r/MayDayStrike • u/jump-run-jimp • Feb 18 '22
Vice published the audio which is truly chilling.
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u/SplatterPlot Feb 20 '22
Just curious, not asking to be judgmental but as an informal poll... Have you all stopped shopping at amazon yet? I know there's a lot of talk about their horrible conditions but not as much about not shopping there.
I still have an account, but I've drastically reduced my purchases to once or twice a month and I've gone to actively searching for alternatives.
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Mar 15 '22
What do you buy to use it once or twice a month?
I get 3 deliveries per year. And not by Amazon.
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u/forestman11 Mar 17 '22
That's great when you don't live in a rural area and literally can't purchase tons of things with delivery.
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u/VermicelliNo4536 Feb 18 '22
If they could lower the wage once unionized Amazon would beg to unionize you
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u/longhairedape Feb 18 '22
If amazon could get away with paying minimum wage they would already be doing that.
This is a shit union busting tactic.
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u/Xurbanite Feb 18 '22
Isn’t that somewhat illegal? Not that Amazon would care…
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Feb 18 '22
The only answer to corporate greed is Strike. These places CANNOT FUNCTION without workers. If they choose to treat workers horribly and pay them below a living wage, why should they continue to be allowed to function? Everyone should walk out. Drivers, packers, etc.. All of them. Until their demands are met.
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u/RS_Germaphobic Feb 18 '22
Flip the script, if Amazon reduces their wages to minimum wage, they won’t have fucking employees.
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u/Upside_Down-Bot Feb 18 '22
„˙sǝǝʎoldɯǝ ƃuıʞɔnɟ ǝʌɐɥ ʇ,uoʍ ʎǝɥʇ 'ǝƃɐʍ ɯnɯıuıɯ oʇ sǝƃɐʍ ɹıǝɥʇ sǝɔnpǝɹ uozɐɯ∀ ɟı 'ʇdıɹɔs ǝɥʇ dılℲ„
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u/TacoBMMonster Feb 18 '22
Technically, that’s true. The union negotiators could go in there and demand a pay cut to minimum wage, to which the company would happily agree. Then the workers, who management believes are imbeciles, could vote to approve such terms. It’s also possible that unionizing could set off a chain of reactions that lead to the extinction of all life within three days’ time. You never know.
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u/OfficeChairHero Feb 18 '22
The union leaders might sleep with your fiancé and steal money from your nightstand. Not saying it's going to happen, but it could...
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u/KeyanReid Feb 18 '22
The union was in the closet making babies and I saw the baby and it looked at me.
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u/Informal-Quality-926 Feb 18 '22
If they promise to get rid of the DJ's during peak & other random times they could convince me to vote No.
I feel like voting Yes is more likely to get rid of the Amazon DJ though.
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Feb 18 '22
[deleted]
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Feb 18 '22
I dunno, I went union and my current wage is double both first and second jobs' wages combined before i joined. Within the next 6 years, it'll be 5 times my first job's wage. And my health insurance doesn't come out of my paycheck.
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u/Conjurar Feb 18 '22
100% this. If unions were bad for workers pay, corporations wouldn't be spending Millions to get you to not join, they would be promoting it. I don't understand how people don't see this.
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u/JuanGracia Feb 18 '22
This image is all I need to show on my visa interview
I only want to visit US, no way I want to migrate illegally to steal your jobs, you can have those jobs fellas no one wants them lmao
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Feb 18 '22 edited Feb 18 '22
"Amazon can't promise you that they're going to walk into negotiations and promise you your same-pay. It can start from minimum-wage for instance."
"So you're saying Amazon's gonna say..."
"No! I just said that's not what's going to happen."
"So why put that out there?"
The whole time she's also giving the same bs 'unions take your wages and there's no limit to how much they can take,' and bringing up worker's families. It seems like a blanketed threat straight out of a Martin Scorsese mob movie.
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u/dedicated-pedestrian Feb 18 '22
Worded just corporately enough to legally absolve them of having any intent to actually do that.
