Amazon is very good at everything it does, including being very bad at the things it doesn't want to do. Take signing up for Prime: nothing could be simpler. The company has built a greased slide from Prime-curiosity to Prime-confirmed that is the envy of every UX designer.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/06/one-click-to-quit-the-union/#foxglove
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/06/one-click-to-quit-the-union/#foxglove
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Ten wpis został zedytowany (2 lata temu)
Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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It's intentional, and we know that because they told us so.
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/
When it benefits Amazon, they are obsessive - "relentless" (Bezos's original for the company) - about user friendliness. They value ease of use so highly that they even patented "one click checkout" - the incredibly obvious idea that a company that stores your shipping address and credit card could let you buy something with a single click:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click#Patent
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online purchasing with only a single mouse click
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Cory Doctorow
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Amazon's relentless union-busting spans a wide diversity of tactics. On the one hand, they cook up media narratives to smear organizers, invoking racist dog-whistles to discredit workers who want a better deal:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/02/amazon-chris-smalls-smart-articulate-leaked-memo
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Amazon execs labeled fired worker 'not smart or articulate' in leaked PR notes
Julia Carrie Wong (The Guardian)Cory Doctorow
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https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/amazon-violated-labor-law-alabama-union-election-labor-official-finds-rcna1582
They hold Cultural Revolution-style forced indoctrination meetings where they illegally threaten workers with punishment for voting in favor of their union:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/31/business/economy/amazon-union-staten-island-nlrb.html
And they fire Amazon tech workers who express solidarity with warehouse workers:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-fires-tech-employees-workers-criticism-warehouse-climate-policies/
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Amazon fires workers who criticized its safety and climate policies
Irina Ivanova (CBS News)Cory Doctorow
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https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/05/doubleplusrelentless/#quackspeak
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Cory Doctorow
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https://www.wired.com/story/his-drivers-unionized-then-amazon-tried-to-terminate-his-contract/
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/20/release-energy/#the-bitterest-lemon
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Cory Doctorow
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Butler also secretly joined the surge of 1,000 workers that Amazon hired for the Coventry warehouse in advance of a union vote, with the hope of diluting the yes side of that vote and forestall the union.
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Cory Doctorow
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After a long fight, Amazon's Coventry workers are finally getting their union vote, thanks to the GMB union's hard fought battle at the Central Arbitration Committee:
https://www.foxglove.org.uk/2024/04/26/amazon-warehouse-workers-in-coventry-will-vote-on-trade-union-recognition/
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Amazon warehouse workers in Coventry will vote on Trade Union recognition - Foxglove
Tom Hegarty (Foxglove)Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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Now, legal or not, this may strike you as a benign intervention on Amazon's part. Why shouldn't it be easy for workers to choose how they are represented in their workplaces?
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/19
This is in addition to more forced "captive audience" meetings where workers are bombarded with lies about what life in an union shop is like.
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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https://www.foxglove.org.uk/2024/05/02/legal-challenge-to-amazon-uks-new-one-click-to-quit-the-union-tool/
All this highlights the increasing divergence between the UK and the US when it comes to labor rights. Under the Biden Administration, @NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo has promulgated a rule that grants a union *automatic* recognition if the boss does anything to interfere with a union election:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks/#if-blood-be-the-price-of-your-cursed-wealth
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Legal challenge to Amazon UK's new "one-click to quit the union" tool - Foxglove
David Babbs (Foxglove)Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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May 8, 6PM: Prima Vista Literary Festival keynote, "Overcoming the Enshittocene,"
University of Tartu Library (Struwe 1)
May 10, 8AM: Science Fiction Research Association talk, "AI, copyright and creative workers’ labor rights"
Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures building (Lossi 3, lobby)
May 10, 3PM: A talk for hackers on seizing the means of computation
(University of Tartu Delta Centre, Narva 18, room 1037)
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Cory Doctorow
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Isabela.Zanella (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballot-box-2.jpg
CC BY-SA 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
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File:Ballot-box-2.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
commons.wikimedia.orgDisplay Name
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feliz
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Yearning for the refuge of the life I knew before.
But the night porter's calm voice echoes, refusing reprieve,
„You can check out any time you like, yet from Prime, you'll never cleave.“
LeBonk
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LeBonk
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Chuckles
•Cory Doctorowudostępnił to.
Cabbidges
•