Amazon and it's Union Vote

[Rams]

Today in Alabama, there will be a Union vote to get the first Union in an Amazon facility.   
What's interesting is, the issue is not about wages, Amazon's starting wage there is $15.30 per hour.

So, if the union is successful, what will the end result be?   

I suspect many things and none of them are good for the consumer and not much (if any) for the folks working at that facility.   Of course, Bernie Sanders is pushing for this.   Politics and Unions seem to go hand in hand.

Just so everyone knows, I'm not anti-union from a management point of view.   I have been a Production Manager in both Union and non-Union facilities.   How I feel about a particular union is wholly dependent on that union's management.

Rams

[hubcapsc]

I know people who have benefited greatly from the opportunities provided
them by their unions.

The South Carolina blood in my veins hates unions. "It is my company,
and I'll run it!"

If you set up a little exhibit for a computer conference at a trade show in
New York, you're stopped at the door to wait-wait-wait to pay for union people
to bring your stuff in. Do you need a card table or something? fugetaboutit,
we'll rent you one for $500 a day.

-Mike

[DIGGER]

I spent my career as an electrician for 44 yrs in the IBEW L.U. 716.   It was good for me.   Went thru the Union training school for 4 Yrs and got a good education.  Ended up with a pretty good Union retirement and 401K that has afforded me and my wife a decent living in our old age.   Had non union electrician friends that ended up with zip....maybe a little 401K.    My son chose to become a air condition and heating worker.   Went thru the Union School and got a good education and worked about 5 yrs and dropped out of the union and ooened his own non union shop.   Worked small work for about 5 yrs and decided to go fir bigger work so he signed a contract with the Mechanical Union and started getting bigger work almost immediately.   He is now making great money and likes having union workers as he can get qualified well trained workers immediately with just a phone call and if work gets a little slow he can just send them back to the union hall.   He knows exactly how much each man will cost per hour and can easily bid big jobs.   He likes being a union contractor.   Unions have good sides and bad sides.   I enjiyed being a union member.   

[DIGGER]

Oh yeah.....several non union friends used to brag to me that they didnt have to pay no union dues.....yeah....it cost me about $3,000-$4,000 a yr to belong to the union.....but I was making $15,000 to $20,000 a yr more than they were....do the math.

[Rams]

As I said, I'm not anti-union, I think unions have some good and some bad things about them.   What I'm trying to understand in this particular case is, how is a union going to benefit members for a pretty basic skill set, other than basic job security.

In my previous management life, I can assure anyone that folks with good work ethic never have to worry about being unemployed as long as the company survives.

Rams

[The emperor has no clothes]

As I said, I'm not anti-union, I think unions have some good and some bad things about them.   What I'm trying to understand in this particular case is, how is a union going to benefit members for a pretty basic skill set, other than basic job security.

Maybe they won’t have to pee in a jar, and crap in a bag.

[BigInSeattle]

I was going to be a union electrician when I first got out of high school. I was "unindentured" for about a year while I was waiting to join the school program. I was pulling cable, bending conduit, installing smoke detectors.

I lost all interest in unions on my last job at a grocery store. I was working at a Wegman's in the Buffalo area when a rep came through and laid off everyone on the job except for a few senior people to wrap up since the store was almost done. Of course being the lowest of the low on the totem pole I was out on my butt.

I never wanted to be in that type of situation ever again.

[Psychotic Bovine]

As I said, I'm not anti-union, I think unions have some good and some bad things about them.   What I'm trying to understand in this particular case is, how is a union going to benefit members for a pretty basic skill set, other than basic job security.

Maybe they won’t have to pee in a jar, and crap in a bag.

Yeah, because what a safe work environment needs is a forklift operator under the influence of some illicit substance. 

[The emperor has no clothes]

As I said, I'm not anti-union, I think unions have some good and some bad things about them.   What I'm trying to understand in this particular case is, how is a union going to benefit members for a pretty basic skill set, other than basic job security.

Maybe they won’t have to pee in a jar, and crap in a bag.

Yeah, because what a safe work environment needs is a forklift operator under the influence of some illicit substance. 

https://theintercept.com/2021/03/25/amazon-drivers-pee-bottles-union/

[Rams]

As I said, I'm not anti-union, I think unions have some good and some bad things about them.   What I'm trying to understand in this particular case is, how is a union going to benefit members for a pretty basic skill set, other than basic job security.

Maybe they won’t have to pee in a jar, and crap in a bag.

Yeah, because what a safe work environment needs is a forklift operator under the influence of some illicit substance. 

https://theintercept.com/2021/03/25/amazon-drivers-pee-bottles-union/

Sounds to me like the seven Ps are applicable in this situation.

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performances

Rams

[The emperor has no clothes]

As I said, I'm not anti-union, I think unions have some good and some bad things about them.   What I'm trying to understand in this particular case is, how is a union going to benefit members for a pretty basic skill set, other than basic job security.

Maybe they won’t have to pee in a jar, and crap in a bag.

Yeah, because what a safe work environment needs is a forklift operator under the influence of some illicit substance.  

https://theintercept.com/2021/03/25/amazon-drivers-pee-bottles-union/

Sounds to me like the seven Ps are applicable in this situation.

