Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Company's First U.S. Union

Re:Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Compan... by ibudiallo on Friday January 15, 2021 @03:21PM (#25795851)

Unions were proponents for worker safety, fair wages, anti-discrimination. They are the reason why such thing as OSHA exists today. They are the reason some laws were passed to protect workers in the US.

But once these mandates became law, corporations used the arguments of "why do we need unions if the law already protects workers?" This and following Reagan's firing of the air traffic controllers changed the image of unions. They were now corrupt middlemen that charged you a fee to be part of the club.

And it worked. Trying to form a union is now news instead of being the natural course of things. I wager that most people in the tech side of Amazon have a hard time grasping why their coworkers are trying to unionize. (we get paid well, what's the fuss all about?)

I hope they vote in their interest, but I'm doubtful it will pass (I hope I'm wrong). These laws that are supposed to protect workers are enforced by the company's HR department[1]. The problem is that HR will side with the company before siding with any employee.

I think we need to start looking into reforming HR and making it a public service.

[1]: https://idiallo.com/blog/unions-are-not-coming-back

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Re:Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Compan... by WalterBright on Friday January 15, 2021 @04:14PM (#25796581)

> Reagan's firing of the air traffic controllers

It was illegal for the controllers to strike.

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Re:Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Compan... by wincy on Friday January 15, 2021 @05:38PM (#25797479)

It’s pretty smart to make the things that benefit the weak and hurt the powerful illegal.

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Re:Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Compan... by MeinBlutIstBlau on Friday January 15, 2021 @06:05PM (#25797768)

That argument doesn't hold water when were talking about public sector employees. You don't become a public worker to get rich. Thusly being a public worker, the government can do as they please. And unlike a private company, the government can break the law.

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Re:Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Compan... by ibudiallo on Friday January 15, 2021 @06:24PM (#25798002)

Unless I'm missing something obvious, striking is the only leverage a union has. If striking is illegal, what's their leverage?

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Re:Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Compan... by WalterBright on Friday January 15, 2021 @08:08PM (#25798852)

The ATC union is a monopoly, which is just as bad as a business that has a monopoly. They can hold the entire aviation system in the US hostage. This is why it is illegal for them to strike.

They knew when they took the job that striking was illegal. Reagan reminded them of that, and said he'd fire them if they broke the law. They did anyway, and Reagan wasn't bluffing. Reagan could have also prosecuted them, but (wisely) chose not to.

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Re:Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Compan... by yostrovs on Saturday January 16, 2021 @09:10AM (#25802229)

Firemen and police officers are also usually not allowed to strike. For the sake of continuation of society.

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Re:Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Compan... by schoolornot on Friday January 15, 2021 @04:40PM (#25796908)

Grew up in a union family where I benefited greatly from the protections provided. But it seems to me that they really only help blue collar workers get higher, some would say reasonable, wages. As someone who worked their ass off for 10 years since graduating and negotiated my way to a senior role, I haven't seen one compelling reason to let someone negotiate on my behalf. Think of the smartest engineer you know. Are they in a union? Probably not.

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Re:Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Compan... by mitchdaily on Friday January 15, 2021 @05:48PM (#25797576)

I make way more in my unionised engineering role than I did previously working at a multinational software firm, and more importantly when I have problems with the company I have access to support and legal advice. Making bank working on software is great until the company starts to stuff you around, or some executive takes a dislike to you

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Re:Amazon Warehouse Workers to Decide Whether to Form Compan... by erk__ on Monday January 18, 2021 @03:54AM (#25819672)

Over here in Denmark and a few other countries in EU we have laws that requires LLC to have employee representation on the board, they are the ones who are supposed to be the friend of the common worker.

https://www.worker-participation.eu/National-Industrial-Rela...

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