When people are employed like cattle

Apr 13, 2026 6:56 PM

cytherians

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38994

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1276

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14

https://www.thewesternedge.media/p/everyone-is-replaceable-death-rattles

EDIT: *** THANK YOU, for the Accolades! ***

Another day of living with only the bad parts of a cyberpunk dystopia

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Oh again. The issue here is when I try to remember this story, I have to try remembering it by year and month because it is normal at Amazon by this point.

5 months ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

AGAIN?!

5 months ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

The source for this news article is sketch as fuck. It's literally two anonymous employees. It could be 100% fiction. Amazon is bad but you need to check your news sources even when you agree with the conclusions.

5 months ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 2

Our local Amazon warehouse made the news because it was not air conditioned and would hit 120F in the summer.
People would pass out or have a serious heat related medical issue all the time.
So instead of fixing the dangerous work environment by just installing AC, they decided to hire a private ambulance company to have units sitting in the parking lot because it was cheaper to just take them to the hospital.
Eventually the local news reported it several times and they finally got AC.
Evil.

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Time to start burning down Amazon warehouses...

5 months ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Nah, that just screws over people who aren't involved. Burn down the CEO's house, the manager's house, get the people who are actually to blame for this shit. Burning down the warehouse puts employees out of work, and makes it harder for people to get the items they need and might not be able to get elsewhere because brick and mortar stores are dying.

4 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Reading through the article it gets even worse - when they finally *did* send everyone home before the end of the normal shift-end time, they told everyone they'd be paid for the full day...and then a week later when they checked their hours, they'd been *shorted the promised pay*.

Oh, and "unpaid leave" was offered for any workers who would have difficulty working the next day.

5 months ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 0

My ex worked in a warehouse for a bit before i met her. She told me how a worker was on the forks of a fork lift up high, guess it was common practice there. Fell to his death, they Just closed the aisle and have everyone keep working while his blood just oozed from his corpse

5 months ago | Likes 16 Dislikes 0

Fuck corporate America!
They need a healthy drink of Molotov Cocktail

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I'm sorry but how did we get to the point of needing to negotiate for stopping work for a fucking dead coworker

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

A better question is how did we get BACK to the point of needing to do that. Our ancestors already fought this war. Why the hell do we keep going backwards?

4 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I watched a guy OD on something mid warehouse pushing a picking cart in circles..no one would help him and they wouldn't let anyone. He did not live. Thanks Macy's.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

5 months ago | Likes 376 Dislikes 2

5 months ago | Likes 37 Dislikes 0

If this isn't already illegal, it 100% needs to be.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

The milgram experiment at scale.

5 months ago | Likes 90 Dislikes 0

Can you give us a tldr of what that means ?

5 months ago | Likes 18 Dislikes 1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

tl;dr - "Please do [objectively bad thing] for me. I understand you might feel uncomfortable, but you can rest assured that I - a person in a position of authority - have given you permission to do [bad thing] so it's okay for you to do it. If anything, I'd be upset with you for NOT doing it." works far better than anyone really wants to admit.

5 months ago | Likes 32 Dislikes 0

Check your wifi, 8:20 mins😉~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9U1OUk-m5o

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I think America is a living Milgram experiment -
Stanley Milgram did concoct this experiment there in the 60’s

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Means most people show a surprising amount of deference to authority figures, to the point where they blindly follow orders even when the orders are at odds with their own conscience. In essence somebody else telling them to do the awful thing absolves them from having to feel bad for doing the awful thing

5 months ago | Likes 45 Dislikes 0

thanks for the info though !

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

That's such a wild concept to me , I've always felt an inmate urge to rebel and fight back against authority figures since they are largely incorrect and incompetent.

5 months ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

There's a little more to it. The person giving the orders was a "scientist" and the person being shocked was a "willing participant" so on some level it made sense to assume the scientist knew what they were doing. But I agree, I've always had a problem with authority and that problem ratchets up quite a bit once the "authority" starts abusing power.

