Lawsuit: Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks and refused to give them permission to sit or use a chair and later fired them after a pregnancy-related hospitalization
A Better Balance
Nationwide Class Action Against Amazon Claims Abusive Treatment of Pregnant Warehouse Workers - A Better Balance
Former pregnant Amazon warehouse workers seek justice and policy changes at the retail giant.
It’s so obvious that the point is the cruelty and control and demoralization, because it is ABSOLUTELY not the most efficient way to work.
Amazon leaves money on the table because it wants to be cruel. Every business does, essentially.
I firmly believe that after a certain amount of money there is no longer “joy” in having money and they all have to find something else to get their fix so to speak.
It just so happens that hurting people (or more accurately, having the power to make people hurt themselves and put themselves through humiliation to please you) is the only thing that they enjoy after they’ve won the money part of life.
Even small businesses do this, owner gets the car they’ve always wanted and then just decides to make everyone that works for them as miserable as possible, even if it costs them more money to do that, because the high from that is WAY better than the money they could otherwise make.
When you recognize how common it is that sociopaths work their way into power, precisely because they get pleasure from controlling and being cruel to others, a lot of how the world is starts to make sense.
to be a billionaire you have to be a little psychopathic, always involve screwing people over, other business partners, sewing them to get thier IP as your own. or if someone like soros taking advantage of situations.
I think this is hard for the majority of us to grasp because most of us will never get to that level of success. Capitalism has everyone so focused on getting the money that they can’t even imagine what it would feel like to actually get it.
I mean, the game monopoly taught a handful of generations just how awful people become when they run the game and someone ends up owning everything after controlling the bank and cheating the whole time. By the end of the game everyone else wants to toss the board game into the air or a fire and end it all.
they do find joy, its to hoard more money, they just dont want everyone else having a piece of the pie, thats why they can get politicians on the payroll all the time,.
That tracks, since it turned out that all the billionaires get off on raping children.
Yeah,they’ve so plenty of money they can use some to keep their employees scared.
When I saw this earlier I made this:
Yes Amazon, like most multi-billion dollar corporations, hates you. They hate their customers, they hate their workers, they hate government standing in their way, they hate the planet.
You may think the poster above is being hyperbolic. As someone who used to work there they are not. They hate you and everything they say and do reflects this.
Yep. I’m not saying there no good employees, but upper management and the overall direction of Amazon corporation is uncaring at best, openly hostile at worst.
they just spent 200bn on AI, so from the grapevine, of amazon employyes/WF, they are looking to downsizing more somewhere.
So many years without civil war between oligarchs and their slaves (normal human beings) is beyond me
Bread and circus
France literally gave us the ships and gold to revolt, still drags out the guillotine for a protest….we just won’t listen
Maybe we should start fighting the cops
Stop supporting this fucking company and burn down their warehouses.
Personally I just wish this had legal consequences for real people, because ultimately someone makes those decisions.
Avoiding a single company might be viable, but constantly keeping track of who (and their brands) should be avoided imo is not the solution, but a bandaid fix.
Yeah I can be hard to track all of them. Tracking Amazon isn’t though.
The large majority of amazon profit comes from AWS. AWS accounts for around 3.5% of the entire internet. It’s also at least a third of all cloud computing.
It might be nearly impossible to avoid giving amazon your dollar if you are online.
Maybe you can’t avoid AWS, but at least get rid of Amazon Prime.
While wishing in one hand, you can do something real, and never knowingly give them a cent in the other hand.
Funny you can buy a whole bunch of styrofoam from amazon, gasoline from your local gas station is ingredient #2 for making sure that warehouse stays burning for a while
I might need a demonstration before I can understand the instructions
Something like this
With all sincerity: We should use Eminent Domain to take majority control in stock in every publicly traded company.
Why settle for taxing these assholes when we could seize their assets and run the shit ourselves?
Any monopolistic company should be ran this way.
You wanna be the only one? Fine, but now US taxpayers own you. Congrats on winning capitalism!
I would even be ok with executives getting a severance package. Probably the only time it’d actually be deserved. Thanks for your service, we’ll take it from here.
How?
