http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...ml#commentsDiv
The unions need to get involved at Amazon & companies like it, they need to approach these workers rather than wait to be approached as a lot of these workers may not be that clued up on unions, they need to get in there & have a big presence - make it clear to these selfish employers that crap wages & miserable working conditions will not be tolerated; unions need to ditch politically correct projects & get down to the nitty gritty of holding unscrupulous employers to account, & be more involved with 'new' areas of work as opposed to the traditional trades.

Amazon isn't forcing anyone to live in a tent..... The employees choose to

Amazon don't pay them enough.

So 1,500 full time workers. 4,000 seasonal jobs for Christmas. That's 5,500 workers.

But just 3 tents "spotted" in woods.

At least one of which was abandoned and full of "cans of cider".

5,500 workers and only ONE appears to be actually camping out, simply because it's cheaper and easier than commuting from their home 20+ miles away, which has **** all to do with Amazon.

Min wage for a easy a job..... I work for Amazon it's 50 hours a week over christmas but the job is hardly rocket science....

Yeah, read that the other day. The article initially cited low wages as the issue but temporary and permanent staff get £7.35 an hr and £11 an hr overtime rate. That seems fair to me - I know many care workers who would love to be on £7.35 an hr let alone have an overtime rate.

They quoted an employee who was staying in a tent. He said it was to save on the commute. It's unfortunate that he had a lengthy commute but hardly Amazons fault.

No real evidence those tents belong to amazon workers and even if they do, what has that got to do with the company.

Id rather criticise them for not paying tax properly than for employing large numbers of people. I think that there shouldnt be timed toilet breaks, that is bad for the body but the rest of it is just the nature of warehouse work.

No, they won't pay this ONE person enough who has chosen to accept a job 35-ish miles away where they find it hard to commute too.

All 5,499 other employees seem to get by alright

Probably only with their wages being topped up by benefits. I certainly could not afford to live on £7.35ph (although admittedly I live in an expensive area of the country).

Firstly this is not an expensive area of the country and secondly if you work 50/60 hours per week as many temp workers for Amazon do over xmas, its around 2100 before tax and NI, not a bad wage. Most of these will be students, youngsters still living at home or people that need a short term boost of work and can stay somewhere nearby. The longer term workers may or may not claim benefits on top but that goes for many other minimum wage workers.

They do for what they are doing, picking in a warehouse.

Many people who work away from home often choose to accommodate themselves as cheaply as possible. I've worked with blokes on long-term contracts who chose to buy and live in a clapped out caravan on site for the duration rather than find better, more expensive accommodation. They were getting decent enough money too.

I also know blokes who managed to find really cheap rent living in a disused police station believe it or not, kitting the cells and offices out with camp beds and cheap furniture. The landlord who owned the building let them stay there for virtually nothing, as they formed free security for his property whilst there.

So basically this is a non-story but for the fact that there's a well known company name involved; is that right?


Next!

No, I'm pretty sure it was Amazon

But this is Amazon, every opportunity must be taken to knock them despite how flimsy, how fictional the story, if it's industry standard or perhaps even better than how everyone else does it. Not entirely sure why.

But people seem to have this mental image that Amazon workers should be controlling a fleet of semi-AI robots who do the actual work rather than relying on run of the mill warehouse staff, which is pretty much the bottom rung of jobs and so pays accordingly.

Amazon recruit from all over and bus staff to Dunfermline. The bus costs £10 a day. If some have decided to live in tents for the few weeks they are employed that is up to them. Amazon won't have told them to do it.

Anyway, it's all supposition. No evidence that these tents in the woods have anything to do with Amazon workers.

Whatever the merits of this particular story, what we have in the UK is a "Donald Trump" situation brewing.

We have already seen the consequences of this with the Leave win for Brexit.

The UK version would no doubt be a hard socialist agenda, not something Amazon would be that keen on.

I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that.

Exactly. Baaaad Amazon. Who the hell do they think they are paying their staff more than the minimum wage and paying them better for overtime too? It's outrageous!!

The thing is, when the warehouse is fully automated, then there'll be no jobs for permanent staff or temporary staff, so... er... that's the problem solved then.

To be fair, any care workers over 25 will be on £7.20 an hour so it is hardly a big leap.

It's not just Amazon, there's loads of companies out there treating their staff like crap & paying rubbish wages, they wouldn't be able to get way with it if everywhere became 'unionised'; my best friend works for New Look & they are awful, they are pissed off that my friend joined a union (she's the only one there that is a union member) - they don't want their staff being 'clued up' on their rights as it makes them more difficult to manipulate & exploit; my fiance works for EDF - they're not brilliant but are miles better than New Look, most of my fiance's colleagues are union members & as such EDF know that they can't take the mickey out of them, thanks to the union my fiance earns about £7k pa more than what the company would pay him if they could.

A new generation of people are slowly turning towards some kind of socialism and don't even know it.

Jeremy Corbyn is probably a problem for them, but when it comes down to it he's the only game in town so suck it up millennials.

What's that you say? Never happen in the UK? You only think that because you are old and comfortably off in your retirement.