
Amazon raises overtime pay for warehouse workers - hhs
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-amazon-com-exclusi/exclusive-amazon-raises-overtime-pay-for-warehouse-workers-idUSKBN2180Q1
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tcbawo
If Amazon wanted to win immediate trust and lasting goodwill, they should
secure suppliers for "Amazon's choice" cotton surgical masks, providing
priority service to hospital systems in regions of need, but also (publicly),
their own warehouse and delivery workforce. They have the leverage, analytics,
and supply chain to make it happen.

Edit: We need to provide enough masks so that people don't feel like they are
depriving the hospital system. Also, we need more corporations in America to
step up and set an example, protecting their workers and customers. People
should stay home, but when they have to venture out (or are needed for work),
they should be wearing masks!

~~~
nojvek
Why are we paying almost a trillion dollar in taxes if the government can’t
get its shit together and we have to rely on mega corporations.

When looking at Wuhan news, everyone is wearing a mask. How did they make that
happen for millions of people. Singapore mailed 4 masks per household. South
Korea nearly tested every citizen.

Sure China is an authoritarian government but we can’t deny it can do
manufacturing and logistical wonders.

The corporate greed and govt incompetence clearly shows when COVID-19 hit us
(usa). It will dip our economy way harder than it will hit China.

Could someone share if China is also doing massive stimulus and billions of
dollar bailouts?

~~~
newfangle
We are blowing it all on the stupid military when we could have been spending
it on cutting edge medical research. We spend trillions blowing stuff up
instead of spending trillions searching for ways to improve our health and
lives.

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jv22222
I've been thinking that in this new reality Amazon warehouse workers and
delivery folks are doing something pretty amazing by helping the rest of us.

IMOH Jeff Bezos should really consider this and put something amazing together
for these foundational people.

(I say amazing because I think they should be rewarded in a big way - Amazon
stock maybe?)

~~~
rukittenme
They used to be paid in stock... they wanted $15/hr instead.

~~~
decebalus1
Wow.. such bubble, much removed from reality. 78% of Americans live paycheck
to paycheck. And spoiler alert: it's not because of buying iphones! Yeah, fuck
these people for not having proper financial education and a savings account.

~~~
wilma5
All the paycheck to paycheck people I know are literally taking out loans to
buy $2.5k MacBooks which they mistreat and break within a year only to buy
another one.. They go through $1k iPhones and Samsung phones every couple of
months due to cracked screens and have new car loans of $650 per month which
they completely trash.

~~~
Ididntdothis
Seems you know only a certain type of people. I know or have met quite a few
people who almost every month worry how to get food on the table or what to do
if their old beat up car breaks down.

~~~
wilma5
Food is Max $150-$200 per month and a decent working car can be had for less
than $2k, which can easily be afforded on even a McDonald's job, which is
mostly just a socializing group. I am friends with several fast food workers
and they are too busy having sex with their coworkers and partying to be
concerned with any of this.

~~~
Ididntdothis
Maybe you should expand your circle of friends.

~~~
wilma5
I am friends with lots of people of all types including doctors, lawyers,
construction workers, programmers, day care providers, you name it, and have
met many more. All of them that live paycheck to paycheck are like this, just
my observations. Anyone not living paycheck to paycheck is usually much more
responsible, "boring" and is capable of planning more than a week in advance,
but it's not hard at all. Even when trying to educate these people they do not
really take it to heart and will go out and waste $200 in a night of drinking
after getting their paycheck.

~~~
Ididntdothis
I totally agree that if a doctor, lawyer or programmer lives paycheck to
paycheck there is a problem with their financial habits. But there are plenty
of other people who are very frugal but never can get ahead because their pay
is very low or maybe they have medical problems that eat up their disposable
income.

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legitster
It's also worth noting that if our economy starts deflating (basically
inevitable at this point), real incomes will rise. So $15 an hour next month
is like $20 an hour last month (or some ratio like that).

~~~
phreeza
Why do you think it's inevitable that there will be a deflation? Genuine
question, it seems the money supply is going to be increasing?

~~~
Der_Einzige
Nope. The dollar is so strong that other countries are trying really hard to
get as much USD as possible. This means that liquidity is drying up and there
is a shortage of dollars world-wide. This is deflationary right until we see
the banking sector collapse.

~~~
sfj
That's one factor, I'd argue it is caused by the $12 trillon is usd
denominated debt, and due to the economic situation, no cashflow to pay it.
But the Fed has been ramping up printing presses, creating a tug of war. How
long before the latter overtakes the former?

The Fed just expanded repo to $1 trillion per day:
[https://m.theepochtimes.com/fed-expands-repo-
to-1-trillion-p...](https://m.theepochtimes.com/fed-expands-repo-
to-1-trillion-per-day-to-avert-liquidity-crunch_3280317.html)

~~~
Der_Einzige
You're totally right about repo and massive amounts of loans, but the impact
of other countries trying to get USD outweighs this - at least in the short
term.

Checkout currency trading right now - the USD is surging compared to every
other world currency. That's because demand for USD is extremely high world
wide.

