Will you be joining the boycott of Amazon Prime day, 7/16/18?

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

Amazon workers in Germany and Spain are striking for better working conditions and higher pay. They’re asking customers to boycott Prime Day to help with their effort.

Will you be joining the Amazon Prime Day boycott?
Amazon strike: workers ask public to boycott Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day threatened by strikes at European warehouses over working conditions

[wolfman]

I will be joining the boycott. It seems.

Although it’s not so much taking a principled stand on the issue as much as it is not needing to buy anything online for few days

[Serenata67]

Nope. I’ve been saving up for this day. We need to replace the TV our kids all but ruined (they caused a big line of dead pixels) and our budget it too tight to pay full price for one.

[Thudlow_Boink]

I’m trying to understand the economic logic of the boycott. If the point of the strike is to put pressure on the company, wouldn’t placing more orders that would have to be fulfilled by striking employees put more pressure on Amazon?

[Jophiel]

No plans to boycott but probably no plans to buy anything either.

[dalej42]

Nope, although I may or may not buy anything on Amazon today. I don’t at stores that open on Thanksgiving, as I think it’s horrible to be forced to work a crappy retail job on Thanksgiving.

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

@Thudlow_Boink

I’m trying to understand the economic logic of the boycott. If the point of the strike is to put pressure on the company, wouldn’t placing more orders that would have to be fulfilled by striking employees put more pressure on Amazon?

It’s just a guess on my part, but I was thinking that it’s just a show of solidarity. Even if there was a flood of orders, Amazon could probably handle them through other warehouses where the workers aren’t on strike.

[Slash1972]

No, because I don’t care about German and Spanish working conditions.

[Eyebrows_0f_Doom]

Hadn’t heard of it til this thread, and nope. I got $10 from Whole Foods to spend today which I will most definitely do.

[Ulfreida]

Yes.

My husband, who really likes Amazon (and any other place he can get things cheaper and simpler than other places, like Home Depot) has a prime membership which is used by five other people in three separate households.

I however, am morally opposed to the Global Hegemony model, and try to buy anywhere else, particularly locally, if ever I can.

I also support strikers, in almost all cases.

[doorhinge]

@Heffalump_and_Roo

Amazon workers in Germany and Spain are striking for better working conditions and higher pay. They’re asking customers to boycott Prime Day to help with their effort.

Will you be joining the Amazon Prime Day boycott?
Amazon strike: workers ask public to boycott Prime Day

(post shortened)

According to your linked article -

Responding to the call to strike, the company said in a statement: “Amazon’s total pay is at the high end of the range in the logistics sector, it includes an attractive salary and an extensive benefits package.”

How DARE Amazon treat their employees so shabbily? Extensive Benefits Packages? How cruel can they be? High end of the range in the logistics sector? Oh, the humanity!

So, no, I guess I won’t be supporting the union bosses, or their strike demands.

[CelticKnot]

I hadn’t heard about it. We are broke, so we have no plans to buy anything today.

[scr4]

And how would a boycott help Amazon employees? Just by reducing their workload?

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

@doorhinge

(post shortened)

According to your linked article -

Responding to the call to strike, the company said in a statement: “Amazon’s total pay is at the high end of the range in the logistics sector, it includes an attractive salary and an extensive benefits package.”

How DARE Amazon treat their employees so shabbily? Extensive Benefits Packages? How cruel can they be? High end of the range in the logistics sector? Oh, the humanity!

So, no, I guess I won’t be supporting the union bosses, or their strike demands.

I guess it depends on which side you believe. Also from that article:

Douglas Harper, a representative of the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) union said their complaints concerned wage cuts, working conditions and restrictions on time off.

From some other articles:
Amazon shrugs off boycott ahead of Prime Day on Fox Business

In Poland, workers say the company is using hard anti-strike laws to impose “miserable salaries,” while Germans say they are struggling for a “collective agreement guaranteeing the rights of all workers independently of their center.” Yet, Italians’ biggest gripe is fixed-term contracts, making it hard for employees to get full-time work and benefits.

Here’s a bit more detail by country:

European Amazon Workers Strike and Urge Prime Day Boycott—Will the US Follow Suit?

The strike is calling for “health and decent jobs,” along with benefits for all Amazon employees. They claim their “struggles against the abuses” of Amazon have gone ignored for too long.

Each nation has a particular grievance against Jeff Bezos’ behemoth.

Polish workers say an anti-strike law has made it impossible to negotiate better salaries.
German employees have been fighting for a collective bargaining agreement for two years.
In Italy, Amazon routinely hires contract workers who aren’t required to have benefits.
Amazon’s Spanish leaders unilaterally imposed working conditions when a previous collective bargaining agreement expired.
England and France have imposed demanding measures on time and efficiency, meaning workers have to process 300 items an hour and pee in bottles. Workers were also penalized for taking sick days and time off during pregnancies.

[DCnDC]

Don’t need to buy anything today.

Not to mention at the moment, Amazon is completely broken.

[begbert2]

I don’t have (or want) Prime, so I don’t think I could boycott if I wanted to.

In any case I’m not planning to buy anything from Amazon for at least the next week; I’ve got plans on how to frivolously blow my money and Amazon don’t factor into them.

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

@scr4

And how would a boycott help Amazon employees? Just by reducing their workload?

I’m not sure it’s working, but the idea was supposedly to cut into Amazon’s profit, to get their attention, I’m guessing.

The workers are also pressuring customers to boycott Amazon until after Prime Day, to eat into the company’s bottom line.

“The idea is that if no concessions to the workers are made, that day will not take place,” the employees write.

then after a couple sentences about how Prime day is bigger than Black Friday, so a strike is unlikely to damage the profits from the sale.

The striking workers won’t be able to cut into all that profit. But thanks to advocates on social media, they are making their voices heard.

Observer

[DrDeth]

I dont know if I will be buying much, but I have no intention at all of joining such a ill-planned “boycott”.

[Broomstick]

@Heffalump_and_Roo

Will you be joining the Amazon Prime Day boycott?

Not so much boycotting as “I don’t need to buy anything right now”.

[Wilson]

I’ve been boycotting Amazon for years (I did order one thing from them in the last two years - a CD that only Amazon offered a third disc for). I am placing them on double-secret boycott today, however.