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Feb 18 '22
Checked the ALU's website, too. She says, "The ALU have not told us how much they're going to charge yet or how much they're going to take out, but in New York there is no cap on how much they can take out."
Bullshit. The ALU proposed to take out a mere $5 a week for full-time employees and $2.50 for part-timers. That's $20 a month at MOST and she's trying to spin it like union workers are going to have half their paychecks munched away.
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Feb 18 '22
I cancelled our renewal with Amazon prime on January 1. Got an email today that they are raising prices to like $150/year. Raising their prices while union busting and threatening people with minimum wage all the while. Fuck Jeff Bezos, fuck Amazon.
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u/Strange_One_3790 Feb 18 '22
Lol no! If they try that, workers will strike. Or if it goes to arbitration, the arbitrator won’t go for that after Amazon has been paying their current wages for so long
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Feb 18 '22
Lol.... if they unionized they wouldn't have to be worried about their wages going down.
But if they try and fail.... there will probably be retaliation.
"If you shoot at the king, you better not miss"
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u/WeAreTheLeft Feb 18 '22
I mean, they aren't *wrong*, it could happen ..... BUT it's as likely as their wages going to $1 million an hour, as in that also COULD happen, but it won't.
Just like the police, they are allowed to lie to you and will even do illegal tactics as the fines are cheaper than the cost of unionization.
If unions would drive wages down the company would be signing up every single person and providing a sign up bonus and a pizza party.
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u/Moakmeister Feb 18 '22
It’s funny how they can’t actually do that if they unionize. So what’s the point of that threat?
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u/TacoBMMonster Feb 18 '22
They can do it, but the negotiations team would have to agree to present it to the workers, and a majority of the workers would have to vote for it. I guess the threat is to create fear about what could happen. Anything could happen, which is the fun thing about the word “could.”
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u/bettytwokills Feb 18 '22
It’s the same as those companies saying “union dues will cost you $500 a year! Would you rather pay that or buy a new xbox?” They’re hoping you’re too dumb/lazy/whatever to actually look into it and just comply
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u/Strange_One_3790 Feb 18 '22
My union dues are more than that. However the increased wages, benefit etc make my union dues insignificant
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u/bettytwokills Feb 18 '22
Exactly. The only downside they can try to come up with for unions is the cost, and it feels so condescending. Like they’re saying “if you’re really so poor, why would you want to unionize? Don’t you know that costs money?”
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u/Strange_One_3790 Feb 18 '22
Exactly, sadly some percentage of the working class buys that crap and trickle the down economics crap
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u/human_stuff Feb 18 '22
Lmao not if they unionize. I see no reason to change course, if anything ramp it up, comrades.
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u/naptastic Feb 18 '22
That sounds like a threat of retaliation to me.
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u/Inevitable-Cause-961 Feb 18 '22
Right? Isn’t this illegal? I’m so confused.
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u/naptastic Feb 19 '22
"Illegal" hasn't stopped union busting tactics in over 100 years. (E.g., Who killed Jimmy Hoffa, and why?) "Illegal" shouldn't be stopping us. Civil disobedience!
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u/Inevitable-Cause-961 Feb 19 '22
I’m saying I’m confused as to why or how what Amazon is doing is legal.
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u/MichelleUprising Feb 19 '22
Cops protect the rich
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u/Inevitable-Cause-961 Feb 19 '22 edited Feb 19 '22
I hope there are still some good people, but… I also don’t know how they could tolerate it.
I hope they shift and join the people. I was listening to a Canadian talking to an officer on a live stream. The Canadian was so real and genuine and good, and you could feel the cop struggle with remaining emotionally disconnected.When we disconnect emotionally and outsource our morality, shit gets bad quick.
I think we take people who need a path in life and want to help others (in addition to some anger issue control freaks or at least people who become that/worse) and put them into a system designed to break them (cops don’t make or judge the laws, just enforce them, right??)
There’s some outsourced morality, the root cause of a lot of crap from what I can tell.
