| Author | Message | ||
     Buellifer |
Just like 3rd world countries. Read this. Is it greed of a company and what could have helped the workers avoid such harsh working conditions? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/20/amazon-al lentown_n_971851.html?icid=maing-grid7 | ||
| Danger_dave |
They don't have to wear the stupid hi-vis vests in 3rd world countries. | ||
| Boltrider |
Yeah, 110 is hot, but at least they didn't get eaten by UV rays all day long. Try working construction for a summer - roofing especially. That's brutal work. I don't see the big deal. It gets really hot in Sacramento during the summer months and I worked for years as a mechanic. It was in a warehouse with a high ceiling just like that Amazon pic. It would get very toasty inside the shop, so I had to take it upon myself to deal with the heat. I accepted it as a fact of life with that kind of job in a hot summer climate. | ||
| Ulynut |
Some employees worked 11-hour days during the holiday season Sounds good to me. People need to HTFU. It gets hot in summer, cold in winter, and busy during busy season. Deal with it. Quit bitchin and collect your check at the end of the week. | ||
| Fast1075 |
Spend all day in a Florida attic changing out an A/C system....HTFU. | ||
| Ducbsa |
the employee boost seems to be paying off. Amazon sales surged by 51 percent in the second quarter of 2011, compared with the same period a year ago, according to TechFlash. So sales went up because more people were hired? Not being a trained journalist, I would have thought they hired more people to handle more sales/volume. | ||
| Dfishman |
Damn They should come work for me.11 hr days sometimes 10 days in a row.Hot,cold,windy,.And right now NO WORK.Hurricane recovery coupled with school starting & a slow economy makes it tough to own a charterboat. I have stood on my feet for 20 hrs commercial fishing,get a meal,catnap & right back up to work in the summer heat & really didn't make much money.Back in the '90s i remember 33 days in a row on the charterboat.Man I miss those days. People forgot what it is like to work for a living. | ||
| Pwnzor |
"forced to maintain productivity levels"... Damn straight! If my productivity level drops, and my trucks aren't meeting the expected level of revenue, then don't you think my boss would be taking a hard look at me? Come on people, 11 hours is no big deal. I work 14 hours every day, 7am to 9pm and I often run a couple deliveries BEFORE I even come into the office! People need to Harden The F*CK UP | ||
| Trojan |
Seems to me that empires rise and fall not on military power but on how low they can pay their workforce to make the things they export. The British Empire built 4 out of 5 ships in the world back in the 1880's-1900's, yet by 1930 the industry was dead and buried here just because of cheaper labour elsewhere in the world and our inability to introduce more modern production techniques. Likewise the rest of the industrial revolution was led by Britain simply because we had the inventiveness and markets coupled with very low wages/child labour. The trouble is that as a country gets more developed the workers want/need/demand better rights, shorter hours and more money. This makes the products more expensive and opens up the market for cheaper competition. After our time at the top we saw the US and Japan take over, only to suffer from the exactly the same fate as time went on. At the moment we see China and India increasing their exports using the same methods. i.e cheap labur costs. However, as they develop and the population start to demand union rights, higher wages, shorter hours etc etc it will diminish their aility to compete and their market share will shrink in the same way that ours did. As they fall away then Thailand, Vietnam, Korea and a host of other 'developing' countries stand ready to take their place as the 'engine of the world'. Either we decide that lower wages and poorer working conditions are the necessarily evil costs that are required for higher production and bigger exports, or we resign ourselves to buying cheap imports for evermore  | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
The only way to keep this from happening is to reduce unemployment. The reason people are willing to work longer hours (and be paid overtime for doing it) is that they understand that there are 100 people in line behind them for their job who are willing to work the same or harder just for the chance to get a job. If MY productivity drops, I starve. I'm 100% commission. Welcome to the big leagues boys and girls. Work until the work is done not work until it's time to punch out. | ||
| Blake |
I felt incredibly lucky to be able to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week for weeks on end in 110oF under a fierce sun while dealing with scalding hot mud (drilling fluid). It's called "work", not "tea time"; it's a job, not a cruise ship. I can't agree more, HTFU, or get a job as a receptionist. | ||
| Blake |
