Labor Day: Amazon/Bernie Sanders - Warehouse War

[rainman + 263]

For Bernie Sanders, Amazon’s scant profits are not scant enough. The leftist US senator from Vermont has turned his sights on Jeff Bezos, wondering how the Amazon founder could be worth $150bn while some of his employees rely on food stamps. Mr Sanders’s argument is that the ecommerce pioneer clearly has the means to increase his paltry pay to his workers. Unlike with President Donald Trump’s criticism of social media platforms, Amazon last week fired back at the senator. But with Amazon’s market cap soon to hit $1tn, scrutiny of its business model should be expected just as other tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Apple are under the microscope.
Amazon’s core competency is logistics that require manual labour. It has nearly 600,000 full and part-time employees. The online retailer disclosed this year that its median employee compensation in 2017 was $28,000. At Facebook, that figure was $240,000. Economic theory says that wages are determined by productivity. As such, Amazon’s success and Bezos’s wealth are distinct from what wages the company pays. The argument that Amazon should pay higher wages is that it should make the business decision to be generous. Sanders has not made the case for what Amazon’s warehouse wages “should” be. The more thoughtful examination on this topic, however, is happening through the study of market power.

[damirUSBiH + 327]

Bernie started a few days ago: "Are you a current or former Amazon employee? Please share your experiences with Sen. Bernie Sanders."

[50 shades of black + 254]

They work there because it’s their best option. But, any job should pay a living wage, and should provide decent benefits and working conditions.

[Pavel + 384]

Too many examples about bad conditions in Amazon. No one working for a man who earns $260 million a day should be forced to sleep in their car. That's the way of work there.

[franco + 96]

I don't know if any of this is true or not, but if conditions are really that bad surely people would leave Amazon and to find another work....

[pinto + 293]

2 minutes ago, franco said:

I don't know if any of this is true or not, but if conditions are really that bad surely people would leave Amazon and to find another work....

So it's OK to treat people bad because they have a perceived option to work elsewhere? And will they be better off at another "Amazon" which is also on a race to the bottom? 

[ThunderBlade + 231]

People who work for Amazon have no money for education and have to work there. There's just simply no other job they can get. And, transferring from one lousy job to another is "just" worst option

[Petar + 76]

Nobody wishes to stay a slave. Amazon(mostly) makes sure to put their warehouses in rural places where it's the only place you can find a job. Avoiding the problems doesn't fix them, it just lets people find new ways to "innovate" wage theft.

[damirUSBiH + 327]

Call it the "I'm tired of paying a billionaire's bills bill"...

[Boodrow Malone 0]

I suspect the Teamsters union would be more than happy to represent Amazon worker nationwide.  If you are working at Amazon and are not happy with the way you are treated either quit of fight back by voting for a real union.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

Amazon and Mr. Bezos represent a policy failure:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/08/the-problem-with-bezos-billions/566552/

The stock market is rewarding Bezos even though his company seems to make little money as it devours market share.  He started out selling books, and now is selling anything he damn well pleases.  Nobody challenges Mr. Bezos.  In his own way, he is the Vladimir Putin of the West. 

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

16 hours ago, Boodrow Malone said:

I suspect the Teamsters union would be more than happy to represent Amazon worker nationwide.  If you are working at Amazon and are not happy with the way you are treated either quit of fight back by voting for a real union.

Let's see if Mr. Trump has this on his list of things to do!  He might!  He just might!  Imagine him making a speech at a rally with this as his centerpiece......

[John Foote + 1,135]

Realistically, there is no way to unionize Amazon, especially in "Right to Work" states. Amazon has a relatively small, well paid, professional staff, and great masses of box handlers, many of which are part-time, minimum wage workers. The giant bucks aren't in wages, but stock appreciation. I probably get two texts a week on my phone with offers to work in a fulfillment center. Whether a minimum wage should enable someone to not be poor and have basic health care, is a valid thing to argue. But with the current situation, Amazon would be silly to pay more. My favorite politician on the subject was Jessie Ventura. A serious outlier who someone was the governor of MN for a bit. Neither party really addresses the issue.