Are All Big Companies Jerks? Amazon.

Knight said:
Do you have a web site with verifiable info about this.
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Here's one: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-drivers-peeing-in-bottles-union-vote-worker-complaints/. If that article's not enough, feel free to search further yourself about whether or not workers are being deprived of basic human dignity when it comes to peeing and pooping; I don't feel like seeing further proof of the Scrooges & Marleys trying to take over the world, not today. I spoke with an Holocaust survivor who was in a Nazi concentration camp in her teens who related how the guards would stand and watch the girls detained in the camps while they were peeing and yell at them to hurry up & pee faster, they were taking too long. So this subject does not please me. Bye now.
 
officerripley said:
Here's one: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-drivers-peeing-in-bottles-union-vote-worker-complaints/. If that article's not enough, feel free to search further yourself about whether or not workers are being deprived of basic human dignity when it comes to peeing and pooping; I don't feel like seeing further proof of the Scrooges & Marleys trying to take over the world, not today. I spoke with an Holocaust survivor who was in a Nazi concentration camp in her teens who related how the guards would stand and watch the girls detained in the camps while they were peeing and yell at them to hurry up & pee faster, they were taking too long. So this subject does not please me. Bye now.
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Thank you for the article. It was about drivers but did explain later that work stations can be a 5 or 10 minute walk to a bathroom. As for bathroom facilities I looked for OSHA complaints & found only one article/case where an employee with a condition filed a complaint due to not getting a work station close to a bathroom.
 
We aren't given much choice. If we decide not to use Amazon because we've heard bad things about their treatment of employees, how do we know that any other company is kinder to their employees? And if they are, how affordable are their products?

I usually buy from Amazon, because of the free delivery. (I know that Amazon Prime is not really free, but you pay a minimal amount once a year, and if you use it a lot, plus watching their videos, it comes out extremely cheap per use.) Today I ordered something from a different company. For a $38 item, I had to pay $12 for their cheapest level of shipping!
 
I can’t stand Bezos. I know he’s kind of gone from Amazon, but if you ever want to meet an honest to goodness 100% a-hole, this guy will fit that description. In his early days, he was on a few of my flights flying coast to coast. Bezos probably gave our F/A’s more crap than five drunks. Talk about being self-entitled.
 
oldman said:
I can’t stand Bezos. I know he’s kind of gone from Amazon, but if you ever want to meet an honest to goodness 100% a-hole, this guy will fit that description. In his early days, he was on a few of my flights flying coast to coast. Bezos probably gave our F/A’s more crap than five drunks. Talk about being self-entitled.
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Not liking Bezos is what a lot of people feel. But what he envisioned & made happen turned into this.

Amazon now employs nearly 1.3 million people worldwide after adding 500,000 workers in 2020 by Taylor Soper on February 2, 2021 at 3:55 pm That’s a lot of interviews. Amazon brought on a whopping 500,000 workers in 2020 to help the tech giant meet increasing demand for its online shopping and cloud computing services, fueled by the pandemic.

Amazon now employs nearly 1.3 million people worldwide ...​


www.geekwire.com/2021/amazon-now-employs-nearly-1-3-million-people-world

Hate the man like the direct internal employment & the external jobs due to his vision. Not to mention the taxes collected by the governments. Take away Amazon now & then what?
 
Sunny said:
We aren't given much choice. If we decide not to use Amazon because we've heard bad things about their treatment of employees, how do we know that any other company is kinder to their employees? And if they are, how affordable are their products?

I usually buy from Amazon, because of the free delivery. (I know that Amazon Prime is not really free, but you pay a minimal amount once a year, and if you use it a lot, plus watching their videos, it comes out extremely cheap per use.) Today I ordered something from a different company. For a $38 item, I had to pay $12 for their cheapest level of shipping!
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I hear you Sunny. I'll shop at Walmart because they are cheap. I can find notions like sewing machine needles there cheaper than Joanne's for example. And Joanne's fabric and crafts always seems to be under staffed. Why I asked all big companies. I don't have the answer. I just wonder when we spend our money. Don't know what goes on behind the scenes.
 
I worked for a cannery 2 seasons. Pears and green beans. I was probably 18 and 19. It was not an easy job but I was young and pay was good.

