
"Amazon Is a Breeding Ground for Coronavirus" - dsr12
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/03/amazon-warehouse-staten-island-strike-coronavirus
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amznthrw_2020
Posting from a throwaway because I know Amazon monitors this site.

As an Amazon FC employee, I follow several Facebook and Twitter accounts
related to this, and I've heard many claims by employees of facilities not
taking any action when the first case (or first few cases) are confirmed -
including telling employees. Their policy seems to be to assume their existing
contingencies, like social distancing and hand sanitizers, are sufficient even
with active spread within the facility, and to continue business as usual
until forced to do otherwise.

The article is accurate so far as I can tell. Amazon is unnecessarily risking
their employee's health.

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jimbob123
To counter your point, what could Amazon possibly be doing to make this
situation better for their employees?

PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is in short supply for the entire United
States, as evidenced by the heartbreaking lack of equipment for medical
workers across the United States.

Given the fact that you need to make personal contact with someone or
something they've touched, then touching your own face. It seems to me that
short of shutting down Amazon facilities, there is absolutely nothing more
Amazon can really do at this time.

~~~
lidHanteyk
Amazon could always pay their employees a fair wage and not work them to
exhaustion. It wouldn't directly impact their chances of catching the virus,
but it would improve their odds of survival.

~~~
jimbob123
Fair wages are determined by the market, the ground work done at Amazon is not
highly skilled with a surplus of labor that is capable of doing the job.

~~~
amznthrw_2020
Odd, though, how recently the market determined that an increase in every
Amazon's base wage to $15 was suddenly fair, without a commensurate increase
in labor skill or decrease in supply having taken place. And how the market
also determined RSUs were no longer fair once the stock price rose high
enough.

It's almost as if these things aren't really determined by the impartial,
invisible hand of the market at all.

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lidHanteyk
"Since I’ve been off the job, I’ve been taking money out of my 401k just to
get by. I shouldn’t have to do that."

For salaried folks, this should tell you what kind of employer Amazon is. She
is right: _nobody_ should have to draw from their 401(k) in their mid-
thirties.

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lstroud
Just a minor quibble, but viruses don't breed.

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robk
Jacobin is nothing more than Fox News for the Left with a prettier skin.
Really wish it were excluded here as Fox would be for the same reasons. Super
politicized opinion pieces.

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polotics
I beg to disagree, Jef: the actual manager of the actual warehouse is having
actual information to convey, and I think it's right. This does not match my
experience of Fox News, where the talking heads are the ones giving
information/data/whatever you want to call what they say.