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Don't forget the part about electrically shocking subjects while deferring to their superiors. Thereby shirking any personal responsibility for the pain exerted upon subjects. "Just following orders."

5 months ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Amazon really does see it's workers as expendable meatbags. Instruct people to go on with work leaving the corpse on the floor. wow. The level of inhumane disrespectfullness exceeds any fathomable scale..

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I'm gonna show this to the next asshole asking me why don't I work in one of these.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Couldn’t yank my app fast enough learning how they’ll lure you into the warehouse with a job then in comes a lackey for an outside firm announcing “surprise! You’ll actually work for us not Amazon!” And folks wonder why a warehouse in Ontario went up in flames

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Gee, that sounds like how factories operated before unions. Wonder what we can do about that?

5 months ago | Likes 32 Dislikes 0

Fill these warehouses with robots that can't complain, strike, and/or sue, form unions, etc.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

"Just turn around and not look. Let's get back to work" v

5 months ago | Likes 38 Dislikes 0

Actually a lot of disrespect intended

5 months ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

And...

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Is that Billy Connelly?

5 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Yeah, it's from the film The Last Samurai, Connelly had a supporting role as an old soldier who used to fight in the same unit as Tom Cruise's main character.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Hmm... I'll have to look for that at the library. Thanks!

5 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

5 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

That warehouse sounds very flammable.

5 months ago | Likes 753 Dislikes 2

Someone should

5 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

The problem is that Amazon invests heavily in fire suppression systems.

5 months ago | Likes 52 Dislikes 0

The solution is to wait until the fire dept shuts them off

5 months ago | Likes 17 Dislikes 0

Small fire to trip the system, and a second to actually burn it. Pretty sure that's what happened with that warehouse last week

5 months ago | Likes 54 Dislikes 0

That warehouse was also specifically filled with one of the most flammable products we make as a species.

5 months ago | Likes 21 Dislikes 1

rocket fuel ?

5 months ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 3

If you wanna get technical, liquid rocket fuels are frequently combustible (flash point over 38C), rather than flammable (flash point below 38C). Especially heavier grades of kerosene.

5 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 1

Paper

5 months ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 2

If ur looking at going down anyways there is always a way to shut off fire suppression. Valves, matabo, drilling holes etc. If u wanna get the thing done, u can absolutely get it done, but no telling how long ur prison stay will be

5 months ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

I do NOT recommend drilling holes into high pressure pipes. Find a safety shut off valve first, then drill away.

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

At least they feed you in prison.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

When you have nothing left to lose, you lose nothing.

5 months ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

Facts

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Actually to comment about this again (sorry to bother), but i been thinking about this a lot the last few years bc to me it just seems logical, but clearly lost on the rich douchebags and political elites etc. They keep pushing and pushing and pushing the avg americans more and more into a corner expecting they can endlessly oppress and extract. Or the type of ppl that say "ill make sure you never work around here again/ill ruin your entire family's life" etc and its like wow u really didnt >

5 months ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

Think all of this shit through. You take everything from someone, every last bit you can then they become infinitely more dangerous bc you gave them no reason to continue pushing on, continuing to figure out a path to not be lowly. What a threatening thing to basically disenfranchise someone so much that now they have every reason to return the favor

5 months ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

They also stock a lot of lithium ion batteries, which are notoriously hard to extinguish...

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Its flammability is directly proportionate to how punchable Jeff Bezo's face is.

5 months ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

The foreman and manager are DEFINITELY flammable. Don’t burn stuff, burn the fuckers in charge.

5 months ago | Likes 16 Dislikes 17

let us know when you do that

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

People are never the enemy.

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 5

Jeff Bezos is a person. Elon is too. I’m not totally convinced they’re people from this planet, but they’re people and also the enemy…. Guess who else is both…. The guy who said to just get back to work. That’s enforcement.

