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Comment by mtbcoder | Hacker News Reader

I'm not quite sure most Americans find it 'funny' but rather do these things more so out of fear. Fear of job loss, fear of missed advancements, fear of missing out, etc. This also seems to explain why Americans as a whole take so little vacation time even when they are entitled to take time off [1].

[1] http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workpla...

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This is just it - worker protection in the Netherlands is much better than in the US or UK; an employer can't just fire someone, for one. An employee cannot work for more than X hours a week - and if it's requested to work overtime or odd hours, the employer has to pay for it (up to 200% if working Sundays).

And if there weren't laws and worker inspections and whatnot in place already, people would go on strike - and that usually has a major effect, like nationally crippled transportation (of any sort) or rapid accumulation of trash.

Which TBF makes me a bit depressed about the Americans. Have all the Walmart employees unionize and go on strike - there's nothing the management can do, not even enforce their 'you cannot unionize' contract thing, if everyone goes against them.

Some people are afraid pushovers TBF. And the employers slowly turned them into that, by making them poor.

In the Netherlands, strikes are actually rare when compared to surrounding countries, although there has been a small uptick recently.

> there's nothing the management can do

On the contrary. Walmart's policy to date has been to simply close the store:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0210-13.htm

They got in trouble for that one, so now they at least pretend to have other excuses:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/union-walmart-shut-5-stores-over...

> worker protection in the Netherlands is much better than in the US or UK

I don't think you should lump the UK with the US on this one. You can't "just fire someone" in the UK, most employees can't work more than 48hrs/week, paying extra for overtime is standard, 28 days holiday is minimum¹ and taking it is normal, if you're ill you don't need to use a holiday day, etc.

The new-ish government website is a bit of a mess for linking to whole sections, but anyway: https://www.gov.uk/browse/working

¹ That legal minimum includes public holidays.

the UK has FAR better worker protections than the US. These two countries should not be mentioned in the same sentence when it comes to worker protections.

Part of it is that the most of the Walmart employees probably couldn't afford a prolonged strike. The company would hire scabs and wait them out. And the news would portray those people as being "entitled" and "whiny". In America, it's seen as if businesses are allowed to do everything they want, and if you don't like it, then you should quit. Even if what the business is doing is illegal.

as a Brit working in the US, I realise fear of losing healthcare is critical.

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