Amazon

[yeoman6987]

Tonight they showed the warehouse where merchandise is being sent to us. They are no longer using humans but robots. 3000 robots work 24/7 a day. Amazon heard the complaints of poor work conditions from Americans and fixed the problem.

We have to be very careful about complaining to much about working. 3000 people out of work now. Mission accomplished I guess.


McDonald's is working on robots that will make the food and also a order yourself system. I imagine it won't be long now before they will only need 2 or 3 workers per shift.


It is all scary but workers are asking for more money at a time they may be out of jobs.


This is not a joke at all.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. In the segment I saw about it on TV

they also said Amazon hadn't actually laid anyone off because of those robots.

[csziggy]

2. Is that because the warehouse workers didn't work for Amazon directly?

But for an agency that Amazon paid? In which case, it could be technically true - Amazon may have just gone from paying a third party company that hired human workers to a third party company that uses robots.

[WillowTree]

20. That would be my guess.

[searchfortruth1]

3. No, that doesn't sound good at all

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. "They are no longer using humans" ... not true. The robots are (for the time being) being used to

bring product fulfillment bins to the human pickers, instead of the pickers having to go to the bins. This eliminates the production wasted from having a human walking from bin to bin in order to fill an order.

[yeoman6987]

5. Well your reply sounds good for sure

I just worry about worker in the future even more then today. What on Earth are we going to do when robots take over entry level jobs?

[JaneyVee]

6. If robots take over entry level jobs....

Then only high wage jobs will be available.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

7. Hence my paranthetical "for the time being". As for what are we going to do, I wish I knew. nt

[RKP5637]

22. The entire economic structure of what a job means needs to be changed. The current model is the

wrong paradigm for the 21st century. How that will happen, I have no idea, but the current model is obsolete. My gut feeling is it will only come with great strife and hardships.

[mike_c]

25. ^^^THIS^^^

"Jobs" suck. Arbeit macht frei (except that most of the time, it just makes someone else richer while workers sell the hours of our lives to the lowest bidder).

[okaawhatever]

21. I've read that Amazon will never be able to replace humans because robots can't be designed to

pick up all the different sizes and shapes of packages. The reason they can deliver the bins is because they are all similarly shaped and are programmed for that shape. They can't be programmed (not cost effectively anyway) to pick up each of the thousands of items Amazon sells.

[Enrique]

8. if workers stop complaining

then Amazon will still fire them and use robots.

[RKP5637]

23. Yep, exactly what will happen, it's inevitable. n/t

[Kingofalldems]

9. Well that's what the republicans always tell us.

Why are posting it?

[CreekDog]

17. it's not even true

either the OP doesn't know that people are still working for Amazon, or, well I don't know.

[Kingofalldems]

19. Good point.

[Lex]

10. manufacturing, programming, fixing, and maintaining the millions of robots you figure

will take over all jobs will be done by ?

[Kingofalldems]

11. Should we just bow down and obey corporations?

[Lex]

12. we should thank them for the crumbs

and not ask for too many crumbs, according to the OP

[Kingofalldems]

13. I have seen it all now.

Is this GOP Underground?

[cyberswede]

14. Automation has replaced human workers since the dawn of the Industrial Age.

I presume the workforce will adapt.

[JI7]

15. bs, if corporations or any business could use robots or anything else to save money

they would do it.

they aren't hiring people because they want to be nice and provide jobs.

they hire people because they need people.

[99Forever]

16. I guess it hasn't dawned on the OP...

... when enough workers are "replaced," Amazon won't have any customers. Hey, but they'll have some nice shiny robots with nothing to do.

[Starry Messenger]

18. Too bad robots don't buy stuff.

[bhikkhu]

24. Amazon workforce for the holidays is up 14% - they hired 80,000 this year

So while they have some efficiency added by a robotic warehouse inventory system (which has been around for ages, btw) nothing gets shipped without a person handling it, and there's a lot of work involved in filling orders.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/amazon-to-hire-80-000-workers-for-holidays-1413432063

[snacker]

26. Being homeless is better than working for Amazon'

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/nov/28/being-homeless-is-better-than-working-for-amazon


For what it's worth...just read this yesterday.

[MADem]

27. You didn't see the same news report I saw.

All the robots do is go get the stuff. No one was fired. No one will be fired. The robots bring the items to the people packing the boxes instead of making them run all over hell. They don't have to work as hard AND they're more productive.

Sounds like a win-win to me.

Here, facts:

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/robots-help-amazon-tackle-cyber-monday/

[yeoman6987]

28. That sounds great!!

[Kingofalldems]

29. So your OP was absolutely false.

[greatlaurel]

30. This OP needs to be revised/edited to show the truth about this topic.

Bashing people asking for decent working conditions is not appropriate.

[Agschmid]

31. Yup.