this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 361 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hey guys, listen up. The scraps Amazon is giving me are insufficient to make ends meet. UNIONS ARE THE PROBLEM!

[–] GraniteM 158 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Jesus, when you put it like that, even if Darla isn't a robot or a paid astroturfer, she's still making the case for unions.

[–] xantoxis 49 points 11 months ago

Yeah the argument itself is so transparently dumb that no legitimate person would hold it; and I think the dunk tweet is pointing out that in addition to having no good argument, Amazon thinks we're too stupid to notice the astroturf.

[–] [email protected] 199 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Amazon pays me SO LITTLE I can BARELY Squeak by! And that's why UNIONS are bad!

[–] EdibleFriend 187 points 11 months ago (7 children)

Jesus fuck how can they be this pathetically transparent?

[–] [email protected] 156 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Amazon probably outsourcing to a PR that specializes in union busting.

  1. But the PR firm that has little technical expertise - they just know they need bots to do some astroturfing.

  2. So the PR firm outsources to an IT consulting firm.

  3. But the IT consulting firm only bids on contracts, they don't do the actual work, so they find a subcontractor.

  4. The subcontractor may hire subcontractors. Continue this step for however many iterations the value of the contract will allow.

  5. Eventually the subcontractor hires a gig worker or an underpaid staffer to do the minimal amount of work possible.

  6. The gig worker avoids as much effort as possible, because they're paid by volume rather than time.

At this point the requirements may or may not be fulfilled, but the admins of each org are satisfied, so they move on to the next contract without verifying the work.

Edit: I wrote this facetiously, but u/SpaceNoodle found a news article suggesting at least some of these accounts are legit, as backed up by a Belling Cat investigation.

[–] SpaceNoodle 49 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

No, they rolled their own in-house program to get real brainwashed dolts to be "brand ambassadors."

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Not saying I don’t believe you at all, but would love to read about this if you have a source?

[–] SpaceNoodle 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-bizarre-brand-ambassadors-real-employees

Searching for "Amazon brand ambassadors" should help you find more articles.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think it's just speculations

[–] SpaceNoodle 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Interesting, I can't verify this though

[–] SpaceNoodle 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How do you expect to verify it? Are the quotes directly from Amazon PR in that article somehow insufficient?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's not what I 'm saying, I do believe you but it is not something I would tell someone else as a fact, knowing amazon it is very probable though

[–] SpaceNoodle 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But ... it's a fact. It's documented. Amazon literally said they did it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Alright, must have misread something, sorry

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

The article references a Belling Cat investigation where they find evidence suggesting it's legit: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2019/08/15/amazons-online-bezos-brigade-unleashed-on-twitter/

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

If Amazon wants better astroturfing from the gig workers, those gig workers doing the actual work need to get a much bigger chunk of the money. They should unionize!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Damn it seems even PR firms that specializes in union busting have been enshittified too? Is nothing sacred?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Sounds like they could use a union :p

[–] cm0002 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The Amazon employee hired to do this and is trying to fight for unions secretly: :(

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

They're even shafting their shills when it comes to paying a decent wage.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

There's no reason to try any harder than this. Most people who will see this tweet won't look at the handle or the replies - they're read the tweet, then move on. And if they see enough of these tweets, they may just internalize the notion that unions aren't worth it. It's better for Amazon to make more tweets than it is for them to make better tweets. And it's not like they're going to see any repercussions for trying to maliciously influence their employees.

[–] Mr_Blott 6 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Something similar happened when there were all of those news stories about abusive work environments at Amazon. Amazon employees spontaneously tweeting about how much they loved their jobs.

[–] samus12345 177 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 106 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] jettrscga 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

He really nailed the recovery.

[–] [email protected] 105 points 11 months ago (2 children)

My union dues are 1/52 of my yearly pay. I make $25.77 an hour in an entry level job with no education requirements. Minimum wage here is $16.55 an hour.

[–] [email protected] 91 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You could have made -34.5% more without an union

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago

Yeah you could have not bought like 5 xboxes instead

[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Well you may be making 50k before taxes, but you're paying like a thousand dollars a year in union dues! You could instead be making 33k with no union dues, and a smaller tax burden. Think of how much you could buy with that extra thousand dollars!

On a side note are you hiring, and how far are you from Wichita, Kansas? I don't mind a commute

[–] [email protected] 74 points 11 months ago

This year because I’m a union member I get 3 paid sick days and a personal day extra, which would pay for my dues for the year twice.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There is no war in Ba Sing Se

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

We are Ju-Di

[–] Ragdoll_X 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Even the PFP is so obviously generated by thispersondoesnotexist.com lol

[–] tourist 6 points 11 months ago

They all have that unnatural looking direct camera stare with a vague background.

A lot of them share that exact same smile. Not sure how to describe it

Also feels like the camera is the exact same distance from every face.

I'm sure if you zoom in to the original pfp, you'll find the classic image artifacts. Probably even the website watermark.

Using an actual unlicensed shutterstock image would feel more authentic at this point.

[–] Xanis 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Darla there reads like a coherent Trump.

Anyone wanna bet on it being a fake account meant to spread misleading information on unions, while appearing to be voicing legitimate concerns?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That is the whole point of this post.

[–] Xanis 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is it? Hahaha well, at least I'm on the same page. Can't catch them all. My bad.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Yeah no worries

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Unfortunately for "Darla", Amazon already pays her barely enough to scrape by. Before union dues. I'm fairly certain the union or the dues aren't the issues "Darla" should be voicing her concerns over.

[–] Son_of_dad 3 points 11 months ago

The cost of my union fees are vastly smaller than what I get out of my benefits yearly. My family's medication alone makes up for it, not to mention fully covered dental. Anyone who has kids needs a union