So, now Amazon is going to go after the government for... well, enforcing the law.
Which corporations HATE.
And when it comes to corporate rights vs. human rights, the right ALWAYS goes against human beings and democracy.
The also lie. All the fucking time. They can't tell the truth about unions. Look at CNBC idiot Jim Cramer. He's never been known for honesty. So he's freaked out about having a union at Amazon. Here's what he says:
That's simply a lie. Instead of making real case against unions, he lies. I guess that means that he CAN'T make an honest case against unions.While discussing the victory on CNBC, Cramer complained that Amazon will no longer be allowed to order their workers at the State Island warehouse to show up whenever they're needed.
"If you can't tell your employees when they work, then you're really not able to have much of an ability to move product," he said. “The unions will be in charge of time that you need to work, and that would be dreadful!"
Cramer did acknowledge unions do exist in other companies and that those companies are still profitable, but he then pivoted back to griping about unions being able to set schedules for workers.
"No one wants to work certain shifts," he said. "So you can just say, 'Listen I'm not going to work that shift.' And Amazon would not be able to say, 'Yes you must work it!' So that's what's at stake with unions."
Cramer also added that "one reason why Amazon works so well is that people must work when Amazon says you must work.
I've worked union for 20 years in plants, under contracts that have been in place for decades, where the unions got improvements every year.
Now, every contract has differences, but there aren't contracts where the union chooses when people work. Here's the facts:
Union contracts usually have seniority clauses, but how much power seniority has varies greatly.
Let's be clear: Staffing is part of the company rights clause in every contract. They decide how many employees to have, and when they work. Now, most manufacturers work on a five-day, eight hour day. extra hours during the week or on the weekend is subject to overtime pay.
Some companies have went to irregular workweeks, which has often been controversial among employees. But some employees like things like four ten-hour days, along with others working 3 12-hour days. But here's what's funny - I've seen a lot of these companies later want to go back to the five-day, forty hour week.
You always seem to want what you don't have!
As for people being able to refuse shifts, that's not true. Sometimes contracts allows the companies to decide who works when. But USUALLY, people can pick shifts by seniority. I can tell you now, in a three-shift system, second shift, the evening shift, is the least desirable. Lots of people love third shift, the overnight shift, but it's usually got the fewest people on it.
When I went to work, first and second shift was eight and a half hours, with the half-hour unpaid lunch. We had two five-minute paid breaks. We couldn't have overlap, so third shift was only seven hours, with a half hour lunch, but the third shift were still paid for eight hours. Second shift has a small shift differential, an extra quarter an hour.
So, lots of folks wanted to work that third shift, but it was never fully staffed, and when work was slack, it was often empty. But boy did people love it.
So, you could pick your shift by seniority. They only shifted once every six months, and if you put in a transfer request, you couldn't put in another for two years. So, what happened was the new workers would go to second shift, and stay there until there was an opening by seniority. I was on second shift for four years. So, those bi-annual shifts were usually pretty damned small.
And BTW, new hires were informed the job was a second-shift job, and it might be a while before they could go to first. So, they could decided whether they wanted to work that shift or look for a different job.
And that's another reason that a union means you have less turnover and more experienced workers - because that seniority is important to them.
But in times of layoffs, every shift but the first shift would shrink, all by seniority. And say you had lots of seniority, and they had layoffs and ended third shift. You would then go to the shift of your choice by seniority in that layoff.
It was an excellent system. Often the second-shifters were young people, and as they started families, they could go to first shift to be aligned with their family schedule.
Some folks LOVED second shift, and would NEVER go to first shift. There were plenty of senior people to keep experienced workers around. And we loved second shift because there wasn't as many suits running around keeping people from getting their work done.
Yes, almost always, second shifts almost always have better productivity. And then we get off at 11 PM and head to the bars... Ah, youth... Yes, as Billy Joel would say, I drank a lot of take-home pay-hey-hey!
In a warehouse business like Amazon, I'm sure they work every hour of the week. Now, Amazon may currently be able to move everyone around at will, day by day. That's hell on anyone who has kids or are going to school party-time.
But that's easy for bosses, because that means they don't have to plan anything. They just move everyone around at will.
And I'm sure that's a reason the workers unionized, as they need some stability in work schedules. What I'm sure the workers will try to negotiate is to have shifts set, and there might be quite a few different schedules. One "shift" might be days, Monday-Thursday, and another would be days, Friday-Sunday. So, not three, but maybe seven or more. And the company would decide how many people would be on each shift.
Also, if they had different job classifications or levels, they could decide how many of each would be on each shift.
Then, people would elect which shift they preferred, and the company would fill those shifts by seniority.
NONE of this is EVER decided "by the union". The company would do so by, well, simple math. If they ignore the system, then the union would file a grievance.
So, the bottom line, the company decides staffing levels, and then they staff by seniority, and the workers can't change their minds day by day or week by week.
So why is it the right can never make an ACTUAL case against unions? Why must they lie?
