this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
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Amazon staff walk out in Black Friday strike (www.bbc.co.uk)
submitted 11 months ago by Demigodrick@lemmy.zip to c/globalnews@lemmy.zip
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[–] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 55 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Black Friday is the perfect American holiday. Originally called such by the retail workers bracing for the worst part of the shopping season and what it brought out in the people they had to serve, stripped of its meaning, renamed and rebranded as something to celebrate, gleefully ignoring the irony.

A "holiday" where the culture is consumerism. A false day. A day by an actual holiday, that ruins the real one.

a day that if you celebrate it as they intend, actually ruins the day of the people who created it! A day where the ones who thought it up HAVE to work. I could go on, but I'm just repeating myself. It's just too on the nose.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 29 points 11 months ago (4 children)

We don't even have Thanksgiving in the UK, but we somehow imported Black Friday. It lasts all fucking month and the prices are about what they are in any other sale.

[–] SasquatchBanana@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

America's #1 export is our stupidity. It was wild seeing MAGA in Poland and other places.

[–] IggyTheSmidge@kbin.social 7 points 11 months ago

We've only had it over here for about 10 years or so - Amazon started it and all the other companies jumped on the bandwagon.

[–] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago

You're welcome! Being American in 2023 is like waking up to the fact that you're in Negan's colony.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Black week. Fuck i was put doing some light shopping yesterday and it was STILL black week. Over a week since black Friday lol

[–] CraigeryTheKid@lemm.ee 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I hadn't heard the retail worker origin. I just thought (fell for?) "Black" meaning profit, as opposed to being in the red.

That said I haven't gone out shopping today in 20 years. People scare me.

[–] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

(fell for?) “Black” meaning profit,

You're correct The whitewashed version is 'its the first day of the whole year we are finally 'in the black' or not 'operating at a loss'

which is of course a bullshit statement by itself, but that's just more me ranting so I'll just leave it at that :D

[–] LilB0kChoy@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

There are benefits for those that can avoid getting sucked into the consumerism.

We usually look for things we need (for the house, the dogs, etc.) and compare to normal price and sales during the year. Anything on its deepest discount during Black Friday sales we buy, and in large quantities to stretch our money.

For example, I just bought a bunch of 12”bully sticks for ~$3.50/each and which is better than any other time of the year.

We also like to shop the post holiday clearance, especially the shelf stable food items.

The best way to ‘celebrate’ in my opinion is to identify the loss leaders stores have to draw people in and only buy those. Take advantage of the corporations.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

a buck of 12”bully sticks?

A what of a what now?

[–] LilB0kChoy@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ha! Missed that. It’s fixed now buck = bunch.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And a bully stick is what?

[–] LilB0kChoy@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Bully sticks are long-lasting chews for dogs made of beef muscle; specifically beef pizzle. They are usually single-ingredient or limited ingredient chew treats made from steer or bull penis, and they come in dried, cooked or raw forms. Bully sticks for dogs come in various shapes including braid, ring, twist and bone shapes. Dog bully sticks may also be flavored to taste like poultry, fruit, cheese or other canine-friendly snacks.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 11 months ago

Thanks for the detailed description.

[–] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

Take advantage of the corporations.

Well, unfortunately i can't condone (or afford) this particular brand of subversion.

[–] whofearsthenight@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago

Originally called such by the retail workers bracing for the worst part of the shopping season and what it brought out in the people they had to serve

This stuck out at me, because I think a lot of us know the narrative of why we think it's called Black Friday, eg: the day the companies go from "red" to "black," which in accounting terms means when they become profitable.

Turns out, that's scam and the source linked actually suggests that there is a little more to it.

