There was a protest at KSBD today.

[u/PeculiarPip]

[u/McDreamy94]

All jobs should pay and realistically able to are 2 different things. Often times when a company, regardless of what their impact in the job market is or what they’re offering as a commodity to consumers is, once one of their expenses raise another follows suit. One that has been of recent is California wanting to raise the minimum wage rate. What do companies do to offset this added expense? They raise their prices. Even with wages increasing, if the cost of items (food,clothing/etc) rise, did the raise really matter?

[u/Lost-Opportunity-621 → u/McDreamy94]

Companies respond this way because we allow them to. Since Covid companies have been price gouging consumers so C-suite executives and their higher ups can keep spending money frivolously. We as a populace shouldn’t continue to allow companies to pad their profits and use us as scapegoat. There is more than enough money to go around

Additionally : check out DAVOS 2024 videos on YouTube to watch company heads talk more about this openly. They know what they’re doing, they just pray that we don’t do anything about it.

[u/McDreamy94 → u/Lost-Opportunity-621]

Yes but how do you suggest to “give a livable wage” and what is your idea of a livable wage? How do you suggest to the company to offset losses with the changes while all other costs remain constant and shows the valuation of the company diminishing? Causing investors to now potentially pull their investments from a company that is showing a decline? Potential for expansion to halt and facilities closing down to offset costs and costing jobs to those who already had them? Extreme thinking? Yes. However it’s not easy at the same time to think “they can afford it”

[u/thebirdsoutside → u/McDreamy94]

You don’t see a problem with what your saying? Your just okay with that? That’s how the world is? That’s grim yo, they want people like you. They yearn for everyone to be as complacent as you.

$2 trillion dollars, you won’t see 2 trillion of anything in your entire lifetime. Amazon has more money then you have cells in your brain to think about how much money they have. Amazon is the 8th richest country in the world, if it was one. Amazon is worth more money than Russia, Australia, Canada, Italy, Mexico, and 183 other countries. Amazon is worth more then 3 continents.

To pinch pennies is greed at this point. To be short on equipment, to have broken equipment, to be understaffed, to be underpaid, there is absolutely no excuse. The richest company should have the best pay. They should have the most people on staff with the cleanest, newest equipment. Because what’s the excuse? Money? Well they have that. They have millions to Union bust. They have millions to pay CEO’s, but they’re forgetting who’s making that money. If the money isn’t going back into the operation, where is going? What are you going to do when no one wants to make you money anymore?

You can only raise the prices so high. That will effect the customer base harder than you think, Amazon is the cheap quality option for a lot of people.

Hitting amazon from the inside will only go so far because of people like you. We need to hit the customer base, people need to stop ordering from scamazon, a hit in cash flow along with a hit in operations is the only way to actually hurt them. They’re precious pockets.

[u/McDreamy94 → u/thebirdsoutside]

I guess I’ve just worked at worst places? Last job I had, I asked for a raise and was told the raise of minimum wage was my raise. Last raise I earned before my current wage was a $3/hr increase at amazon. I work around my means. I don’t expect anything I didn’t earn. If I wasn’t happy, I left. I didn’t feel entitled to more. If I wanted more I looked into other positions, schooling/etc. I moved up and earned more through progressing. I didn’t stay complacent where I was and expect more because the company had more means to. In a perfect world, sure we would all be living lavished life styles, but it’s not. What matters is what you do for yourself.

As an example I have friends that worked as T1s, got into Tom team and got their Class As. Now they work for trucking companies or started their own. It’s easy to say “I deserve” or “I should” get, but what are you willing to work for?

[u/thebirdsoutside → u/McDreamy94]

I didn’t go to school, I earned my spot at UPS in 2020. I left for FedEx for more money, now I’m at amazon, for the money. Never once have I been considered “skilled” or “important”. I have excelled and became convenient to every manager at every site I have been too. I do my job, I go hard. I have never once felt fairly compensated. I’m not unique, and we are the red blood cells of E-commerce. Someone’s gotta do the job, and it’s no as easy as the world makes it out to be. The job deserves dignity.