Matt, Or we find ways to do things better and more efficiently. Recall decades ago when labor were whining about robotics? Yesterday's factory workers are today's computer and network and communications technicians. They may cost less, but Lead poisoned toys, and toxic dog food are a tough sell. We have more high tech, fewer mundane labor jobs. Just a little over two years ago, we had full employment. We will again if we can get the looters and moochers out of power. | ||
| Trojan |
We will again if we can get the looters and moochers out of power. You'll only find that the looters and moochers are of a different tribe, and things will continue just as they are once the dust settles. mabe they would rob a different bunch of people for a while, but nothing would really change..... If we look back over the last 40 years we have had governments from extreme right to extreme left and in between, and they have all failed to get a grasp of how to run the world properly. The problem is that too many people are sitting doing nothing waiting to be guided out of recession by government rather than getting off their butts and working us out of it (certainly here in the UK). It certainly doesn't help when almost every news bulletin on every channel leads with a story of just how bad the economy is or will be shortly. Talk about 'talking it down!' If it isn't the economy here it is a story of how Greece can't pay Germany so Spain will default on its debt to Ireland I remember the major recessions/crises/strikes of the early 1970's and 80's and there wasn't anywhere near as much 'doom and gloom' coverage in the media, people just got on with it and hoped for the best  Yesterday's factory workers are today's computer and network and communications technicians. Trouble is it took just one or two computer techs to replace thousands of manual workers. Glasgow used to employ 100,000 men in ship yards alone, and I'm pretty sure they have not all been employed in computer sciences since the ship yards collapsed to nothing. The days of full employment have gone I think, and with people working later in life before they can retire I can't see it changing any time soon | ||
| Fahren |
Blake, This is indeed the issue. However, one has to identify exactly who the "looters and moochers" are, and be sure to get them all out of power. And of course, power in this sense cannot be limited to political power wielded through elected office. If you limit your focus to those in government office, you will fail. Left and right, our elected officials are in the pockets of the looters and moochers. Big money is willing to pay for influence, and it always has been. For example, Rick Perry is for sale, but it costs a heck of a lot more than $5,000 to buy him, as detailed -but-hes-not-cheap,here. And the big money wants more money, and from whom do you suppose that "more money" is coming? From us. All of us. And our kids. And their kids. From added taxpayer burden piled on through bail-outs; by the banker-run Executive branch; from huge, debt-fueled military expenditures; from mass market manipulation and fraud in the City of London and on Wall Street, that robs from the everyday and institutional investors (pension funds, etc) and benefits the gambling, bankster traders with their high-frequency trades and re-packaged garbage investment offerings. There is far more rooting out of looters and moochers than can be taken care of through the election process. Follow the money. | ||
| Rocketsprink |
Blake's right. We need to get the damn Republicans out of Congress and any kind of power. Between their Corporate bosses and the loony ass tea party fools that buy into the "government bad, corporation good" crap, this country is stuck in a rut. I love how everyone tries to make their job seem like the most difficult job in the world. Boo hoo for you all. | ||
| Reindog |
Just capturing Rocco's words for the sniggle factor. Try reading "Teabagging for Dummies". Its like green eggs and ham. You might like it! | ||
| Johnnymceldoo |
This isnt an isolated incident. Greed is widespread. People are buying smaller cars that use less gas putting more money in their wallets. People are going out less and not consuming as much. Everyone is pinching pennies trying to stay afloat. Its an epidemic. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
My job just sucks.... | ||
| No_rice |
i guess i dont see a problem with the original post?! ive done alot of construction type work. outside and inside. i ran pre stressed concrete crews for almost 6 years. try working in the pounding sun(when it was light out anyway) in 100+ temps while everything around you including the steel you are standing/sitting/laying on is being heated up by steam. heavy pants, sweatshirts and gloves atleast so your skin didnt boil off on contact. there were summers my crews ran from 12am until 7-8-9-10pm then back at it again at midnight 6-7 days a week, months at a time. then the steel work... another 5 or so years of that. standing inside a fairly low ceiling building with 100 of your "friends" and all of them running welders. we arent talking spot welds, for alot of the welders we are talking 5ft 1/2" wide solid beads depending on joist size. all while covered in welding leathers, helmet, gloves... we