President Biden weighs in on Amazon unionization efforts, warns giant to steer clear of threats, coercion President Joe Biden has weighed into a battle over unionization taking place at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama, posting a video in which he warns that “it's not up to an employer to decide” if their workers’ unionize and that “there should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda.” The video fails …
As with bad examples in the other countries sometimes the unions become the problem- Teamsters (trucking/transport) Union for example.
Other US sectors like meat packing and retail could benefit from modern unionisation as many employers - say Tyson Foods - have questionable practices. See the recent Dispatches for example.
For a country that prides itself on freedom of speech and movement captial, American management sure hates unionslabour.
Not so much fixed that for you as regurgitated Karl Marx. The fact that he's relevant today speaks to his value as a thinker on economics.
[History is, of course, littered with abhorrent regimes that claim to be Marxist. Personally I love America, Americans, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. And joining a freely constituted union is just one way of achieving those goals.]
If Amazon could make their workers turn up 24/7 or even 12/7 they would. Amazon will exploit every human they can until they bleed them dry. They have not a grain of ethics anywhere in the company. If they did the Bezos would not be sat on his billions and they would not be having all the issues around workers rights that they are. For a company that makes so much profit they really do treat the staff appallingly. It is pretty much back to the Victorian mills, or Lord and serf.
But it is US Tech, anything goes, nobody can touch then and the public keep buying.
And I don't really have a problem with using machines to improve the efficiency of something, even if it means there aren't people working there anymore. If that's all they wanted to do, I could be right behind them. It's when they treat people like they would machines, without regard to their humanity, that I have a problem.
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[...] whether that is arguing over what the right the virus infection rate to use is, whether mail-in rules were applicable to warehouses, claiming that a mail-in vote would lead to an inaccurate vote, and even arguing over the definition of what a virus "outbreak" is. [Emphasis added]
Gee, I didn't know the Loser-in Chief had found gainful employment after his last gig. And working for Bezos to boot!
Something about politics and strange bedfellows....
He had to do SOMETHING after ruling out a raise in the min wage, student loan relief, medicare for all and $2000 (or even $1400) relief cheques. Mind you, he's found time to bomb Syria, build new child migrant facilities at the border, and forgive China for their treatment of the Uighurs.
Perhaps MacKenzie Scott could help? The former wife of a certain Jeff Bezos is rather well-off, but at the same time, she recognises that some of that wealth can and perhaps should be donated to good causes. As she seems a rather more caring and generous person than Mr Bezos (Dude, you are so insanely wealthy that would it really hurt you to treat your workers even a little better? No-one's asking you to pay them each a $1M salary!), it would be quite fitting if she felt able to donate a few million to whatever the US equivalent of the TUC (Trades Union Congress) is, and to whichever union is best placed to help the Amazon employees be more fairly treated by their mean-spirited and miserly boss.
It's so frustrating that countries such as Germany and the Nordic states have fairly good union-management relations, with regular dialogue (y'know, like grown ups) to help ensure that workers are not exploited and are treated fairly, and, at the same time, to help ensure that those same businesses are not hampered by unions that are excessively confrontational (admittedly, often because management refuses to engage in dialogue), as often seems to happen in less developed countries such as the USA and UK.
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