5 months ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Yeah, fair point. My view is that we need to attack the systems and institutions that create those kind of people. Treat the disease, not the symptoms.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Don’t murder middle management

5 months ago | Likes 16 Dislikes 6

The guy who said “just don’t look at the dead body, get back to work”

5 months ago | Likes 18 Dislikes 0

The manager who told people keep working should be named and shamed.

5 months ago | Likes 55 Dislikes 1

and have his address posted

5 months ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 2

Stuffed in an Amazon box and shipped to Antartica.

5 months ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

*fired

5 months ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 0

porsecuted*

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

into the sun

5 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

He's just as replaceable in the Amazon machine. Everyone up to and including the site leader in charge of the place has to hit numbers or be fired. The problem isn't the people, it's the machine and the laws and government that allow it to exist.

5 months ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

So "just following orders"

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Somewhat. Most people in the building are living paycheck to paycheck. Losing this job might mean losing their kids, their homes, their health insurance. We've built a society so precarious that not following orders has serious consequences and we're shocked when people fall in line like good little cogs in the orphan crushing machine. The people running the machine want you to blame *him*, that area manager, for doing the bad thing rather than *them*. They'll just fire him and replace him.

4 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The machine only exists in the abstract. It stops existing if people stop believing it exists.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

But their packages will never arrive within the stated delivery window /s

5 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

And that person and company sued by everyone for creating trauma and suffering

5 months ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

The guy who burned the Kimberly-Clark warehouse down to the ground killed no one but Amazon is likely not even going to be investigated for someone dying on the job.

5 months ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

Burn it down

5 months ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 1

If that happened here the Union would have a fucking field day tearing the company a new arsehole.

5 months ago | Likes 420 Dislikes 4

My old union fought pretty hard to protect morons who ended up being fired after everything was exhausted to protect them... but yeah, a decent union would not go lightly on them for something as bad as someone fucking dying.

5 months ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 1

Unfortunately unions do stand up for shitty workers all too often. Sure, back them through the process, but if the employer has decent evidence, cut the bad worker and focus on the rest of the workers.

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

it's surreal watching my comments pointing out that unions make every worker better off get downvoted in the face of posts like OP's, too

5 months ago | Likes 85 Dislikes 5

Bots bots and more bots

5 months ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Yea, I don't get it. My go to with anti union folks is to say if unions are so bad why don't we start by getting rid of police unions and see how much that improves law enforcement. They don't want to discuss the subject with me after that.

5 months ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

Because the propaganda bots are working as intended.

5 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Unions and the labor laws they helped form also make life better for the executives, in that unions and labor laws provide avenues for discussion of problems. Compared to just lynching the CEO after taking out their pinkerton goons.

5 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I know someone who hates unions. They cost money to be in, according to him, and don't do enough, according to him, and wanted him to join a strike but he needs money to feed his family, so he bailed. I can see him downvoting due to his experiences.

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 2

The dues are generally far, far lower than the salary boost from being in a union.

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Yeah, I agree. It's what I told him as well. Unions have shown their value over and over. I can't force to change his mind though, all it took was a few bad experiences for him to now be against unions.

Hey, I didn't say he was a smart man.

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

There are ugly downvoter accounts out there that stalk a lot of users, regularly downvoting anything posted that meets a certain narrative. I just shrug it off. They're losers and not worth our time!

5 months ago | Likes 29 Dislikes 0

really depends on the union. I know just as many people who got fucked by unions as those who benefit.

i dont think unions are a universal improvement.

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 16

Then give up all the improvements to working conditions that unions have won over the past 100+ years

5 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Yeah, I know those guys too. Usually they hum and haw when you ask HOW they "got fucked" right up until they admit to dropping hard Rs on the new black guy or honking a female supervisors tits in the break room. Fuck off, scab

5 months ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Unions are a universal wage improvement tool

5 months ago | Likes 16 Dislikes 0

say that to my friend who got .15 cent raises and was making $5/hr below market non-union.

