‘…In Melbourne’s outer south-east, Amazon had opened its first local “fulfilment centre”. This massive shed is where thousands of products wait to be plucked off shelves, packed into boxes and mailed to customers by workers.
They are almost all casual employees engaged not by Amazon, but through a third-party labour hire firm Adecco.
[….] “It’s a hellscape,” said one of the workers, who spoke directly to Fairfax Media but declined to be identified for fear of losing their current jobs or damaging future work opportunities with labour hire firms. “I’ve never worked anywhere as harsh, and it’s frustrating because the head of Amazon is the richest man on the planet.”
[….] As soon as one item is scanned, a solid bar on the bottom of the screen immediately starts to count down, showing how much time they have to reach their next item, which could be anywhere in the 24,000-square-metre warehouse.
If an item is not scanned within the required time, the worker’s “pick rate” is marked down…’
2018.07.16: Amazon workers strike in Germany, joining action in Spain and Poland
‘…Thousands of workers will walk off the job on Tuesday at Amazon warehouses in Germany to demand better working conditions, joining colleagues in Spain and Poland in taking action that coincides with a major sales promotion…’
‘Filmed and transmitted shortly before the fall of Communism in Hungrary.
Nick Thorpe – the BBC’s Central Europe correspondent – reports for Scene on the lives and thoughts of young Hungarians, living in the capital of Budapest and the village of Martonfa, on the cusp of dramatic political change.
First broadcast on BBC2 at 12.55pm on Friday 13th January 1989. Produced in association with Magyar Televízió (MTV Hungrary).’
Trump admin wants ability to hold migrant kids indefinitely, upending decades-old ban
‘The Trump administration announced a new rule Thursday that would allow immigrant children with their parents to be held in detention indefinitely, upending a ban on indefinite detention that has been in place for 20 years.
The rule, proposed by the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, goes into effect in 60 days and will allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to keep children with their mothers in detention facilities while their cases for asylum play out in court.
A DHS official said the average length of stay for adults with pending court cases is currently 39 days. However, court backlogs can drag out the time an immigrant must wait in detention for a court hearing.
Until now, children have been released with their parents after 20 days. Earlier this year, the Trump administration sought to get around that rule by separating parents from their children and holding parents in detention while children were placed in the care of HHS…’
USA: Pro-Women Groups Keep Independent, Third Party Female Candidates Off Websites
‘One example is Center for American Women and Politics that was established in July 1971 at Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics. For decades, CAWP has claimed to be “a nonpartisan voice that is central to creating awareness and understanding of women’s political participation.”
However, while combing through CAWP’s information on 2018 female candidates running for U.S. Congress and statewide executive offices, there was no mention of any women running under a third party or independent…’
Benefit for Food Not Bombs in Budapest Hungary
Going to this gig tonight, should be some good bands.
/jd
• https://www.facebook.com/events/222126945038325/
• https://www.facebook.com/FoodNotBombsBudapest/