this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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I love how the solution is to cram people into smaller and smaller boxes instead of just I dunno not monitoring your fucking drivers like they're fucking inmates in a maximum security prison you fascist-lite fucks
Edit: Good on 'em for quitting. Every single member of the population should refuse to work for these pricks until they get the goddamn message that we're adult fucking humans and we expect to be fucking well treated like it. The fact that some of us have the choice between kowtowing to this or starving is a stain on our society.
Double edit: "I hope you have to drive for Amazon in your retirement" might be a contender for the most horrible thing you could wish on someone in 2024.
You should almost never quit if you expect to be fired. Make them fire you and file for unemployment, then challenge them when they try to get out of it. The government tends to err on the side of the employee in my experience when things are unclear, and "We have a knowledge gap that prevents us from confirming whether or not you were actually violating policy, but you're fired anyway" is the kind of thing you can feel pretty confident challenging.
I do not love the odds of a day laborer out maneuvering their professional claims denial behemoth in a court packed with pro-business Federalist Society flunkies.
Against some mom and pop porter service? Sure. But the odds of beating a company that vast and influential seems low.
Depends on the state. Some states are near impossible to get unemployment in. Others, it's almost impossible for them to deny you unemployment outside of being violent or stealing from them. Know your state's unemployment laws and use them to your benefit as best as you can.
My Mom managed to get unemployment in Texas against an oil company by spending about an hour total on the phone over a week.
Bonus was that the incident happened about a week before the Covid lockdown, so not only did she get unemployment, but also got the $600/week Covid unemployment bump.
These drivers are most likely contractors, not employees, so no unemployment.
If the drivers are contractors, wouldn't this level of surveillance and dictating how they perform their job be a violation of labor law? I thought this level of micro management would indicate that the drivers are employees not contractors.
Correct! Amazon and other delivery companies are absolutely violating labor laws and they're getting away with it because of regulatory capture.
I thought I just saw the other day that a judge ruled they were employees, not contractors. Let me look...
Okay, it's a little more complex than that - looks like it was one of their "delivery partners" who decided to unionize, and the NRLB ruled Amazon is a joint employer with the delivery partner company. lol Gift WaPo article for it. I couldn't find other sources.
Actually, no. Is that the problem? 😂
Edit: Well, not entirely. Jokes aside, that is a difference I noticed, when I moved here.
No, I think those elements very much reside in the way I learned to approach work, even growing up in multiple countries as I have. It's only since I've hit a later stage in my career and sat back to assess the health impacts it's had that I've been more willing to sit up and advocate for myself and my colleagues. I think it might have something to do with how aggressive I can be about workers' rights haha. I recognise though that I'm privileged with a sought-after skill set and so I'm usually pretty insulated from retaliation for that, because I can't be easily replaced.
Thankfully, my current employer is a firm believer in taking care of their people and treating their employees fairly, which is one of the reasons I've stuck around here. The contrast though just makes this kind of shit from larger orgs all the more infuriating, because if my tiny company can treat its employees well with such a comparatively tiny revenue stream, then FAANG can too and they just don't. Bastards.
Sounds expensive. You're going to hurt company profits with that attitude. Five Demerits on your Social Credit Score.
Communist totalitarianism is wonderful and good and as American as apple pie as long as it's corporations doing it not governments.