Edit: Wow. I should not have assumed that my single-word reply was specific enough. I’ll expand the question:
How do we “use Eminent Domain to take majority control in stock in every publicly traded company”?
🤔 though, it might be better to narrow the scope of the question a bit: How do we even do it for one publicly traded company? Probably better to start with one first. Baby steps while learning.
They literally just said so:
…I wonder if I may have become stupid, or if I just missed some context somewhere :/
Who? I thought I was replying to a top-level comment, and I don’t see anything that says how we’d use eminent domain in that comment, in the OP, or in the article linked in the OP. Is it somewhere else?
I don’t see the answer in this excerpt either, or in the Wikipedia page.
Given the tone of your response, I must have overlooked something glaringly obvious, but I’m just not seeing it 🤦🏻♂️
So, you take the land and all the equipment and/or resources on it. The company can maintain their name but it doesn’t matter if they lose all the assets. Like how Americans are losing their property to data centers, they maintain their name but lose everything of value.
Great! Sooo… How?
Maybe my question of “How?” is not specific specific enough?
For example, if you just walk into the building and tell everyone to leave because you want to take it, that approach would not work. They would call the police, who would then force you to leave.
Does this clarify my question?
Well, eminent domain is just something the government can do in the USA. You might not have that in your country and I totally understand you not getting how it works. That’s fine. Just understand it is a tool that has overwhelmingly been used to fuck over minorities and the poor. With your questioning, you sound like you are supporting it only being used that way.
Man, every reply seems to be answering a question that was not asked (not intentionally, anyway).
Understanding that I’m blursed with a neurodivergence that comes with communication challenges, I can usually narrow down the source of confusion in situations like this. However, I can’t seem to figure this one out.
At my age, I have enough wisdom to know that I should just give up by now… Yet still enough foolishness to keep going anyway. So here I go :/…
So, going back up to the top-level comment where this all started, they said “We should use Eminent Domain to take majority control in stock in every publicly traded company.” Also, you said “you take the land and all the equipment and/or resources on it.”
If it’s just something the government can do, how do “we”/“you” use eminent domain to do these things? Like, I don’t even know what the first few steps would be, so I’m literally asking how to do this.
I’m in the USA :/. Do most people know how to do this?
I feel like it’s extremely foolish to ask this again, but…
How???
I reviewed all of my previous replies, and can’t find a single thing that sounds like I support literally anything at all.
If anything… If my replies were written by someone else, and I tried to reach really far as a reader… I suppose asking how to take action could maybe imply support for – not against – “[using] Eminent Domain to take majority control in stock in every publicly traded company.” How did I manage to convey the opposite tone (or any tone at all) while not even understanding how to do the thing?
Multiple people have replied to me in this thread, so I’m clearly the common denominator. It would be valuable for me to understand how we got here. Can someone please help me untangle this? TBH, I’m interested in understanding these interactions more than eminent domain.
Oh, I see. You need elected officials willing to act in citizens favor, so no conservatives. Propose it at a meeting or petition its presence on a ballot. The process varies from county to county and city to city so that is why most leave it vague. The city or county then acts to take over the property, typically with aid of the sheriff. There, it is in the county or city records, it is a done deal. Appeals and such can be attempted and it varies from county to county, once again.
This reddit-originated post is being reposted every so often, and every time I remind people that firing pregnant women is a criminal offence in most European countries and no sane oppressor entrepreneur would do it.
It’s not legal in the U.S. either.
The issue is that the EEOC is essentially useless.
Amazon left Quebec after a warehouse unionized. Not legal either, Walmart got successfully sued over something similar in the past. They still did it.
On the plus side, Amazon left.
Good riddance. I love giving the middle finger to the empty warehouse with the shadow of an Amazon ensign when I drive past it.
I lived in the US for three years. This is the first time I heard that women get two weeks off for delivery and offices have milking rooms.
In the U.S. the only thing women are guaranteed nationwide are 12 weeks of unpaid leave and only if you work at a company with 50 or more employees.
Yeah. We built a new building and actually have a pregnant employee, so we’re all annoyed that we can’t use the breast-feeding room for storage anymore.
Nobody said any of that time off was paid.
