Submitted 2 weeks ago by Tea@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/18/amazon_algorithmic_worker_management/
Amazon has used tricks, algorithms, and surveillance to discourage warehouse employees from unionizing, according to a paper published in the journal Socius.
This is what every big company does just sometimes without the algo. This is why we need unions
Not just unions, but also a functional Dept of Justice that hands out criminal charges for these criminal offenses.
Paying a fine is NOT adequate. The historical alternative was workers pulling the executives out of their houses in the night and burning down the factory.
FYI they even don’t pay a fine when they break the National Labor Relations Act.
You are not a human. You are a meat robot. Just something to be used up and replaced.
And they’re terrified of all the childless cat ladies opting to not produce their next generation of laborer/consumer brood to be said replacement. Hence the crackdown on abortions and contraception and people who pair up in ways that cannot yield children. You can’t have the infinite growth that capitalism demands if the number of producers and consumers goes down.
Negative. I am a meat Popsicle!
It’s gonna be hot Hot HOT!!
Amazon doesn’t sell anything you can’t buy somewhere else for the same price. You have no excuse to keep using Amazon. Correction, I’m sure people who buy from Amazon have excuses, but they aren’t good ones.
There actually are things that one just cannot find elsewhere easily, and most of the places that reliably carry them locally are places like Walmart which aren’t better. That said, it’s always the very last place I look.
With all this nonsense I’m going to start asking local stores if they can order stuff for me, though, and just be extra patient. For example, it’s wild how little there is for mandolins at local music stores but at least the British strings I’m going to try switching to are there so that’s something.
Wow, had no idea amazon was the only online marketplace. If we didnt have amazon, wed have to go back to thrift stores or some shit until some genius figures out how to take orders and ship goods far away again.
Also, musicians love to talk about music, and tend to work in music stores. Start calling around, they dont need to be local, most will ship to you.
I disagree. I am in no way a fan of Amazon. But there are some niche products that are only sold through the platform by the supplying vendor or are so specialized that there’s really no other retailer that is going to make an effort to list it for sale.
This is not true. Many of the parts I buy off of Amazon are not only cheaper, but I can get them faster as well. I wish this were not true, but I cannot spend half of my week driving for hours on end to pick up equipment at a higher price.
This is not true. Many of the parts I buy off of Amazon are not only cheaper, but I can get them faster as well.
Only the faster part is true, and only if you use prime, else you can buy from everywhere else and have the same price and delivery time.
Cheapest only if you buy a rip-off, buying some item of a certain brand have the same price on Amazon then the brand shop (if not higher on Amazon sometimes)
You can often find it cheaper than what the price is on Amazon
“Accused”? It couldn’t be more obvious.
It’s nothing new; I worked in a call center 15 years ago where the algorithms were designed to work them as hard as possible and steal commissions because they were too tired to pay attention. I should know because they told me to do that, I refused, and was fired for it.
Same old trick in a new venue. This has been happening for a long time in Asian warehousing, but has hopped the pond this last decade or so. Worker’s efficiency is set to a certain rate of efficiency, then they’re reprimanded/fired for failing to meet it. The catch is that it’s a challenging pace to begin with, and the window for successful completion almost-imperceptibly narrows, eventually becoming so ludicrously small that they must injure or maim themselves trying to beat it or even match the pace. Once they quit or cripple themselves, the company simply slides in a new candidate who doesn’t yet understand just how Hellacious the work is.
I worked in a British Amazon during the pandemic, the minimum pick rate for one order type was 59 items per hour….its achievable, yeah, if the stars line up. But your minimum is more or less the maximum, if you get me?
AI is just the wall these asshole stand behind to be cruel and lawless. It doesn’t absolve you from blame, it’s not intelligent it’s a tool, like a gun and if you point it at people and it hurts them you should be jailed.
Plenty of dumbfucks say guns don’t people, people kill people.
The tool and the person are at fault.
I hate how AI is being used to fuel toxic workplace culture.
Amazon 101 work them until they break.
And this is news?
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Me 8 years ago:
And then my sister is like “it’s not that bad.”
Then me reading news 6 years ago that an amazon worker died of a heart attack and his coworkers didn’t even stop to call 911.
My sister thinks I made that up.
FRYD@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
USPS is unionized. No cameras, Way less micro-management, and you can pee when you want to.
OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
USPS isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I know multiple regional managers and local district managers as well as post masters. It’s a very tough demanding and long job.
A single delivery driver can deliver 630am till 1030pm and still not have all the mail out. While head quarters will deny adding drivers to routes or changing anything to ease the loads.
dan@upvote.au 2 weeks ago
Aren’t some Amazon warehouses unionized too?
tuxiqae@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Sure makes you wonder why the elected officials want to defund it in favor of Fedex and others /s
Psythik@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
As someone who worked there for a year, the nice thing about Amazon is that managers don’t harass you—even if you come in late every single day—and the 40 hours of personal time granted every week is great too. It’s the kind of job where you can just put on your headphones and zone out, and never have to come in on days when you don’t feel like it. Just call off in the app.
Still wouldn’t recommend that anyone works there. Everything else about the job sucks.
daddy32@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Wtf is this? You have 168 personal hours every week. It is not at the decision of your employer.
TheBat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
In the warehouse?
Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Before the internet, people would say some ignorant shit and we’d all just carry it around like a nugget of gold.
People still say ignorant shit, but now at least we can mark them for their nonsense and ignore their opinions.
GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Best way I’ve ever heard it described was that before the Internet, every village had it’s idiot… “Hatians are eating pets? What? Oh, you were talking to Jerry.”
Now, all the village idiots have glommed into each other and retweet the insanity back and forth until it takes on a life of it’s own. “Buttery males!” and “adrenochrome extractions happening in basements of pizza places” etc etc etc.