elfwreck:

svlvan:

just bc i’ve seen this sentiment expressed by a lot of ppl who want to support the amazon worker’s strike but don’t know how:

buying from amazon during the period of the strike does nothing to benefit the striking workers. the purpose of the strike is not to “show amazon how crucial its workers are,” and placing more orders is not going to somehow “overwhelm” amazon’s warehouses. the purpose of the strike is to inhibit amazon’s ability to draw in profit. the workers are striking so that the facilities in which they work will no longer be able to function. this is part of a strategy of disrupting amazon’s logistics so that ultimately their profit margins fall and amazon execs will be forced to acknowledge the workers’ complaints and negotiate with them.

if you purchase from amazon during the strike, your money is still going into the same pockets as it would any other time. if you purchase during the strike, the labor necessary to handle your order is going to be passed onto someone else regardless—whether it’s a facility in another region, workers who aren’t striking, or workers who were brought in to replace the strikers. if you purchase during the strike, you are actively funding amazon’s strikebreaking ability. yes, maybe they won’t be able to ship your package on time, or it will never be shipped, and you’ll be refunded (or not!), but that in no way constitutes as a win for the strikers. purchasing something from amazon, regardless of the circumstances, serves only to benefit the corporation, not the workers who fulfill the orders from start to finish—that’s the point of why they’re striking in the first place.

on the other hand, by boycotting amazon in solidarity with the striking workers, you will be limiting amazon’s ability to draw a profit during a large sale event—companies like amazon rely on business tactics such as sales to extract as much profit as they can from their workers. boycotting prevents them from being able to do so. 

if you’re interested in following the events of this strike, as well as other resistance efforts against amazon: https://amazonenlucha.wordpress.com/ is the website run by the organizers of the strike.

Always: Boycotting supports a strike; continuing to do business with the company undermines it.

You may not be able to boycott, or not able to do so easily (if you’re getting diapers from Amazon because those are the cheapest that can be delivered, boycotting is not a good idea), but definitely be aware: the purpose of a strike is to shut down a business. Is to say, “this company can’t operate, and therefore can’t profit, as long as it’s mistreating its workers.” 

Support that by taking your business elsewhere if you can. If you can’t – buy less if you can; hold off on the big purchases until the strike is resolved; don’t advertise for them by announcing your purchase on facebook or twitter.  

Extra orders don’t make the company more likely to give in; they make the company more likely to hire scabs, even lower-paid temp workers with no benefits, people who are desperate. Your order is more likely to be delayed or damaged – so maybe you get a refund, but Amazon just gets to write off those losses.

The way to make them lose money during a strike is not to buy.