Okay I’m gonna get absolutely blasted for this, but here it goes.
Water went out in the warehouse at 3:45am, the last workers on that shift went home at 5:00am it sounds like. And the next shift which was to start at 7am was called and told not to come in because there was a water issue.
They were called back into work when the issue was fixed.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with this at all according to the facts as stated in the article.
They were without water for about an hour before they were scheduled to go home. It would take about that long for management to even recognize the issue, contact the city and get a timeline for repair. In the meantime, just keep working until they figure out how long it’ll take to fix, and when it is clear that it’ll take awhile, call the next shift and tell them they will reopen when the water is fixed.
Sounds absolutely reasonable to me.
But I know everyone loves shitting on amazon, so this post is gonna get murdered
I will cheerfully shit on Amazon every day, which is why shit articles like this piss me off. Amazon does plenty of real harm, but articles like this give this make people think “well, if this is their workplace mistreatment, then it’s not that bad.”
It is that bad, but this isn’t an example of that. This could happen anywhere, to anyone, even the most ethical company/co-op/whatever on the planet. They handled it well. So let’s go after them for actual shit instead.
No access to water or toilets for an hour and fifteen minutes is a lot if you really need either.
A vast majority of people sit through movies, meetings, waiting rooms, appointments, etc. for longer than that with no problem.
Are you suggesting that working at Amazon is comparable in exertion and water loss through sweat as sitting down and watching a movie?
Bit of a false equivalence. One is a choice (with the option to avail themselves if needed). The other is not.
So everything you listed is something scheduled. Something people prepare for. Water suddenly not working is neither of those things. Ignorant take
The vast majority of waiting rooms have water coolers and toilets available
You’re not wrong, I work for the government and if our utility services shut off for more than an hour I think we go home. People are saying that time without water would suck but I mean they are pissing in bottles and shitting in buckets. Does that make it right, no. But unless you have a medical emergency an hour fifteen is not going without water.
Well yeah they are pissing in bottles, but that’s every day.
The issue continued during the day shift. ‘They emailed dayshift workers at 7 AM to not come to work when the starting time is 7:45 AM, so many were already on site or on their way to work,’ explains Hannah.
Many workers travel to the Bristol site from the Newport area, roughly an hour and a half away. GMB union organiser Marie McDonald says workers were told to go home and advised that they would be paid for the day. But at about half past twelve, they received a message from the site saying that the water was back on, and they were expected to be on-site by one o’clock. ‘You’ve got to bear in mind that a lot of our members travel great distances to get to work. The bus stop in Newport is not centrally located. They have to walk for half an hour, so many couldn’t get on the bus in time to get back to Bristol,’ she tells Tribune.
One of our members, who couldn’t physically get to the site, was told they would have to take annual leave if they couldn’t get to the site. She doesn’t have any annual leave, so she’s being penalised for an issue completely out of her control. As far as I’m concerned, Amazon is putting productivity over staff safety.’
That sounds “absolutely reasonable”to you? Really? I hope I never work for someone with standards like that.
Yes but amazon has shown a history of not giving a shit about its workers
I don’t buy on Amazon anymore. Not only to they treat their employees like crap, but also it’s harder and harder to find quality stuff on their platform. Fake reviews are a huge problem.
Amazon is the new AliExpress with higher prices.
enshitification
I feel like 2023 will be remembered as the year of enshitification.
I feel like the 2020s will be remembered as the Decade of Enshitification.
Sad that you’re right. I even questioned saying, decade, but hesitated thinking I shouldn’t be to negative. 🥴
Probably only because it became so glaringly obvious despite having started far earlier.
Probably more likely to be remembered as the year of enshittification.
Completely agree. Don’t use them for numerous reasons now, one (of many) being the amount of cheap junk cluttering up the search results with fake reviews.
Is there an actual alternative general online store that treats its employees well and has good prices on decent products? I’m all for supporting a different online retailer over Amazon.
Similarly, I’ve been trying to purchase less on Amazon, but the brick and mortar stores around me are also giants (namely Walmart). I haven’t been doing a good job of it, but I feel like part of the process of getting away from Amazon is also accepting some inconvenience and seeking things out from local shops.
Things though like detergent, toilet paper, etc, I really don’t know who sells them other than big box stores.
Things though like detergent, toilet paper, etc, I really don’t know who sells them other than big box stores.
I buy some of that stuff locally from a well-known & supposedly-“eco-friendly” brand. Just now I checked their website to see if they sell direct-to-consumer. Some do but this brand doesn’t. So I took a look at their “Where to buy” list. Most of the listed online sellers were the obvious big-box or affiliated. But there was one apparently independent and environmentally-focused alternative retailer listed, with reasonable retail and shipping prices. I’m reading up now (Wikipedia and reviews) to decide whether that retailer will interest me or not.
So, my suggestion is to visit the websites of some brands that you like. Perhaps some may sell direct; and if not, check their “Where to buy” listings to see if any interesting options might be found there.
Depends where you’re from but I don’t know any who’s global like Amazon is.
Why do you need a general online store? I’ll just buy from specialized retailers most of the time. It’s not really any extra effort.
Specialized stores sometimes cost more money (sometimes they don’t). Also, the return policy and customer service is different from store-to-store. There’s a lot of convenience in having an “everything” store.
I’ll just buy from specialized retailers most of the time. It’s not really any extra effort.
Tried that a few times, and just felt like I was getting ripped off paying MORE for the product AND paying $20-30 shipping on top of that. Amazon is often cheaper and you get free shipping.