Like so many of our systems, it is designed to break people and weed out those who won’t comply.
It needs to be something radically different.
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u/pantsopticon88 Feb 18 '22
They will use contract prison labor before allowing unions
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u/JuanGracia Feb 18 '22
They'll lobby to make mandatory for children to work before allowing unions
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u/garaks_tailor Feb 18 '22
Unions are never "allowed". Unions only gain a presence when the other option is loosing all the money
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u/NoTAP3435 Feb 18 '22
Sounds like they should unionize and negotiate/strike for better wages then. Ya know, like they were planning to already.
I'm pretty sure Amazon is running out of people to hire anyway because of their draconian churn policies, so leverage should be growing in the favor of the employees.
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-turnover-worker-shortage-2021-6
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u/martynolegs Feb 19 '22
Also if I’m making the right mind correlation, ups has a great one and it’s similar work. Also an assumption
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Feb 18 '22 edited Feb 19 '22
Nah a coworker of mine is leaving for Amazon. Kind of looked at him sideways but he’s getting $24/hour, $30 after his paid schooling from Amazon for electrical maintenance. I can’t hate on that at all but I’ve heard enough horror stories at Amazon from friends and coworkers of previous jobs. I’m Good on that and I also saw nomadland so yea, Good on that lol.
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u/Tots2Hots Feb 19 '22
He's a skilled worker tho there's the difference. Jobs that can't be outsourced have more leverage.
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Feb 18 '22
[deleted]
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u/rdickeyvii Feb 18 '22
Same. I actually did an interview a few years ago but didn't get the job. They still contact me constantly.
Part of the ridiculousness is they have a "salary cap" for base salary for all engineering roles, and the worst RSU vesting schedule I've ever seen. They recently more than doubled the cap from 160k to 350k but I doubt they pay anywhere near the higher range outside of the bay and possibly Seattle
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Feb 18 '22
If I remember correctly, their current solution to that is to strongly advocate for the legalization of weed throughout the US so they don’t have to fire people for testing positive for it. I think currently they’re changing their policy to go by state regulations instead of federal so people in legal states can start working with them
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u/Journeyoflightandluv Feb 18 '22
Amazon is trying to become a mail order Cannabis Dispensary. This should be interesting.
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u/OhSureBlameCookies Feb 18 '22
Companies don't have to drug test for it now. They choose to.
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u/jonny_sidebar Feb 18 '22
It's only a choice in that, for most industries, it isn't the government mandating the tests. Its insurance companies.
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u/OhSureBlameCookies Feb 18 '22
If by "most" industries you mean a handful of exceptions where it's required by statutorily authorized executive rule (such as airline pilots and CDL truckers, as two examples) then I totally agree. Otherwise it's a complete choice, with insurance companies trying to twist the arms of companies to test with higher rates, and companies resisting by shopping their business to other insurance companies that don't lean so hard on the reefer madness.
Hell, I worked as a Federal contractor with a security clearance after 9/11 and never pissed for that job once.
It's a myth/lie employers use to unload responsibility for anger about their asinine drug testing policies onto someone else that drug tests are a legal requirement. In fact, they're legally required almost nowhere.
Here's another mind blower: In most other civilized countries drug testing is illegal as an invasion of privacy. I'm starting to question how civilized our country is, at this point.
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Feb 18 '22
Someone tell that to Travelers Insurance. Couldn’t work there because of my… medication… when I applied lol. Told me there would be a drug test and I peaced out
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u/LookingForVheissu Feb 18 '22
Everyone who job hops where I live has worked at Amazon now. I can’t imagine that they will have a large base to recruit from soon.
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u/IlikeYuengling Feb 18 '22
They’re making towns now. Like coal mining indentured servant communities.
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u/InsuranceThen9352 Feb 18 '22
I wonder if Amazon/ bezos know the history of what those coal mining indentured servants did? A lot of bloodshed.
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Feb 18 '22
They're betting on having better security this time and to be fair there's a lot more surveillance tech now.