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performances

Rams

I’d be screwed. I pee an untold amount of times just before noon. I might do #2 a couple times. I’ve never been a driver. But having to increase productivity by urinating and defecating in your delivery vehicle seems worth a lot more than $15. (I think I could negotiate the contract to $40-$50 if Amazon wished to keep it)



I owe much to my union time. I had 30 in and 18 out. I wouldn’t have been able to retire for several more years without my union pension.

[Jess from VA]

As I said, I'm not anti-union, I think unions have some good and some bad things about them.   What I'm trying to understand in this particular case is, how is a union going to benefit members for a pretty basic skill set, other than basic job security.

Maybe they won’t have to pee in a jar, and crap in a bag.

Yeah, because what a safe work environment needs is a forklift operator under the influence of some illicit substance.  

This really rings a bell for me.  

I graduated college in Dec, and could not return to my summer job, until summer weather.  Jobs were tough to get, so I set out to prove I could get a job anyway.  And I did, in one day; security guard for a big warehouse auto parts packaging place.  Acres big, I used a golf cart to get around in there.  Paid maybe a buck more than minimum wage, 7days 12 hours, no training and no firearm (just a billy club).

The entire workforce was filled by Manpower or some other low skilled worker provider outfit.  We had maybe 12 fork lift operators, and all were big guys and ex-prison with the home made blue tats all over them.  And they drove like maniacs and scared all the other employees all the time.

A few weeks in, the manager calls me in and says he wants me to inspect all lunch pails coming into work at shift change and lunch.... because the fork lift guys are all bringing liquor in and getting drunk all day.  I asked if he would please post a sign up announcing a new policy the next day, and he said no, those guys are dangerous, and I want them to think it's your idea, not mine.  Well crap; I thought about quitting but I needed the job.  He had already let me start carrying my own Smith .38 on duty (we didn't bother telling my company).  

So I took all the bullets out of my revolver and kept it in my open carry duty holster, and put a .25 auto in my pants pocket.  I stood out front and announced the new policy, and said if anyone had anything in his lunch pail they didn't want anyone to see to go and put it back in their cars.  That helped, but man those guys were pissed off, and a group of them cornered me in back (exactly why I unloaded my revolver).  I told them it was the manager and not me, and I needed my job, and they needed stop getting drunk, and to slow down and not scare all the other workers too.  They said they needed their jobs too... ex cons have hard time finding work.  But they were still surely and threatening and it was no longer safe for me down there.  So a week later I quit and turned in all my gear.  They said I was the best guard they had and asked me to stay.  I said sure, anywhere but that warehouse.  No go.

So I took off in my van for Key West for a month, and got to see guys slow dancing together for the first time, who asked me to dance too.  No thanks, but thanks for asking guys.  

[carolinarider09]

Interesting story Jess 

[Wizzard]

I know people who have benefited greatly from the opportunities provided
them by their unions.

The South Carolina blood in my veins hates unions. "It is my company,
and I'll run it!"

If you set up a little exhibit for a computer conference at a trade show in
New York, you're stopped at the door to wait-wait-wait to pay for union people
to bring your stuff in. Do you need a card table or something? fugetaboutit,
we'll rent you one for $500 a day.

-Mike

Same way in Chicago, oh you want soft drinks in your booth? 10 bucks a drink. They have lost many shows because of all this,, the CSE show one of the biggest in the country went to vegas

[Psychotic Bovine]

As I said, I'm not anti-union, I think unions have some good and some bad things about them.   What I'm trying to understand in this particular case is, how is a union going to benefit members for a pretty basic skill set, other than basic job security.

Maybe they won’t have to pee in a jar, and crap in a bag.

Yeah, because what a safe work environment needs is a forklift operator under the influence of some illicit substance. 

https://theintercept.com/2021/03/25/amazon-drivers-pee-bottles-union/

My mistake.  I thought of it as a drug test reference. 

[Rams]

As I said, I'm not anti-union, I think unions have some good and some bad things about them.   What I'm trying to understand in this particular case is, how is a union going to benefit members for a pretty basic skill set, other than basic job security.

Maybe they won’t have to pee in a jar, and crap in a bag.

Yeah, because what a safe work environment needs is a forklift operator under the influence of some illicit substance.  

https://theintercept.com/2021/03/25/amazon-drivers-pee-bottles-union/

Sounds to me like the seven Ps are applicable in this situation.

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performances

Rams

I’d be screwed. I pee an untold amount of times just before noon. I might do #2 a couple times. I’ve never been a driver. But having to increase productivity by urinating and defecating in your delivery vehicle seems worth a lot more than $15. (I think I could negotiate the contract to $40-$50 if Amazon wished to keep it)

Your negotiating skills must be awesome.    Maybe you should go to work for Biden's state department.

I haven't seen Amazon's work rules so, I'm speculating on how they read but, I sincerely doubt those work rules don't provide breaks for such activities.    What I and most other folks know is that restroom breaks are often used for gossip, BSing, smoke breaks and anything else the employee wants to do while being paid.   

I'm not suggesting that some delivery/truck drivers don't do as reported but, do they have to or, is it by choice.   I'm not  buying it's because they have to.

Rams