[–] Destraight@lemm.ee 49 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Lol I hope they do it close to a facility I used to work at. Amazon fucking sucks, they give you a nigh impossible box packing rate to do. Get this: 250 singular packed boxes in one hour. I barely made it above 120 an hour. It's Soo unrealisticly high it just burns you out. I asked to be transferred back to the ship dock, but I got turned away. They told me if I can't make it to 250 an hour for a while month then I can go back to the ship dock. I saw what they were doing. They put me in a high demand area to get me burnt out and leave. Idk why tho, maybe they were bringing in more temp workers. Considering they were making the temps work at the inbound side. I wouldn't be surprised if they got the temps to do every job. Oh man..

[–] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

one box every 15 seconds for hours at a time.... why don't they use robots?

[–] Nythos@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

Because they can’t currently make the robots feel like they’re a piece of shit and not worthy of respect.

[–] Destraight@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

The robots at my facility moved shelves of product around a caged grid system for quick inventory and holdover until it gets packed by a person manning a station at the grid. It flashes a projector light on which slot to grab from, you scan it, and the robot drives away with the shelf. There's a robot arm too, but it's job is to just stack plastic totes in a 3x3 stack on a pallet, then a conveyor pushes the full ones to the side

[–] whofearsthenight@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

I'm way too fucking tired to search for a source, but there was some news a while back that Amazon was concerned that they would literally turnover to the point where everyone who was willing to work for them would and their practices would turn them over and they'd run out of workers.

So yeah, vile company.

[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 30 points 11 months ago

I wish the strike was larger and that it had sympathy strikers like it does in Sweden where even harbourbdockwrs and the post office joins in on the strikes against Tesla

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 14 points 11 months ago

Good for them! Burn it to the ground!!

[–] aeon@kbin.social 14 points 11 months ago

Good for them. I'm also not shopping on black Friday! Give people a break!

[–] Lemonparty@lemm.ee 13 points 11 months ago

Good!

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

Go Amazon worker!

[–] TheMusicalFruit@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

Black Friday in store traffic has been dropping for years in the States. Mostly because of extended online sales weeks before Black Friday, and consumers getting wise to the fact stores raise prices in the preceding weeks so they can mark prices down around Black Friday. Not sure what it’s like in the UK now, but I hope it’s also in decline. Oddly enough, the only people I personally know here in the US going shopping today are my family that are UK citizens.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Amazon's response to his sign: "we know, that is why we are working so hard to replace you with one."

[–] velvetThunder@lemmy.zip 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Your comment sounds so negative. But aren't we all heading for automation in every corner of our lives.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It is wholly negative, and I develop automation and AI stuff for a living. The issue is that as automation accelerates, population growth will still be exponential as it has always been. That means fewer and fewer workers needed while the population continues to explode. Without obscenely massive reforms to society and law, we are careening towards a social and economic collapse the likes of which we have contemplated. Stop for a second and think what just Amazon fully automatic packing centers would mean. A few million people are working in those facilities. What happens when they are all fired because Amazon automates their jobs? There are moved to automate fast food production as well. Burger flipping robots already exist. Cashiers are being replaced with apps and kiosks in every McDonald's. Those jobs make up the bottom rung in the economic chain.

In the US, 60% of the population already lives below the realistic poverty line (not the legal one, because that one is a joke). What happen a when you unemployed > 2% of the entire population in less than a year? That isn't the working-age adult population, that is all of us. At the same time, cut social safety nets, remove consumer protections, and deregulate rent.

I am not trying to be a doomsayer, I am just realistically looking at the whole of the trajectories of our society. Unfortunately, those trajectories carry us over a rather dystopian cliff. Tell me you honestly believe that a realistic and functional UBI will ever happen, even when there are 5 employees to every job, so 80% of us are finctionally incapable of obtaining gainful employment?

[–] velvetThunder@lemmy.zip 1 points 11 months ago

It sounded as if you were against automation only at Amazon. But now you cleared things up.

In an ideal society the burger flippers could get the education to be Burgerflipperrobot engineers and so on, while everybody has to work less. But we already see that only a few profit from that progress.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 0 points 11 months ago

Fabricated american bullshit