I’ve love to know of a better company that can compete, because I really can’t afford to spend more just to spend more.
I bet everyone shitting on amazon in the comments has a amazon package on thier doorstep right now lol.
I don’t see how one invalidates the other. Amazon’s predatory practices have killed off the competition and created a sizable price gap. Not everyone has the luxury of voting with their money.
I haven’t noticed their prices being lower in most cases. Check eBay. It’s usually about 10% cheaper.
They haven’t killed competition. There are hundreds of other online places to buy stuff for most items, too.
My household has not bought anything from them since before the pandemic. Unfortunately, this means relying on Walmart, which isn’t much better, but at least they get toilet breaks.
Curious
This is normal in the United States and has been for a long time. When i was a homeless LGBT teenager trying to survive, i went to a temp agency trying to make a living some other way than SW. They sent me to this warehouse where a bunch of felons and ESL people were working in some of the most inhumane conditions i had ever seen before. 12 hour days in a 110 degree warehouse working with toxic industrial chemicals that we had no information on, with a bare minimum of PPE, intense physical labor moving large stacks of equipment, and one break at the 6 hour mark to drink water. Most of the people there had been there a while. They just had this quiet resignation and determination to survive.
I didn’t even last a single day. I started to feel heat stroke coming on around the 8 hour mark. Shivering, no more sweat, everything started to feel distant and confusing. I tried to go get water and they wouldn’t let me, so i threw all my equipment on the ground and stumbled outside to find water, and never went back. I’m white, trans, and feminine enough to survive other ways, but most of those people didn’t have any other options.
Fuck this monstrous place. I’ve been radicalized ever since seeing things like that.
one of the most fucked things about america is that it seems like whenever you have a shitty work environment, it’s actually fine because
a) it builds character. complaining is weakness.
b) the company has to make a profit
like zero cognizance of human rights or quality of life. just, it is what it is, deal with it or you’re a sNoWFlAkE.
from grade school to now peers have looked at me weird for simply complaining when something is shitty, which i’ve never understood. like oh we can’t use headphones while we work 8 hrs washing dishes? you just take that? ok i’m going to stare at a wall because a guy said so? wtf?
That’s the thing that has always driven me crazy about our way of speaking about these things. Politicians say “we created x jobs” like it’s something to optimize for. People fear automation because it takes away their livelihoods. But, automating work and eliminating jobs should make people’s lives… better? Why doesn’t it actually? Where did the wires get crossed?
Why did we incentivize making humans suffer, at a grand societal level? Are we insane?
But, automating work and eliminating jobs should make people’s lives… better?
Sure, but not yours or mine, it seems.
That’s why I’m fully pro-automation. Automation makes everyone’s lives easier, it removes the burdens from the backs of people. For every job that someone doesn’t have to toil at we have the chance for them to find something they actually enjoy and excel at it, maybe even push the boundaries in some way.
People think they fear automation, but that’s not the enemy. The enemy is the politicians who are so far behind the times, and in many cases corrupt to the point they’re actively working against the people they were elected to serve, that our system simply will not adapt to these boons we’ve developed. There’s just no reason we can’t feed every mouth in America if the will was there in the people pulling the strings, but that doesn’t line their pockets personally and the people in positions of power don’t give a rat’s ass about you or your family.
Honestly it feels like all the pieces are there to build something wonderful, but it wont happen unless we’re willing to knock down the shitty “it’s what we’ve got” house of cards narrative.
feminine enough to survive other ways
Is this supposed to imply prostitution?
Not implying, just saying it. What do you think SW means?
That makes sense. I didn’t attempt to decipher what sw meant because it didn’t seem relevant to the story.
I think it’s supposed to imply none of your business…
It might be somewhat normal in the US, but it’s frightening to see in the UK, a country that supposedly actually has employee rights.
There are, but apparently Amazon chose to ignore them because they see their employees as subhuman.
Hopefully this particular warehouse gets its arse handed to it but I very much doubt it will unfortunately.
Animals can form unions
Unfortunately not most of them
I’ve been avoiding Amazon since 2010. No regrets. They crave your time, money, and attention, and they deserve none of those. (Same with Meta.)
It’s easy to avoid giving them your money directly, but preventing your money from trickling up to Bezos via websites that use AWS is a hell of a lot more difficult!
Scamazon.
I’ve been boycotting amazon for years and it’s great
no water—no piss.
why can’t you woke tankies understand this is what it takes to disrupt and innovate the marketplace? why do you hate progress?
I don’t think you will find many people here on Lemmy who will disagree on this. Remember that Lemmy is heavily left leaning. Most of us just aren’t far left. No one is gonna call you a tankie for saying people should have access to water at work. People are gonna call you a tankie when you start denying gulags, claim that Stalin was a good person or that spying on everyone for the greater good is a great idea.
That was obviously a sarcasm…
That’s your interpretation, for sure.
I agree, but this is the internet. You have to /s that shit or someone is going to take you seriously. It seems to be better here than it was on Reddit, but still…
There are a lot of layers to why this comment is dumb.
Hexbear, but that’s low hanging fruit.
Troll, again low hanging.
They were without water for an hour.
So here you are trolling about something, with the implication that it’s actually an issue as if you have some kind of high ground here: when really all you’ve done is show you didn’t actually read what happened.
3 layers of dumb. Impressive, if it wasn’t standard hexbear dribble.
Edit: I realized it’s actually 4. Amazon is a shit company, so behaving like this is a real issue when Amazon has done some other actually fucked up things completely trivializes the problem.
Just like with trans people, hexbears best feet forward often ends up setting them back. Crazy.
