Amazon-Owned Twitch Bans Amazon’s Union-Busting Ads | Hacker News Reader

Amazon-Owned Twitch Bans Amazon’s Union-Busting Ads

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29 pointsgolfer9 comments

Jeez, will unionizing really take that much out of Amazon’s bottom line that they need to stoop to this level?

unionizing really take that much out of Amazon’s bottom line that they need to stoop to this level?

Bezos could double the pay of every Amazon warehouse worker and it would be a rounding error in his personal fortune. It’s not about money now. It’s about the pleasure he takes in the control of others, like a feudal lord and his serfs.

Do you really think he thinks about it like that? I'm all for systemic change as much as the next person, but c'mon. He's probably full of himself and thinks he's uniquely equipped to direct great works. Just like Gates in that Netflix series.

Do you really think he thinks about it like that?

Yes, like a pharaoh with slaves building his next pyramid.

It's not just the bottom line; too much of Amazon's practices rely on treating humans as more expendible than styrofoam packing peanuts. It's a culture of control and expediency, and it's a feedback loop because the only way to rise in that culture is to be for more control and more expediency.

Workers with no legal protections or fallbacks, can be coerced to do things that are self-destructive out of fear, or they can be screwed out of benifits or protections through the same banality of evil as EULA agreements.

Management culture has some serious fucking problems. When I worked a factory job, the latest managerial fad was 'make workers mad enough to quit'. Because if they quit, they lost their vested retirement benefits. And those that came back, did so on reduced pay. Deplorable? Yes, but _perfectly legal_, or if not legal, the power imbalance was such that the company could get away with it scott free.

Crap like this goes on all the time, see an example FAQ lawyers put up: https://www.kentonslawoffice.com/workers-compensation-lawyer... Lawyers working in worker compensation law are not likely starving for clientel, or they'd be seeking greener pastures. Hell, yellowpages.com shows 23 hits for 'worker comp lawyer' just within a ten mile radius of where I live.

Corporations are amoral profit-optimization engines, externalizing all possible costs to everyone else. Corporations are not people. Corporations do not think like people, even if they are made of people. Corporations do not care about people, especially not in any of the ways we would want someone who is our neighbor to care about us, not even to the bare minimum of polite indifference of not pooping on your doorstep.

Remember tetraethyl lead? https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520283930/lead-wars https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/leaded-gas-poison-... https://www.epa.gov/history/epa-history-lead

Given a choice between the nebulous future of preventing provable harm, and the shorter term and slightly more concrete consequence of lost profits, corporations (and even government) chose profit.

If corporations were actual people, they would absolutely poop on your doorstep to save on their water bill, and then gaslight you with studies showing that poop on your doorstep is normal and healthy, not a big deal, and totally your own fault if it is.

The only way to made corporations (and government) behave in morally acceptable ways is to force them and watch their every move, and make the alternative more expensive.

Perhaps Amazon needs a little anti-trust love.

Unions are labor mafias that extort money from companies or government. They do whatever they can for workers at the expense of people that rely on those workers.

Furthermore they are just political machines for uber liberals and other leftwingers. I've seen unions endorse candidates that actively are working against their workers interests just for politcal endorsements.

“Corporations are capital mafias that extort money from employees or government. They do whatever they can for shareholders at the expense of people that rely on those jobs. Furthermore they are just political machines for uber-capitalists and neoliberals. I've seen companies endorse candidates that actively are working against their interests just for political favors.”

I come from Iceland where union participation is over 90%. We have rules and regulations in regards to unions including that you can join any union that doesn't have specific requirements for entry (medical doctors and such).

I've also lived in Canada for 7 years so I have seen and heard most sides.

Can unions be bad and corrupt sure. That is true of any organization that's why we have laws.

Do some unions have weird rules including not allowing anyone that doesn't know someone within unions ( in Canada ), sure again that is why we have laws.

Have I seen companies that specialize in breaking up unions ( again in Canada ). You bet I have.

Unions aren't a solution for every problem. But it's a solid foundation to build on. They are good at making sure that their members have some basic rights, which is lacking in most Canadian companies.

The anti union rhetoric is kinds of laughable because it's so obviously manufactured by special interest. Unions don't have anything to do with political leanings.

I'm really sad that a lot of people haven't experiences the potential of unions because they can be really helpful for people and it's really annoying that countries that pioneered unions like USA and Canada have left the intimidation tactics work. There have been many people killed so I do understand people hesitancy during that time. But the tactics are usually now bad brochures and videos.

I have not benefited as much from unions as other people but that doesn't mean that I don't understand people's basic rights to unionize.

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