5 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

No you don't, fucking lying scab.

5 months ago | Likes 16 Dislikes 2

yep, such useful information. ever see someone get fired for saving someone else from bodily harm or death? had a friend who stepped into the back of a truck to stop a box from falling on someone, they got fired for it because he wasn't allowed to be in the truck by job role.

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 2

Sure you do. Sure.

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Yeah that's why they don't want unions.

5 months ago | Likes 16 Dislikes 1

And that's why they're now turning to AI. Meaning they're outsourcing jobs to the Phillipines (Amazon, Waymo, Tesla, etc.) and calling it "AI". At least there they don't have to pay an American living wage, worker protections, or deal with possible unions...

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Eh, not just "now". Amazon has been huge on automation. Amazon warehouses have some crazy levels of automation in their process, like bots carrying entire shelves.

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Amazon picks warehouses locations very carefully to avoid all that "organized labor" trouble.

5 months ago | Likes 201 Dislikes 1

For YEARS even mentioning a union in a Walmart would get you escorted out.
They also learned it was cheaper to pay the fine than to offer healthcare and lobbied HARD against the ACA.
This isn't new. And, honestly, it should have been dealt with swiftly a long time ago.

5 months ago | Likes 20 Dislikes 0

Like it was in literally every other developed nation in the world?

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

Oh. I agree 100%.

But corporations own our government. And until that is addressed, it'll never change.

5 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

I'm so angry it's "illegal" to create a union in NC. like, how did something as insane as that become law???

5 months ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 2

Reagan and evangelicals.

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Because people lie.

5 months ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 0

you would be correct. just double checked, and yeah, the guy that told me that was lying. soz for the misinfo

5 months ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

How is it illegal?

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

okay, it seems I was informed incorrectly. the person that told me this must've mistake the NC General Statute § 95-98 that prohibits collective bargaining for state/city/county employees as a general "cannot create a union" TIL: don't trust what other ppl tell ya, folks, google things yerself! T_T

5 months ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

(hmm, I guess it'd be more of a "PSA" not a "TIL" for this...

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Unions are legal in North Carolina but nearly powerless.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Hmmm…that’s illegal too under the first amendment.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Factory near me was reduced to bussing people in from fifty miles away because they'd burnt through every possible employee in the county for being so terrible to work for. Union vote still failed. That's how brainwashed people are about unions.

5 months ago | Likes 88 Dislikes 1

Factory i work for used to be one of the highest paying locations around, pre-covid. So they had people trying to work here by the droves, driving in on the daily from up to 3 hours away. We were on two 8 hour shifts for the factory, six days a week, with an overnight cleaning crew. That became two 10 hours. And then it became two 12 hours, running 24/7. People starting filtering out since they couldn't keep up, but applicants were still streaming in. Then covid happened. Other places started-

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

-paying fairer wages. Suddenly it wasnt worth a 3 hour drive, one way, to work for a place that would pay only slightly more than the place you'd be able to work at locally. So work took a nosedive as nobody was lining up to work here anymore, and people still kept filtering put at alarming rates due to retirement or just not being able to keep up with the insane amount of hours.

All that, all the mandatory overtime we constantly have, and the lack of benefits, and folk still avoid unions here

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

“Mandatory overtime” makes absolutely no sense to me, on a social level. How is it not just called “forced labor”? Sure you are compensated for the labor, but you were threatened with job loss for not going way above and beyond.
I don’t get why for companies they are allowed to do such things. Wouldn’t capitalism say that if they can’t find the workers to be open then they don’t open?
It’s not right, but I get it with life saving / sustaining jobs.

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Amazon would just close the entire warehouse

5 months ago | Likes 37 Dislikes 2

I hear that we can close them for them, all it takes is a little fire.

5 months ago | Likes 25 Dislikes 0

All they had to do...

5 months ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

Yep. It is absolutely nuts. Literally had someone complaining to me that their new employer is better because they get more hours and no union to pay into. They get paid less and work split shifts every day, but at least they take home almost as much money.

