Comment on Fox News sharing billionaire propaganda
RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 1 day ago
If Amazon can’t operate a delivery business without blatantly exploiting workers and “subcontractors” (between brackets because the subcontractors don’t operate independent at all), then they shouldn’t operate a delivery business. Leave it to the companies that do respect worker’s rights.
The exploitative system that Amazon wants to maintain:
*As the mayor’s office said Monday, at least 11 last-mile facilities have opened across New York City since 2020, with subcontractors running the warehouses as Amazon directs the hiring of delivery drivers, the routes they use, and requires them to use Amazon-branded vehicles and uniforms.
But while exerting control over the deliveries, Amazon pushes responsibility for the vehicles used onto the subcontractors, as delivery workers explained in a video released on social media by Mamdani on Monday.
“When injuries and worker accidents skyrocket, Amazon says they have nothing to do with it. They can’t have it both ways,” said the workers. * commondreams.org/…/delivery-protection-act-nyc
We had a similar situation in my country (Belgium) a few years back, where the most exploitative delivery company was PostNL. The government raided and seized their warehouses for a good while, locked up a few executives for a shorter while, and then unfortunately failed to get convictions, so only administrative fines were handed out. Even though there were no significant fines, it did scare the sector and working conditions have improved since then, which anecdotally had the following consequences: shops offer choices when it comes to delivery (fake next day delivery is no longer standard, but requires a premium), cost per order went up a tiny bit (no more free delivery for small orders + next day delivery is more expensive), and deliveries became more reliable again (delivery time tables are easier to accomplish for the workers if they’re not mathematically impossible).
LePoisson@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Not to be that guy but those are quotes, not brackets.
You’re right the system is so fucked. I hope it gets better in the USA, our labor practices are exploitative and basically you have to find a good company to work for then you feel stuck because you don’t want to leave for what may be a worse situation. Our healthcare and vacation time and retirement funding are all controlled by our employer (for most people) so that’s just one more thing they hold us hostage with.
Your English is really good, if you didn’t say you were from Belgium I’d say you were a native speaker. Well, I guess your education system doesn’t suck when it comes to language and you learn English early on so maybe you basically are a native speaker (or expat).
RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Thanks for the correction, it’s a good thing that not everyone is afraid of correcting others.
English education tends to have it easy because of circumstances rather than the schooling system: Dutch is a relatively small language and we mostly don’t dub foreign media. Lots of exposure to English makes it easier to teach English to a higher standard than would otherwise be the case. When I was in school, French was started 2 years earlier, got more hours, and still got worse results :D
LePoisson@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
If you’re terminally online, which, as a Lemmy user I’d say is a good chance, your exposure to English is going to naturally be a lot more too.
Like, I wish I could speak with you in Dutch or French but other than parler un petit peu francais my language skills are firmly grounded in English and that’s about it. At least it seems to be the language of the internet, so that’s something.
Normally I wouldn’t even call it out but it seemed like something you might care about since you pointed the punctuation out. I’m glad you took it positively!