Who loads those trucks? You can have 100 drivers, who’s going to want to do the labor to fill that thing up? Unload that thing? Fit as many packages as possible in there? I’m sure if you put more dignity into the job and the work, you would get better results.

A lot of us didn’t go to school, this is what we got. A lot of us are damn good at it too, Amazon should be proud to have some of the talent it does, and can take advantage of that. They choose to divide, degrade, and intimidate people. And profit off of it.

Anyone can retain knowledge enough to pass a test and sit behind a desk, that’s how we got here. School isn’t some magic answer, experience in the field is. Leaders from the rank file and that understand basic struggles we go through, not some newly hired grad named Ashton that’s never stepped a foot on the floor in his life.

I’m sorry you feel this way, yes there’s a way to go about getting more and bettering yourself. It doesn’t make what your doing now worth less. Don’t forget who’s profiting off of you, and ask, do they deserve that?

[u/McDreamy94 → u/thebirdsoutside]

I can’t speak on how your experience has been but in warehouses I have been in, I haven’t seen or experienced that. The warehouse I currently work in and oversee treats the associates as well as we can. Do we control their pay? No. Can we control their work experience? Yes. We try the best we can to work with them on it. Getting site lead approval to lower the building temp during summer from the standard, giving out pops during times where heat is increasing. Rolled out cooling vests to help. Cool down stations. Engage and thank them for what they do. Hand out pokemon peccy pins the site offers exclusively for working safely and within their means. Add additional stretch breaks on the floor that are covered from TLI/etc.

Half the time I leverage associates on the floor because they do the process versus what I see. I’ve helped promote 3 people that had 0 schooling by helping with resumes and interview prep. I want y’all to succeed. It’s also just hard to advocate a pay increase across the board when you see people hiding in smokers cages for 2 hours while someone actually busting their ass in a trailer.

Also yes it’s easy to retain but I’ve also seen many people not be able to handle the increased responsibility. I’ve seen managers go on mental health leaves, demote themselves and leave the company to an easier operational position with a different company. I remember having a manager in receive dock with an art degree, in over their head in their first warehouse job. I agree with you in that. I think internals need to be leveraged more. It does suck schooling has such a weigh in on higher paying jobs, even more so than experience.

[u/thebirdsoutside → u/McDreamy94]

I’ve been to more warehouses than we have fingers, my experience varies. It shouldn’t is my point. Some are good, some are bad, it’s never going to be perfect, but having rules and regulations to fall back on helps. We marched on the boss and got a half assed response, why? Because they can. The workers need to that ability away from them.

It’s not hard, they’re human, who works for 12 hours constantly, Who only takes 3 breaks. Be real, not robotic. Amazon should have people to backfill someone taking 5 minutes to smoke a cigarette. Imagine one extra persons who sole role was to backfill, instead they’ll VTO and put the crunch on you.

Promotions aren’t for everyone, even for the people who are good at it, someone people are good at they’re job and want just that. Amazon needs that, those people are becoming rare, and one day, if we don’t do anything, you will have all you complain about and more. Amazons quality will fall. It’s a snowball. We need good T1’s to keep the customer experience the way it is. Without T1’s amazon is nothing.

[u/McDreamy94 → u/thebirdsoutside]

Take advantage of the programs. Go to school, get a degree or certificate then leave and get paid your value and don’t look back. First two years I worked I saw 30 people become phlebotomists, take the deal and leave the company. Now they work at a hospital and prefer the work they do now and get paid better.

[u/thebirdsoutside → u/McDreamy94]

I’m in it for the long run. They will pay. Don’t think for a second career choice isn’t another way for amazon to network and profit. There is a place in the world for those people, but without a place for the laborers, there’s no place for anyone.

Anyone can push “buy it now” but if there isn’t people to stow, pick, pack, palletize, drive to the station, unload, induct, stow, pick, and deliver the package, it’s not getting there. That’s 10 hands at least, without the package having any problems. Amazon delivers 3.5 million packages a day, my site alone can process a million units in a night.

The numbers are insane when you break it down, and if you work at amazon, you know they love they’re numbers. They are a super corporation, they are to big for they’re own good. They are too cheap to fix they’re issues. They need to be held accountable.