First time I've taken a day off in a while.
Before COVID, I was only working like 12 hours a week.
Lately I've been working double that.
But that's not the only reason I'm taking the day off.
I'm also taking it off because Amazon is reinstituting the attendance policy tomorrow.
So I'm taking the day off in protest.
Everyone is being instructed that COVID-19 is very dangerous and deadly. I've seen the fear run rampant first hand. Weeks ago someone was afraid at work to eat an Asian snack that I offered them. Just today my roommate was on the verge of tears because her parents were talking about going through with their planned vacation in July.
I'm not afraid, so it's hard to relate, but the logic of this situation does not make Amazon look good. The vast majority of citizens (especially the left, and I live in California, which is notoriously left) believe that COVID is extremely dangerous and deadly. The authorities say as much.
In any case, if everyone, including Amazon, agrees that COVID is dangerous and deadly and a serious threat, then why are they suddenly forcing employees to come back to work by enforcing the attendance policy? If your points go into the negative, you're fired and I believe you have to wait something like 6 months or 2 years or something before you can apply for a job there again. That's a lot of needless psychological pressure being placed on people.
And then I found this:
Ah well, I didn't find it. My girlfriend has been showing me a lot of things lately because she doesn't like my conspiracy theory attitude on these matters. In any case, it just so happens that on the same day Amazon reinstitutes the attendance policy a strike is being organized. It becomes clear to me that this is an anti-strike tactic. Force people to come to work because more people are going to stop working from the strike; makes sense.
Workers at Amazon, Whole Foods, Instacart, Walmart, FedEx, Target, and Shipt say they will walk off the job on May 1 to protest their employers’ failure to provide basic protections for frontline workers who are risking and losing their lives at work. Meanwhile, these same companies are making record profits.
Here at SMF5 we are required to wear a face-mask. We have infrared scanners at the front door to check for fever. There is sanitizer everywhere, and I saw them just recently set up these crazy stand-alone hand-washing stations all over the facility. They were even tethering chairs to desks with what looked like a bike-lock cable at one point; I was happy when they removed them.
The latter would track with what I've heard about warehouses in other states.
“We formed an alliance between a bunch of different companies because we all have one common goal which is to save the lives of workers and communities. Right now isn’t the time to open up the economy. Amazon is a breeding ground [for this virus] which is spreading right now through multiple facilities.”
I haven't seen a single sick person. I haven't heard of anyone saying they were sick or hearing that someone else is sick. No one even so much as coughs or sneezes. Perhaps this is just my experience.
The shelter in place here is currently set to May 17.
Our medical facilities are doing just fine and we don't have a lot of active cases.
https://www.solanocounty.com/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=32050
The so-called “May Day General Strike” is the culmination of a series of strikes led by workers at companies like Whole Foods, Amazon and Instacart since the pandemic began. The organizers at the forefront of the recent labor unrest form the face of the country’s resurgent labor movement: non-union, underemployed, and precarious workers who have taken things into their own hands to demand changes and organize their co-workers in the absence of a union—primarily over
social media and encrypted messaging apps like Signal and Telegram.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/earn-it-act-violates-constitution
I've been wondering why the government has been targetting end-to-end encryption in the middle of a pandemic. I was thinking along the lines of those stories about people in Egypt being pinned down by snipers and identifying locations with social media and encrypted messaging and the like. You know, truly messed up stuff that doesn't really happen in this country, yet.
However, things like this make a lot more sense. Read everyone's messages and anyone planning or participating in these activities is immediately fired and whatnot and the companies can rehire other employees at a faster rate armed with better knowledge of what they require. I'm sure it won't stop there, but this is a good starting place to capitalize on privacy invasion.
Don’t buy from these companies on May 1.
Don’t empower them with your dollars.
That’s what we need for an effective general strike.
I wasn't going to buy anything tomorrow anyway, because you know...
I never buy anything except crypto.
I'll take the day off tomorrow as well.
I'll take sick time and get paid.
Maybe I'll take the next day off as well.
This is probably the most time off I've ever had available.
70 hours? 10 of them paid? Noice!
I could literally take 17 shifts off in a row and not get fired.
That's almost a full month.
I still plan on capitalizing on this time to get as much crypto as possible while it's still dirt cheap.
So my girlfriend also showed me this because I mentioned Sweden to her the other day:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/sweden-coronavirus-response-death-social-distancing.html
Sweden’s per capita death rate is now among the highest in the world, above the United States and nearly six times as high as some of our Scandinavian neighbors. Total deaths from COVID-19 in Sweden are nearing 2,500, more than all but four American states’.
So the numbers here are a bit weird, but it looks like over 10% of people testing positive for COVID are dying in Sweden, which is more than double other places that are in lockdown.
@krnel?Striking is a tactic that doesn't usually work.
Companies are just too big to fail these days.
However, with so much shit hitting the fan maybe we should give it a whirl.
Don't buy anything tomorrow.
Or are you supposed to buy something so they become short-staffed and overwhelmed?
On May 1, a day historically celebrated globally by the left as International Workers' Day or May Day, small business owners and right-wing groups will stage “Reopen America” rallies in cities around the country, including Washington DC and Chicago.
Most of them are white and didn't even lose their job!
They can all die of COVID for all I care!
All I could think about in response to this was wow, they sure are good at turning us against each other.
So this really is a partisan issue, after all.
I bit my tongue on the reply.
I wanted to say something like:
Couldn't you use that same logic on yourself for marching in a #blacklivesmatter rally?
You're white and you won't get shot by the cops.
You don't belong there.
Of course I've learned the hard way that this would have absolutely enraged her, because when I'm right about something political like that or about a conspiracy theory, the closer I get to proving my point the more she shuts down and lashes out in anger. Fun times.
Can't wait for the next time she reads my blog.
Last time was a fucking disaster.
I got programming to do;
I almost forgot!
Yesterday I made $100 in blogging rewards.
This is a huge milestone for me and is more money than I make at work.
Even a 5 hour shift (max) and +$2 hazard pay ($18/h) is only $90.
If Hive gains more value and stabilizes I could quit my job altogether.
#lifegoals