5 months ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

“And none of those stinking benefits, eating up my money either”

5 months ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

This is why conservatives hate unions and union protections

5 months ago | Likes 34 Dislikes 0

Union?

5 months ago | Likes 18 Dislikes 3

Union

5 months ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

Workers enter an arrangement to collectively bargain with a company, State, etc.

5 months ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 0

Strong girl. Union?

5 months ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 1

Sounds like a lawsuit for mental abuse to me. A very expensive lawsuit for Bezos.

5 months ago | Likes 42 Dislikes 0

"ummm yeahhhh so you signed away your rights when you signed the contract, so you can't sue, and I get to take your entire paycheck as pocket money" - bezos and amazon.

5 months ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 1

"When you signed up for your employee Amazon Prime account (and not thoroughly reading the end user license agreement) you accepted binding arbitration."

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Yeah, that case that you are slightly referring to was the most bizarre attempt by a corporation to dodge responsibility.

5 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

"But sir you don't pay us at all"

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

"oh that came out of your insurances and benefits. btw we'll need you to do overtime to pay that back"

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I get your point, but I'm certain this would fall outside the scope of what would be expected under the contract.

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

and even if that was the case, this would be the outcome: "the plaintiff has presented years of documented evidence, witnesses from doctors to inspectors, and a solid undeniable case. However, the defendant has given me 10 million dollars. case for the defendant"

5 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I remember when something like this happened at the Amazon I used to work at. Dude had a heart attack and dropped dead at his station. Took by at least an hour for management to even notice and when they did they tried pretty hard to hide what happened as the had the body removed

5 months ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

I’ve been boycotting them for YEARS. Amazon is just like trump…they can do whatever evil shit they want to, and ppl will still support them.

I know my little boycott has absolutely fuck-all to do with their bottom line but my conscience is clear.

5 months ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

I swear every day there is at least one headline that makes me wish I could turn my anger into some form of pure energy that could instantly change the very fabric and landscape of this cruel and confounding place.

5 months ago | Likes 23 Dislikes 0

I like to fantasize that I'm as powerful and pissed off as a Viltrumite from Invincible.

5 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

That's alluring, but I'm already so angry that I'd rather not think about visceral violence. I'd be more happy with Doctor Manhattan level of post-human omnipotence, just turning things into dust.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I'd just be happy with the ability to find them and throw garbage and rotten food. I'm really thinking we need to bring back the stocks for people like this. With provided garbage for throwing, and designated hours for the homeless to line up and pee on them.

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

If I needed to help a coworker, and anyone told me not to, they’d wake up to find out I helped my coworker. Stop letting these mother fuckers steal your humanity.

5 months ago | Likes 270 Dislikes 3

That person would wake up in the hospital, and I'd have already helped the coworker

5 months ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 1

Yep never give in.

5 months ago | Likes 20 Dislikes 0

EXACTLY

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

all of those workers should file a lawsuit for mental distress forced on them by the manager forcing them to pretend everything was normal as a corpse lied on their work floor intentionally ignored as a reminder of what will happen to everyone there if the same thing happens to them.

5 months ago | Likes 122 Dislikes 0

A class action lawsuit? You mean employees organizing? Sounds like they may as well form a union at that point. Agreed, but lets not pretend they wouldn't all be instantly fired.

5 months ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 1

That’s not what class action means

5 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_action
How's that? Seems to fit well.

5 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Because a class certification requires that the people within the class are too numerous to identify and list individually. Since all the injured people are known, they can be listed as individual plaintiffs: “person a, person b, person c v. Amazon” instead

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

The manager should have been beaten by more people than they could charge.

5 months ago | Likes 35 Dislikes 0

They don't do things that way anymore. They just disappear you illegally and you are never heard from again. This is what it means to be denied due process

5 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

When they make it impossible to speak your truth it becomes imperative to act your truth.

5 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0