ghouldilocks:

ghouldilocks:

If you’d like to help out a former Amazon warehouse employee who lost their job (aka was fired) two months ago because they had a mental health breakdown due to a manic episode/could no longer handle the incredibly physically unhealthy and abusive working conditions that came with the job that had driven them to start having thoughts of suicide so serious they needed to go away for treatment for almost a week, and has also been denied unemployment by Amazon, then please help them out: PayPal.me/LMBee

If you need proof that I worked for Amazon, here’s a picture of me with my badge:

PS: Get fucked Bezos

Seriously. I only have like $30.

svlvan:

just bc i’ve seen this sentiment expressed by a lot of ppl who want to support the amazon worker’s strike but don’t know how:

buying from amazon during the period of the strike does nothing to benefit the striking workers. the purpose of the strike is not to “show amazon how crucial its workers are,” and placing more orders is not going to somehow “overwhelm” amazon’s warehouses. the purpose of the strike is to inhibit amazon’s ability to draw in profit. the workers are striking so that the facilities in which they work will no longer be able to function. this is part of a strategy of disrupting amazon’s logistics so that ultimately their profit margins fall and amazon execs will be forced to acknowledge the workers’ complaints and negotiate with them.

if you purchase from amazon during the strike, your money is still going into the same pockets as it would any other time. if you purchase during the strike, the labor necessary to handle your order is going to be passed onto someone else regardless—whether it’s a facility in another region, workers who aren’t striking, or workers who were brought in to replace the strikers. if you purchase during the strike, you are actively funding amazon’s strikebreaking ability. yes, maybe they won’t be able to ship your package on time, or it will never be shipped, and you’ll be refunded (or not!), but that in no way constitutes as a win for the strikers. purchasing something from amazon, regardless of the circumstances, serves only to benefit the corporation, not the workers who fulfill the orders from start to finish—that’s the point of why they’re striking in the first place.

on the other hand, by boycotting amazon in solidarity with the striking workers, you will be limiting amazon’s ability to draw a profit during a large sale event—companies like amazon rely on business tactics such as sales to extract as much profit as they can from their workers. boycotting prevents them from being able to do so. 

if you’re interested in following the events of this strike, as well as other resistance efforts against amazon: https://amazonenlucha.wordpress.com/ is the website run by the organizers of the strike.

lalaofrp:

thatdiabolicalfeminist:

not giving your money to a business that’s currently striking is literally an essential part of a strike.

Amazon brings in over 34 BILLION dollars every day. Even a one-day boycott could mean massive leverage for the strikers – especially if the boycott coincided with one of the most profitable days Amazon expected to have all year, as this one does.

Do not visit Amazon.com on 10 July 2018 (or July 15-16 in the US)!

While we’re talking about effective boycotting, boycotting Amazon means more than boycotting Amazon, because Amazon has subsidiaries that also help it make money. If you’re going to boycott Amazon, you also need to boycott the following subsidiaries:

• AWS Elemental
  
• AbeBooks
  
• Alexa Internet
• Audible
  
• Blink Home
  
• Brilliance Audio
  
• ComiXology
  
• CreateSpace
  
• Diapers.com
  
• Double Helix Games
  
• Evi
  
• Fabric.com
  
• GoodReads
  
• IMDb
  
• Junglee
  
• Mobipocket
  
• Ring
  
• Shelfari
  
• Shopbop
  
• Souq.com
  
• TenMarks Education, Inc.
  
• Twitch
  
• Whole Foods Market
  
• Woot
  
• Zappos
  

A boycott is not effective unless you attack it on all fronts. This is why boycotting things like McDonalds or Coca Cola are so ineffective– they have so many subsidiaries and supporting businesses that they can afford a frontal hit and still make money from its “family” companies. 

If you truly want to help this boycott, make sure to boycott Amazon and its subsidiaries.

newpercepliquis:

thatdiabolicalfeminist:

a lot of people are talking about how it’s pointless to boycott Amazon during the strike bc Amazon has so many subsidiaries that it seems impossible to avoid them all for a week.

but the strike is about warehouse workers for Amazon.com specifically.

if you can avoid whole foods and audible etc. during the strike, go for it!! but the really essential piece is that you do not purchase anything from Amazon.com for the duration of the strike. it’s okay to be specific here.

it is better to do something than nothing, and in this case, no one is even expecting a boycott of all the subsidiaries – the part that will be most traceable to the strike will be the drop in purchases from Amazon.com anyway.

Do not visit Amazon.com until 17 July 2018 or until the strike ends, whichever happens last.

people are talking about it like it’s just the 10th but please prime day here is not until the 16th/17th

please observe the whole week long strike

thatdiabolicalfeminist:

A really common strike tactic in the pre-internet days was form a
picket line. Basically, the striking workers would hold up signs
explaining their strike and surround their place of work with a line of
people all chanting and marching. This not only got the public
interested in the strike, but it also physically blocked people from
entering the business they were striking against.

When
workers strike, businesses sometimes hire “scabs”, or workers willing to
step in and replace the strikers to make the strike meaningless. A
picket line would mean that even if the business got a full complement
of scabs, they would still take a huge hit financially during the
strike.

“Never cross a picket line” is something union and
other pro-labour parents used to teach their children, and it meant both
“never be a scab” and also “never patronize a business currently under strike.”

Amazon will likely
hire scabs during a widespread strike to pick up at least some of the
slack. But this time, workers can’t use a physical picket line to block
access, because Amazon is an online business. But it’s still important
to make sure the company isn’t able to bring in a lot of profits during
the strike – hence the calls for boycott online.

Amazon knows they need their employees. They just think they can get away with abusing them. The boycott and the strike are not to convince them to think anything, it’s to make it so unprofitable to continue that they have no choice but to concede to the strikers’ demands.

honestlyvan:

knitmeapony:

oliviavoldaren:

thatdiabolicalfeminist:

Reminder: Do not buy from Amazon or even open the website on 10 July 2018, in solidarity with the transnational strike.

Amazon workers in Spain have called for a transnational strike because Amazon has been avoiding accountability for its labour rights violations by merely shifting the work (and the human rights abuses Amazon inflicts on their workers) to non-striking countries, each time a strike occurs. If there is widespread striking transnationally, Amazon will have no choice but to recognize the strikers’ demands in order to keep their facilities functioning.

Our job as allies is to support the strike by avoiding using the Amazon website or purchasing anything from Amazon for as long as the strike continues. A mass boycott of the site, coinciding with the strike, will strengthen the workers’ bargaining position and could be crucial to Amazon workers gaining back basic rights in a variety of countries.

Please remember this includes subsidiaries like Twitch and Audible.

This is tomorrow!

Please do not shop on Amazon tomorrow.

Please do not stream Amazon music or video tomorrow

Please do not order from sites using Amazon Payments tomorrow.

For one day, please, avoid it.

As a worker-for-rent who’s worked during strikes or demonstrations – PLEASE, if there’s a strike DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THAT COMPANY ON THAT DAY IF THERE’S ANY WAY TO AVOID IT. Not only do folks like me get an easy day, it’s also a powerful act of class solidarity.

Also, if you’re a social media type of person, please tweet and comment at the company that you’re choosing not to use their services, in solidarity of the strike. Make sure they know.