Wir streiken! German Amazon workers down tools German warehouse workers haven’t given up on the idea that striking will help them to win their pay dispute with Amazon. Labour union Verdi has called for another in a long line of strikes this week, with employees of distribution centres in Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Graben, Werne and Rheinberg all set to down tools. The first …
I would agree that you DO turn people into monkeys, if you pay them peanuts, and the only way to counter the fallout, by a company like Amazon, is RUTHLESS regime (jackboots, as in the "security" provided on German amazon sites). I sincerely hope they wouldn't be able to enforce a ruthless regime, but then, I bet that, rather than becoming more human-friendly (never mind humane), they're already well-involved in developing automation for their already "leading edge" warehouse operations, to get rid of "monkeys" altogether. Then the prices the customer pays will fall sharply... (snigger).
I wonder what happens to that fabulous growth in the job sector (for the lowest paid), when automation becomes even more common-place in the services sector? Warehousing, deliveries... truck, bus, taxi and - tube drivers... checkout cashiers... bank clerks... traffic wardens, police "officers"... Soldiers... Are WE going to ship them all to the Moon? Are THEY going to ship us to the Moon?
"Well i guess its a morale thing. "
It's more than that. There's a fairly clear correlation between worker productivity and wage rates (often observable today in BPO productivity, where you'd need more offshore workers to replace a given number of higher cost per head onshore people). Logically, at an particular price point you could forcibly keep people's noses to the grindstone, and make the productivity equal higher paid workers, but that's rarely sustainable unless the workforce have no other options.
In developed markets like the UK or Germany, if you're paying low rates, then you get the least skilled, least motivated people who want to work, but can't find anything better. The implicit lack of respect that often goes hand in hand with low pay jobs leads to higher absence rates and shorter stays with the employer. And all it needs is somebody offering minimum wage plus 20p an hour, and these people will be off. Unlike higher skilled and higher paid jobs, the transactional "costs" of changing job are far lower. There's no crummy recruitment consultant to have to pander to, no need to polish up a glossy CV full of buzzwords, no two or three round employer interviews, no psychological or skills tests.
Also interesting to note that Tesco (who don't appear to give a stuff about productivity) pay poorly, Aldi (who have total cost in mind, and want high productivity) pay much better for comparable jobs.
Minimum wage, minimum effort.
Simple as that. When you know your employer is scaling your pay to the lowest setting allowed by law and busting your arse won't change that, it's entirely rational to save your energy for jobhunting / uni / generally pissing around.
The employees are now at the upper end of what is common in the logistics industry. In the first year, the hourly wage amounted to at least 9.55 euros plus bonuses, after two years they receive shares.
Sure, the retail tariff would pay more. But: Why should people who pack packages be paid the same as retailers working in a shop? The jobs differ significantly. And what would happen if Amazon simply outsourced the whole thing to an external logistics service providers -- would the employees be better served? ("Wirtschaftswoche")
At least some of the employees are also fighting back against a "negative portrayal" of their employer - more than 1,000 people have signed a corresponding petition. Further, Amazon's nine warehouses are in structurally weak regions such as northeastern Hessen where every job is welcome first of all. ("Die Zeit")
For reference the newly passed minimum wage is 8,50 Euro (effective 2015). The unions have just started working on getting it raised to 10,00 but that's not going to happen RealSoon(tm).
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