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Teamster

2 karma · joined May 5, 2020

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Teamster··on Ask HN: I work for AWS. How do I encourage change for Amazon warehouse workers?
The picketers and strikers are actually helping the scabs, when the strike succeeds the scabs are free to apply for work at a higher wage. The absence of unions and their successful strike is literally the reason the wage gap is so large. Stopping access of scabs is even more critical in a low skill job such as picking items.
Teamster··on Ask HN: I work for AWS. How do I encourage change for Amazon warehouse workers?
You are not wrong, but, given the low skill of warehouse workers there is always someone to take the job. If you unionize without incentivizing new workers to stop applying your effort will be wasted, especially with a company the size of amazon. Stopping scabs is literally the lynch pin of the plan. We absolutely have the right to picket and block the entrances, it's the entire point.
Teamster··on Ask HN: I work for AWS. How do I encourage change for Amazon warehouse workers?
You can serve as a shadow union organizer, provide organization and a plan for warehouse workers. Study what the Teamsters did https://teamster.org/content/first-teamsters-building-union 1. Organize offsite meetings for influential warehouse workers, convince them to become local union reps for each warehouse 2. Those leaders recruit lower level members to join the union and pay part of their wages into a fund used to recruit more union members and hire outside leadership (lawyers, others experienced in forming unions) 3. Quickly grow your membership while building a war chest but not actually hurting operations 4. Organize a strike that actually stops the ability for more than one critical facility to ship and receive products 5. Block access to the facility for any scabs or temporary workers that the company hires 6. Be ready and willing to negotiate with management, understand what you actually want.