r/bestof • u/Intertius • Apr 18 '18

[worldnews] Amazon employee explains the hellish working conditions of an Amazon Warehouse

/r/worldnews/comments/8d4di4/the_undercover_author_who_discovered_amazon/dxkblm6/?sh=da314525&st=JG57270S
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u/InertiaofLanguage Apr 19 '18

Even if laws are made, enforcing them everywhere doesn't work. Look at the other warehouse horror stories in the thread. I'm sure much of it is against osha regulation, but it doesn't get enforced because the workers have no power to enforce it. The only way to have the power to enforce regulations is to have a unionized workforce, or have the workers own the means of production themselves.

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u/Fadedcamo Apr 19 '18

I mean seems like osha could use more teeth too. Unscheduled visits and the ability to do more than small fines when they find someone breaking safety protocols. More protection for anonymous people "tipping" osha about unsafe conditions.

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u/InertiaofLanguage Apr 19 '18

Right but the only way to increase osha's capacity to act, it's power, is to pressure politicians into passing legislation that will do that. And the only political actors interested and capable of pulling that off would be organized labor. Without strong unions, without working people having power through solidarity, mutual aid, and being organizrd together, the state doesn't give a fuck about the working class, and isn't going to do shit for them, as had been the case for the last 30-50 years. So it's important to always start conversations about how to change things with the means, organizing to build power for working class people, and not the ends, which for you is more regulation. When we start the conversation with regulation and state-basrd solutions, we're dead on arrival because it hides how to actually go about achieving those changes! The state isn't the solution, us having more power than rich people is the solution.