Not a company issue, but a country issue. Shithole country = shithole societal norms
At the end of the day it’s just people managing people, right? Surprised that low level managers haven’t drawn a line. Really speaks to the lack of solidarity and the lack of job security.
Antihuman
And they wonder why the fertility rate is going down…
We workers are alone on the fight against these capitalist ghouls—no judge, politician, or any other 'leader' is gonna come to save us. And there's nothing we can do to win the fight. But there's one thing we can stop doing—giving them our labour. That's the only leverage we got. Striking, quitting, not applying for those jobs.. yes, I know many people aren't in a position where that's an option, I myself have worked delivering for Amazon (and it's not even in my top 5 worst jobs), but if you can't afford to quit a shitty job at an Amazon warehouse you can't afford to be having a baby, either.
Having a baby is not necessarily a choice in America in 2026.
I don’t use Amazon, and I never have
Everyone using them is complicit.
People are so willing to cast others aside for their own convenience and justify it by saying “other people are doing it too”
Sure, but also, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.
It’s functionally impossible to ethically buy all the things you need and want. Yes we should all try to do our best and not just give up, but the actual solution is with systemic changes in our laws and regulations and how we set up our society. Everyone should focus on that long-term goal, while making small changes to their behavior. But that simply isn’t feasible for everyone to do and that is the bigger issue.
You say true. I try my best but I’m at least 15% complicit. Hopefully that’ll change in the future. I’m from Canada and still pissed off that the federal government is still using Twitter to communicate.
Although i rarely buy online and try to boycott Amazon, the problem is that there are no better alternatives, especially here in Europe. I don’t know about the US but I try to buy from European stores but unfortunately there just isn’t a warehouse with the same catalogue as Amazon. And trying to usurp Amazon in Europe will taka a while.
I’m in Australia, and yet, I manage just fine
You’re making excuses. You know what you are doing.
How about we switch places and see if you could manage to browse online stores in different languages and see what you’re looking for.
It’s easy to be naive.
Wildberries?
The Russians are sanctioned!
You don’t say
He just did!
Funny hat you had last Halloween
Also, if you want to buy online there are plenty of other stores with better deals. I don’t understand why people would use Amazon beside for their client support.
And anyone who has a retirement holding index funds is also complicit?
I am lucky enough to live in a civilised country, rather than 'Murica
My retirement fund is an ethical one. They don’t invest in firearms, tobacco, oil or any of the other shitty things out there
What do they invest in?
Renewable energy seems to be a big one
Once they excluded the shit I didn’t want, I didn’t go any further into it
Anazon polices their warehouse force with ruthlessly designed computer programs. It doesn’t matter why you fell behind, they fire them by computer.
It’s not like the government is going to stop them.
How much does anyone want to bet that this was for going to the hospital to give birth?
Given how they were treated before, more likely a miscarriage or complications early on.
Hey Bezos, it’s a-me!
This is why I cancelled my Amazon and routinely avoid buying from them.
My phone broke and I got locked out of all my corporate accounts, from google to other emails, to those cash paying apps (that are refusing to give me another way to get my money, they are just planning on stealing it from me,) to my Amazon account.
I tried opening a new one and they wouldn’t let me. Good riddance. I wanted to ditch those parasites anyway. Now all I need is a smart phone running graphene or something, and open source on my computers.
Yep, I got my current Samsung about 3 years ago before I really understood what was happening and what I wanted.
I plan to phase out a lot of apps and relying on this stuff in my next phone. I want to set up a NAS and self host for my backups and photos.
I had a £5 Amazon voucher from my last job and I haven’t used Amazon for long enough now that looking at their site… There isn’t really anything I want.
Also £5 just covers the delivery fee, so wtf is even the point?
I’d honestly just give it to someone else or sell it for cost, someone might buy it
In the end I did after not using it for like 6 months.
Absolutely brutal.
Bezos should have write a billion dollar check to every plaintiff.
I know this is an over simplification, but wouldn’t being unemployed be better than working for Amazon? They’re so over-the-top cruel to their employees, between piss bottles, tornado deaths, and now this?