ran 24hrs a day, and i was the only foreman for my department(custom fab and specialty jobs), so even though i worked the day shift, that didnt mean i wasnt there alot at night either... i dont miss those jobs, but damn was the pay good. they helped make me who i am. someone whos not afraid to buckle down, stfu and do what needs to be done. as far as im concerned people have become for the most part completely worthless. unwilling to put in a good days work. i'll be damned if my daughter and jenns son will turn out that way. i make them work. Lucas is 10 and Alexus is 12. weve had the new house with a decent lawn since april and they mow it all the time with the push mowers, 100 degree heat or not. just the other day Lucas's teacher told him that we needed to buy a riding lawn mower so he didnt have to work so hard to mow the lawn... wtf?! our lot is 60x140 with a house and garage on it, it aint that damn big! if they start something (sports, ect) they finish it wether they like it or not. the job i have now for the last 6+ years at the hd buell shop is the first job ive ever had where i go to work clean and come home clean. | ||
| Chauly |
Don't forget those horrible people paying down their credit cards, stealing money from the banks! What are those poor collection agency folks going to do? | ||
| Sifo |
I used to work as a bodyman/painter when I got out of high school. It was damn hot in the summer. It was cold and often wet in the winter with snow melting off the cars when you bring them in. About the only exception to this was the spray booth where we would crank the heat in the winter. Then it was hot in the winter too. Funny thing, but I never blamed my employer for this. I did make a decision that I wanted to do better for myself though. I set a goal and laid out a plan to get there. Damned if I didn't make it. Then I set new goals and new plans, rinse, repeat. I wonder what conditions people expect to see in a warehouse? Air conditioned cubicles? | ||
| Fahren |
"When I was a kid, I used to get up in the morning at 10:30 pm, half an hour before going to bed the night before, and work 36 hours a day......" | ||
| Johnnymceldoo |
"this country is stuck in a rut" I concur!  | ||
| Slaughter |
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| 03fatboy |
Whiners! Go on patrol in Iraq when it is 120 or better with all the IBA on and gear you can carry. Then talk about $hitty conditions to work. (Message edited by 03fatboy on September 21, 2011) | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
I work 14 hours every day, 7am to 9pm If you're working why are you posting at 8:30 am? | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
damn straight Seth. i didnt have to do the crap the army on patrol did and was very glad i didn't 140+ in the sunlight was plenty. hell i have three jobs right now and am trying to figure out how to get some startup capital arraigned to open a business... quit yer bitchin and get back to work!! | ||
| Whatever |
I agree to a point... I would give my left breast to have my Army contract job back... I LOVED THAT JOB... one of the best days was the day I had to go into the trenches in a 120 degree heat index and sample... up until the point the dirt came up at me because I took some benadryl for my allergies... oops... However, I may be strange because I LIKE hot and humid... NOT 20 below or hot and dry... but so wet you walk out the door and instantly you are drenched. I MISS THAT JOB tremendously. Now I have over 500 applications out, am studying for a very expensive and challenging professional certification and the State is dragging its feet making a decision, most likely because they don't know if the position will exist or not. I am probably going to end up driving truck OTR. On top of that one of the companies (re. corporation, not the last- Army contractor) I worked for will give NO REFERENCE now as a policy. Two years and ten months of a former boss saying he will give me a GOOD reference, and now lawyers say no. With government cuts, and the two layoffs I have had in the last three years... I would take one day working in the shittiest position over any day unemployed. We are all screwed... I miss feeling purposefull, I miss having a place to go, I miss the mass exodus from the job site at 1701, I miss blasting music and having a sit on the couch after working all day. OK, now I am whining. But NOTHING is a cake walk... working a lot, not working... I prefer working so much you fall asleep in ten seconds at night when you hit your pillow. | ||
| Macbuell |
A whole lot of whining going on in that piece. So sad you actually have to work hard. | ||
| Swordsman |
I'm just tickled no one fed the Trollsprink.  Those conditions don't sound like they're any fun, but there's a helluva lot worse out there. The Amazon story sounds about like my 1st job in the carpet mill, except I stayed coated in nice insulating layer of nylon and polyester fuzz. Had to scrape that shit off when the shift was over. And I wasn't even of drinking age yet. I guess to the career desk jockeys, that warehouse job must sound like hell.  ~SM |
