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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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Amazon Workers in Europe Strike During Prime Promotion Event
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Don't read everything you believe.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday July 22 2018, @12:00PM (5 children)
Which is a reasonable assumption to make. After all, every one of those people could have chosen to work elsewhere.
It's not a zero sum game.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 22 2018, @02:01PM (1 child)
Correct! It certainly is not!
For the working class, it's a negative sum game.
But the capitalist elites seem to be expanding the pie at an extraordinary rate. Except it's more like an expanding cake, because if you're in the working class, the ever growing economic cake is a lie.
So, let me ask a question. The economic pie is growing wonderfully by the numbers. Why is it that the working class is getting less and less of it, not even in relative terms, but in absolute terms?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 23 2018, @12:31AM
No. It's bizarre how we can build this amazing civilization and then have people rant like that without even thinking about how that civilization came to be.
I grant that the elites are having a great time. That doesn't mean the rest of us aren't doing better too.
The answer is that you are wrong here. Sure, there are places and people that aren't doing better. But in relative and absolute terms this era is improving for humanity the best it ever has. That includes the working class.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 22 2018, @04:29PM (2 children)
I'm afraid you're just not paying a lot of attention. Amazon is the new Walmart. Let's walk back through history a little, and examine Walmart.
Some sleepy little town, with a pharmacy, a bank, a grocery store or two, and a hardware store makes room for Walmart. The first thing Walmart does, is to start selling drugs BELOW COST. When the pharmacy goes out of business, then Walmart can raise prices back to where they should have been. Ditto hardware - Walmart undercuts all of the major sales of the general store or hardware store. It generally took a good bit longer to drive the hardware store out of business than it took the pharmacy, but eventually, Walmart is the only source for hammers, hoes, spades, and nails in town. Grocery stores are hard pressed, but some of them manage to hang on. Not all though - if you had two before Walmart came to town, you'll probably end up with one.
Amazon has an edge, just as Walmart had an edge twenty years ago. And, they don't give one small fuck about you, or about your community, or about the economy in general. And, like most places, management doesn't care one bit about employees.
I don't want to work for them, anymore than I want to work for Walmart. I might prefer to work for a drug cartel. The cartels usually take care of loyal workers.
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 23 2018, @12:47AM (1 child)
And on the other hand, why is the life style of a few sleepy-town store owners and such worth more than having the benefits of modern society, which happen to include Walmart?
I happen to like that edge when it comes to buying stuff. At least with Walmart, you could have claimed that while the variety of their goods overwhelmed the meager offerings of the sleepy-town stores, it was of lower quality. Can't say that of Amazon which will sell you anything, including better quality stuff that you could get in said town.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday July 23 2018, @03:24AM
That's so true, Amazon bought Whole Foods. The Whole Foods grocery store. Where my daughter loves to shop. And she's very picky about the quality. I taught her to NEVER SETTLE.
But I hear that Amazon is now 49% of the cyber shopping. Of the websites shopping. And that's a lot. Doesn't sound like a lot but it's almost half. And they have the #AmazonWashingtonPost [twitter.com], they have the @BlueOrigin [twitter.com] which is space rockets. Very hard to compete with a guy that has his own newspaper. And can deliver by rocket!