I heard a while back there was a leaked internal memo Amazon was worried they might run out of workers since turnover is so high.
I guess some people dont mind/can tolerate those brutal conditions, so why would Amazon care to improve things?
Generally speaking, being able to afford food and shelter from the elements is much preferable than living under a bridge and starving. The former is much better for your baby as well.
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Assuming zero public assistance or friends or family or charity is available? Completely on your own? Of course some people are in that spot but I have a hard time believing the average person has nobody in their life they could ask for some kind of help.
Is the solution is to just accept your working conditions? I also have a hard time seeing that as the solution.
There’s some public assistance available, but for some things (like housing, sadly), they’re not always immediately available, and there can be long waiting lists.
“Average person” might depend on age group. You’re probably right about the average 20-something, but as we age, family members die and friends move away or start families of their own. (Though, in this context, you’re probably right because it’s about people who are pregnant. The average pregnant person probably has at least one person they could ask for help.)
Very true, especially if it’s cold. Idk. It just upsets me thinking about what people have to endure i guess. It also sucks that their sacrifice for enduring is for the benefit of Besos.
Yeahhh… That’s just kinda how it is for a lot of people, unfortunately. In survival mode, you don’t really have the luxury of quitting a job just because you hate it. I mean, maybe if you’re just a single guy with a car or tent to sleep in, just in case… But if you have a family to support (or will soon), you just have to tough it out until you can secure another job (or until you get fired in a way that qualifies for unemployment benefits while searching for a new job).
Having been raised in poverty, I can’t remember a single time my parents liked their jobs.
Have you ever tried applying for public assistance? Do you think that a government which is already failing to enforce the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is doing much to ensure that welfare is accessible to anyone?
My family let me stay with them about two weeks after my ex husband illegally kicked me out. I slept on a friends floor for about a year after. I was lucky to have that level of help. Many do not.
The way I got out of that situation was working (and continuing to work) 60-80 hours a week.
I have, it took a few weeks, I know it’s not instant… better than just giving up and not even trying tho, no? Even if it’s only a couple hundred a month.
I know some people do not have anywhere or anyone to turn to, I tried to mention that in my original post… maybe most people are that alone.
When I needed that kind of help, it was pretty much inaccessible without navigating a complicated maze of forms and paperwork and unsympathetic bureaucratic officials, which are something I just can’t do when stressed, and I’m a fairly literate person.
Maybe this is a state by state thing, but accessing welfare as a single able bodied adult where I live seems pretty unimaginable.
And a lot of them require an address or p.o. box which not everyone has. And deadlines if you miss by a day you just get denied. A lot of government assistance in the U.S. is terrible and complex and time consuming. I just assume charities are pretty varied state to state so I didn’t want to bring those up, where every state has SOME kind of program.
I actually used to work for my states unemployment office for a few years. The help I could actually give over the phone was minimal at best, another department did reviews and made decisions, I could really only give updates which 9 times out of 10 was “its still pending”. To the people asking what they should do while they wait I would say “Family, friends, churches, charities”. At least its better than saying “there is nothing you can do.”
I just have such a hard time accepting that “we just have to accept whatever conditions and whatever pay our empyers offer cuz we’re lucky they even offer us that.” Or getting upset a pregnant lady wants to take time off work cuz now she isn’t bringing money into the family.
This comments reeks of never had to struggle in life lol. I’m going to choose to believe you’re just young and fortunate. If you quit your job you don’t get unemployment usually. This is America, public assistance is sparse to be generous, and to qualify for it you have to be actively looking for a job, including those Amazon Warehouse positions. Despite what the American right would have you believe, you can’t just choose not to work and then live fat dumb and happy on the taxpayers dime.
And no, the average person previously working at an Amazon warehouse doesn’t have a huge support system. If they did, they probably wouldn’t have been working at an Amazon warehouse while that pregnant to begin with. And to burden what support network you do have with voluntary unemployment is… kinda nuts.
I have been fortunate in life, sorry if that “reeks” to you. I guess it just sounds like everyone has been “defeated by the system” or whatever, and we all just have to accept what little we have and consider ourselves lucky to even have that and you’re on your own, that’s just how it is, etc etc.