------
ColonelSanders
I hope all these raises, unemployment resources, remote work and
collectivization measures stick around after. Flexibility is great.

What has all this coronavirus action made me feel?

The virus effects everybody equally (generally there are age things in there)

We're all about austerity of social benefits, "I get mine". How did the
wonders of the free market help when we were in trouble?

We don't share nearly enough. We criticize each other too much. We miss
opportunities to improve the social system democratically because we fall for
the intoxicating allure of being sidetracked by narrow groups pushing to get
more, just for them. Enough to break up the vote to give us multi-pronged,
layered, comprehensive, and fair social security. The nod to only help one
group to spite everyone else draws ire, to keep the cycle repeating as an
emotional back and forth. Every time. We don't fix the statutes.

I hope anything that doles out benefits universally sticks around and becomes
normal in life, after this.

I hope after this labor and health policies get more generous. Way more
generous. And value people for being human beings, without preferential
treatment based on who is most this or that. Raise the bar for all natural
persons.

------
bdefore
Glad to see this from Amazon, although I see it heading off the inevitable.
Wouldn't this be the most powerful moment for employees in 'essential'
services to engage in worker strikes? Is there any legal precedent for what
governments would do?

With all this war rhetoric thrown around, it seems a reasonable jump to
declare essential workers troops on the frontline deserving of what we give
other troops (free health care, pension, heavily subsidized secondary
education)

~~~
seneca
Striking in order to exploit a global disaster for personal gain would be a
great way for organized labor to turn many people against them for a life
time. It may work in the short term, but even that is debatable. Many people
would gladly see the national guard break a strike if it's between them and
basic essentials. Long term, the optics of that kind of move are so damning
that it would likely be a net-loss.

~~~
bdefore
Depends on the spin. Couldn't you argue this is exploitation of the health of
desperate low-paid workers, their family and their communities?

~~~
nerfhammer
As everyone notices their packages stop arriving, comparatively few will buy
into the idea that people making $17/hr are being 'exploited', especially as
many people find their own working hours being reduced or eliminated.

~~~
srtjstjsj
People making $16/hr aren't the ones living on Amazon Prime package flow.

~~~
dahfizz
If you've ever wondered if you're out of touch and in your own echo chamber,
you definitely are.

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nethergh0st
I think this is a great idea.

I also think it was pretty horrible to prevent shipments of non-essential
items from 3rd-party sellers (we can still purchase these items now, but
sellers can no longer ship these items to amazon FBA warehouses).

Many of these sellers will now have to layoff their own staff, because they
will be unable to make payroll/ship out products.

------
mulm
One of the Danish consumer NGOs called tænk recently tested the security of
things bought off amazon, wish and other online retailers. More than half of
the smoke alarms bought on amazon didn’t work. Around half of the baby toys
didn’t meet choking hazard safety.

Not sure why anyone still buys things from there. Or anywhere online really,
all the other retailers failed as well.

~~~
dehrmann
> More than half of the smoke alarms bought on amazon didn’t work

I've bought multiple name-brand ones off Amazon, sold by Amazon. The one by my
bathroom absolutely works. I can't count how often a steamy shower set it off.
Were they buying knockoffs from third-party sellers?

~~~
ndiscussion
A steamy shower should not set off a smoke alarm. Perhaps it has a higher
false positive rate.

~~~
dehrmann
[https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-
public/WPI2015SmokeAlarmReport.pdf](https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-
public/WPI2015SmokeAlarmReport.pdf)

> photoelectric smoke alarms should not be placed near bathrooms or similar
> locations that create steam. Even though location recommendations are
> already common on alarm packaging, nuisance alarms persist in homes due to
> inappropriate alarm placement

Which I suppose is on me, but it is a known issue with some smoke detectors.

------
rorykoehler
Amazon workers should unionize immediately now that the virus has given them
leverage.

~~~
TheAdamAndChe
I understand what you're saying, but walking out or forcing negotiations
during a global pandemic is sociopathic, and the union would gather a massive
amount of political venom.

~~~
ken
I don't know how you think bargaining works, but they don't just demand "do
XYZ or we'll all walk out". There's _lots_ of levers on both sides. The point
of negotiation is to arrive at a mutually beneficial solution. Striking is
always a last resort, and quite rare, since it's bad for workers, too.

------
one2know
This is a PR stunt from Amazon. Amazon has sophisticated software to schedule
employees so that no overtime is given. I think they would rather shut down
than pay overtime.

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paul7986
Give these people, grocery store workers, sewers .. all the low end workers
who we need more then ever at least $30 US dollars an hour. As well in other
countries do a similar match!

------
werber
I run in mostly “Fuck the man” circles, so i feel weird saying this, but
amazon has consistently been a good leader for other businesses in terms of
compensation. I wish they’d go to 25 an hour, as that’s the minimum I could
live on

~~~
ip26
The slightly dimmer view is that amazon has consistently been a leader for
precisely the same reason ford was a hundred years ago

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/03/04/the-
stor...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/03/04/the-story-of-
henry-fords-5-a-day-wages-its-not-what-you-think/#4bacffed766d)