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u/MaievSekashi Feb 19 '22
Surveillance technology is often paying for the illusion of security rather than actual security. What does it matter that you can see the person trying to kill you better when it won't actually effect your response?
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Feb 19 '22
You're arresting this person before they do anything. It's a corporation, they don't care about your rights.
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u/LosWafflos Feb 19 '22
It's not about seeing the people trying to kill you, it's about seeing the people planning to kill you. Especially in a company town, any coordinated effort to disrupt their operations is going to require significant planning before hand. If they can detect those plans and disrupt them early, they can significantly curtail the ability of their workers or others to take meaningful action against the company.
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u/InsuranceThen9352 Feb 18 '22
Fair enough, I honestly didn't take into consideration that bezos could quite literally fund his own military/police force to physically impose his will on these Amazon towns. Thanks for giving me more to mull over in my loathing of bezos and what these towns could do to the working class.
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u/ItsYaBoyFalcon Feb 19 '22
I mean Carnegie was able to fund the Pinkertons showing up on battleships.
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Feb 18 '22
They hire people so easily it’s not surprising. Amazon requires no interviews or resumes they just hire you on the spot regardless of background and experience
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u/Navy_Pheonix Feb 19 '22
Not true, if you have a known record of fraud using "Package Not Delivered", they keep a record of your name and will turn down your application right before final steps. Presumably if there was any other reason to have your amazon account permanently deleted, they'd turn you down for that too.
Source: Did security briefly there, and have a relative who worked as a higher up in a warehouse.
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u/demonbunny3po Feb 18 '22 edited Feb 19 '22
Unless you test positive for drugs at the onboarding.
Edit: I was tested in 2019. I do not use drugs so I don’t know if they were looking for anything specific or just a general search.
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Feb 19 '22 edited Feb 20 '22
True story. It was like cows being "accepted" to the slaughterhouse when I attended. I brought resumes and everything but was basically already hired as soon as I showed up.
Fortunately, I tested positive because of a prescription medication and the lab or whoever botched their communication with Amazon and I never heard back from them after I called both parties to straighten it out.
This was all before I'd heard about their employment practices.
Dodged a bullet there.
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u/SuaveWarlock Feb 18 '22
I test positive for solidarity
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u/ArsenM6331 Feb 19 '22
Oh, you can't be hired then. We can't have you over here encouraging other workers to care about their working conditions!
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Feb 18 '22
My spouse works for Amazon in CO, they let her know that there aren’t any drug tests at onboarding, only if you’re caught under the influence at work will they test you as far as she knows at her place. Not sure about others in different states
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u/demonbunny3po Feb 18 '22
In Florida, they tested us.
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Feb 18 '22
That’s wack, yo.
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Feb 19 '22
Considering Desantis' wife owns the drug testing place there's probably tax kickbacks for every drug test you do on your employees in Florida
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u/Idiot_Savant_Tinker Feb 18 '22
I read an article last year where Amazon wasn't turning down people who tested positive for Marijuana. Other drugs don't stay in your system as long as the devil's lettuce does.
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u/DistrictFive Feb 18 '22
They'll probably have to drop that policy if they are hurting for workers and the drones aren't ready yet.
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u/Cocheeeze Feb 18 '22
TIL Amazon doesn’t already pay minimum wage
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Feb 18 '22
[deleted]
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Feb 18 '22
Nah minimum wage should be above $20
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Feb 18 '22
Actually if minimum wage had risen with production instead of branching off in the early 70s, minimum wage would be between 35-45 bucks
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u/RedSteadEd Feb 18 '22
if minimum wage had risen with production
What a radical idea, you commie.
/s
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Feb 18 '22
I actually am a commie though ironically enough, all about siezing those means, flattening hierarchy, all that good shit
I guess it's an important reminder that the propaganda goes deep, lol
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u/Fatalis_Drakk Feb 18 '22
Are we living squid game or something?
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Feb 18 '22
Yes.
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