It was Teamsters unionized. If they worked us 3 minutes over the limit without a break, I guarantee a union rep was in the next working day. People called. The male representative usually chatted up the young attractive women (I qualified as young only) working in the plant after probably speaking to the boss'. Also we were given x amount of minutes to walk to the break area and back to the plant that WAS NOT part of your break or lunch time. Also if you needed to go to the bathroom while on the line, you could flag down a floor lady (as they were called) let her know and you were allowed to go.

That's what a union does for it's employees. The job could be hot or cold. It was in Santa Cruz right by the water and I worked the evening shift. My skin got an irritation called "pear poison." I also weighed gallon can. The pears could be left in cold storage. The beans couldn't and had to be processed the day they came in. Overtime. One day a worker ran out screaming. I've been in worse environments. And without the union, this would have been.
 
My grandson delivered for Amazon for about a year. According to him, everyone was given a set time to complete their route.

If they completed it early, they could just go home. If they wanted to stop and go to the bathroom or take a break or get some lunch there was time to do this, but they worked to the end of the shift and went home at that time, according to my grandson.

It was the drivers that wanted to get out early that peed in bottles or did whatever else in order to save time driving and get out early for the same money.

As far as working inside the warehouse I don't know but I don't believe people were peeing in bottles on the floor of the warehouse. Maybe they were wearing Depends I don't know. I have a hard time believing it.

They do offer benefits from day one including maternity and paternity leave 401K company matched and holiday/ overtime pay. The site does not state the starting rate .
 
Capitalism is the best system in the world. I have worked for both very large and very, very small. The problem with very very small is benefits as they are constantly seeking the cheapest deals for insurance. Add to that one employee screw up can severely damage the company's future. They also have no incentives like 401K, profit sharing, etc. People that hate large corporations fail to acknowledge those companies employ thousands of people.
 
fmdog44 said:
Capitalism is the best system in the world. I have worked for both very large and very, very small. The problem with very very small is benefits as they are constantly seeking the cheapest deals for insurance. Add to that one employee screw up can severely damage the company's future. They also have no incentives like 401K, profit sharing, etc. People that hate large corporations fail to acknowledge those companies employ thousands of people.
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Not only direct employment but indirect in the product base needed to manufacture. Or as an example like Amazon the fleet of vehicles needed. Then the repair & servicing of that fleet.
 
Irwin said:
Amazon workers get a minimum of $15/hour plus health insurance and paid tuition if they want to go to college. I think there are some other benefits as well. That sounds like a pretty good job for someone fresh out of high school. They can do mindless work at Amazon for part of the day and then attend college without having to go deep into debt. It's called paying your dues and sounds like a good option if your parents doesn't have money for tuition.
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Amazon rarely offers part time work and is unlikely to work with student schedules. Retailers do that, warehouses do not.
Doubtful that they'd offer medical benefits for part time or temporary employees.

Folks profiled in Nomadland were seasonal temps. It was mentioned that they received no paid sick leave or medical benefits - even for injuries sustained on the job.
 
Remy said:

Are All Big Companies Jerks? Amazon.​

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I don't think so. Most big companies are corporations, just a collection of stockholders, people like us. In fact many of us have retirement savings invested in these big companies. So they are us.

I believe companies are for the most part amoral, not inherently good or bad. They are what we make them or allow them to be, if we buy from them and/or work for them then we support what they are doing. If we don't we don't. We also exert control through our elected officials, by regulation.

The only motivator any company can or should have is making money, and since we are how they make money we have control, the larger corporate "we" that is.

The people I know who work for Amazon (just a few) like it, they pay better than most employers for similar work in this area. And I do a lot of buying from Amazon, so I support them. There are a few companies I will not buy from or support, mostly ones that I have had bad experiences with.
 
I seldom buy anything from Amazon....I can usually find a better price elsewhere...But, at least they hire a lot of American workers, so that is a good thing. What "frosts" me are the "American" branded companies who source their manufacturing in places like China and Mexico, or maintain their "headquarters" offshore, so as to minimize or avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Virtually None of the US electronics are actually made here, and most lower priced US cars are made elsewhere. If these companies made their stuff here, we would have millions of good paying jobs. Sure, prices would be higher, but so would the tax revenues, and we wouldn't have millions of our people living off welfare.
 

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