711055)

  Corollary: The loudest "capitalists", crying out the benefits of the free market for all the world's suckers (like khallow) are mostly the worst kind of monopolists, doing their best to eliminate competition.

  Parent

  • Re:Long story short (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 23 2018, @05:23AM

    by khallow (3766) on Monday July 23 2018, @05:23AM (#711067) Journal

    Sounds like it's more comfortable for you to cast the whole situation as some sort of propaganda thing than to learn a little economics. Go with what you know, right?

    Parent