
Workers of Amazon Divergent - aaronbrethorst
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/business/workers-of-amazon-divergent.html
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cm2012
I use Amazon warehouses to sell women's apparel, and have in the past used
them to sell jewelry and furniture in different companies. They put every
other warehouse to shame in terms of speed, accuracy, and price.

Most manufacturers I know of in the U.S. who want to expand internationally
will be sending their best sellers to FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) Germany to
avoid high international shipping costs, knowing that FBA will manage orders
at reasonable prices. In additional, Germany is a great hub to ship to the
rest of the E.U. from with FBA.

Here's some more data on Amazon's international breakdown:
[http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-
qimg-d1d0c715782bd290d9afaf7...](http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-
qimg-d1d0c715782bd290d9afaf776358e043). Japan and the U.K. are the closest
markets to Germany's size.

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kephra
The first picture shows Amazon Germany. The working conditions and payment at
Amazon are shit, but _lol_ about the Union:

15.05 Leipzig - 600 of 2000 on strike

29.06 Bad Hersfeld - 300 of 3300 on strike

17.06 Leipzig - 250 of 2000 on strike

21.07 Bad Hersfeld - 300 of 3300 on strike

....

Amazon claims that the strikes wont harm them - And I believe them - German
Unions sucks!

PS: Not all German unions suck - I'm an FAU (Free workers union - anarchists
union) member, and founded a Betriebsrat (workers council) in 2001 that had
over 95% in election against Ver.di. Ver.di is the Gleichschaltung (see
wikipedia)of 5 former better unions.

~~~
asdfdsa1234
What makes the FAU better than other German unions?

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kephra
We are more radical, we do accept sabotage and direct action as an important
part of our fight. Its an revolutionary syndicalism union and part of IWA/AIT.
Its independent of the industry banch. e.g. if Amazon would have FAU, then the
strike would likely effect computing systems bringing the complete delivery to
halt. And not just 10% of the workers, who are standing at the door and
changing nothing. The FAU is the best union for freelancers and temporary
workers, and we are the only one who did win a strike for temp workers.

The main difference in German unions to other countries is, that other
countries did fight the unions, and the unions did fight back. But in Germany
the government embraced the unions and socialist since WW1, and the unions are
a system sustaining since then, comparable to the church in other countries.

~~~
dantheman
Yeah, because destroying someone else's property when they won't do what you
want is a good thing. /s

~~~
fleitz
Seems to work well for the US

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lukifer
Aside from eBay, are there are any good alternatives to Amazon with comparable
speed/convenience/selection? It sucks that such great results from a consumer
perspective can't be had without borderline sweatshops on the fulfillment
side. I'm willing to pay a few bucks more, I just find Amazon addicting due to
the other aspects of the experience.

~~~
cm2012
From my experience with warehouses/fulfillment centers, all the other options
are same or worse than Amazon with regards to worker treatment. Besides, on
Amazon plenty of merchants do their own fulfillment, and those that do fulfill
with Amazon are going to fulfill with Amazon on eBay or Rakuten or their own
website anyway. To do so morally you'll have to look into the fulfillment
details of any individual company you do business with.

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ColinWright
Single page:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/business/workers-of-
amazon...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/business/workers-of-amazon-
divergent.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all)

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falk
If you don't want your employees to unionize, don't treat them like shit.

~~~
runarb
In Europe it may be the opposite. At least here in Scandinavia. One need to
remember that being unionized is the norm, and is not at all looked down on
like someone does in the us. If you treat your workers well you will attract
more intelligent people, that can easily choose jobs. They tend to be members
in a union already before you hire them.

Many students will join a branch specific union already during their
schooling, so employees will be semi organized already before they start.

Many unions have political arms with tight bounds with the ruling political
parties, so if a company doesn't want to cooperate with a union they may find
that the whole state apparatus comes at them. Most state employees is members,
and the employees, union, other unions, other companies, state and local
politician will bound together and slowly bleed dry any company not
confirming. Soon the company will have to fight everything from building
permits taking forever to get thru to all kind of supervisory organization
starting to take an interest into their practices.

Anyone wanting to read about how this can look should try finding an analysis
of what happened to Lidl her in Norway :)

~~~
falk
I'd say corporations have way more power here in the U.S. than unions. For
Heaven's sake we don't even have a national healthcare program. Proper
healthcare is typically one of the bigger union fights from my experience.

Union is definitely a dirty word here. The people who are most against the
unions tend to be the people who would benefit the most. Unfortunately they've
been tricked into thinking otherwise. It's not uncommon for you to take a job
at Target or Walmart and have to watch an anti-union video or two.

The Taft–Hartley Act really restricts union behavior. It makes it so you can't
do things like solitary strikes, you have no typically notify your employer 80
days ahead of time if you plan to go on strike, etc.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Management_Relations_Act...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Management_Relations_Act_of_1947)

At the end of the day it's all about striking a balance between labor and
management. My plan is for all the companies I run to be ethnical especially
in regards to treating my employees well.

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e12e
Not linked/mentioned in the article, but somewhat related - an article on
working conditions in an Amazon warehouse in the UK, from Financial Times,
February of his year:

[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/ed6a985c-70bd-11e2-85d0-00144feab4...](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/ed6a985c-70bd-11e2-85d0-00144feab49a.html)

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AsymetricCom
This article has some really sloppy writing. Probably an intern or overworked
copyeditor. I guess Amazon doesn't pull much weight in the 24 hour news
cycle..

