The weekend passed quickly amid heated discussions in the media about Yigrit's surge on its first day of listing. In the new week, the North American stock market opened. Yigrit's stock price continued to rise for three consecutive days, and its market value once exceeded US$260 billion. The Nasdaq technology stock market also continues to advance rapidly.
Until October 12th.
James Mann, a former employee of Amazon's online mall's logistics distribution center in Wisconsin, suddenly filed a lawsuit in the local court, accusing the online mall team of illegally preventing its employees from forming a union to protect their legitimate rights and interests, and maliciously suppressing union advocates.
James Mann, 37, applied to become a sorter at Amazon's Wisconsin logistics distribution center last year. In public prosecution documents, the middle-aged man claimed that he was harassed for actively calling on distribution center employees to form a union after joining the company last year. He was suppressed and was fired in June this year. He is currently unemployed at home.
James Mann asked Eaglet to issue an official written apology for the incident, refocus on ensuring workers' legal rights and interests, and request a total of $16 million in compensation.
In an interview with a local TV station, James Mann also pointed the finger at Simon and Yigrit's senior executives, accusing the Yigrit IPO of making a large number of people billionaires and millionaires, including employees of the Wisconsin distribution factory. But he can only earn $9 an hour for long, boring and repetitive work every day, which is far lower than the $23 an hour the former employee who once worked at a General Motors factory originally earned.
James Mann believes that this serious unfair situation is mainly due to the current severe suppression of labor unions by various companies, which prevents workers at the bottom from protecting their rights and interests. Therefore, in the interview, he also called on distribution center employees to unite again to form a union.
The response of the Yigret Media PR team was very timely.
The details of Mann's dismissal were also announced on a local television station in Wisconsin for the first time. The reason for the middle-aged man's dismissal had nothing to do with the union, but a serious violation of work regulations and rough treatment of customer packages. As evidence, the public relations team also The TV station showed Mann throwing multiple packages roughly onto the conveyor belt and even punching one of the packages.
The public relations team did not ignore Mann's mention of union issues and salary issues in the distribution center. They directly took out the voting records of employees in the Wisconsin distribution center in February this year on whether to form a union. There are more than 1,500 employees in the distribution center. The proportion of employees who voted to form a union Only 21% and 79% of employees are opposed to forming a union.
In addition, the distribution center’s hourly wage of $9 is already 1.8 times the legal hourly wage of $5 in Wisconsin. This does not include the medical insurance and other welfare expenses provided by Yigret for employees. After conversion, each employee The average hourly wage, including benefits, has reached $13.
This kind of salary level is already among the top in the local industry.
As for James Mann's recollection of the past high wages at the General Motors factory, he simply ignored it. Many people in the Rust Belt miss the glory of the Great Lakes region as the center of the global automobile industry, and the super-high benefits where one person worked and the whole family enjoyed benefits. It seems that not many people are willing to reflect on how all of this became a passing thing.
Is it because the union’s greedy and unrestrained demands have made it difficult for automobile companies to survive
The salary of ordinary blue-collar workers in automobile factories is higher than that of university professors. Of course, it is fair. No one cares whether it is reasonable or not.
However.
If the skin is gone, how will the hair be attached
In response to Eaglet's clarification, James Mann immediately counterattacked, claiming that he lost control because he was insulted by a supervisor at the distribution center that day. He also immediately released a recording of a male voice arguing with Mann. In the audio, the reason was that Mann went to the bathroom too many times during work, which became a bargaining chip for the middle-aged man, denounced the distribution center as infringing on the basic personal rights of employees.
Igret continued to respond, refuting that James Mann's recording was a cut out-of-context uprising. Moreover, according to the person's recollection, Mann frequently left his post to go to the bathroom during that time, only going four times that morning, and... Some employees said that the other party was not trying to satisfy their physiological needs, but hiding in the bathroom to smoke, which was an obvious malicious sabotage of work.
James Mann fired back immediately.
Smoking and slacking off at work are completely slanderous, mainly because middle-aged people happen to be sick at that time.
Mutual exchange.
This kind of wrangling lawsuit will definitely not be resolved in a short time, and will definitely drag on for a long time. Yigrit, who has a strong legal team, is not afraid of this kind of delay, and will just take advantage of it.
Simon never felt that many things happened for no reason.
Just like this time.
After some investigation, the results were quickly obtained. The Wisconsin law firm that supported James Mann’s lawsuit against Eaglet had a partner who happened to be the Democratic Senator Craig who was defeated in the midterm election last year. The husband of an assistant on the Ames team.
The somewhat detoured relationships are clear after a little combing.
The other party suddenly started such an incident, most likely to prepare for next year's election. 1996 is not only a presidential election year, but also a biennial election year for members of Congress.
The local Democratic Party in Wisconsin is clearly hoping to regain the initiative it lost in last year's midterm elections.
Senators in Congress serve six-year terms.
The position of Robert Hotwell, who defeated Craig Ames last year, is still quite stable, and the number of other senators is less than that of the election year. The Democratic Party can only find a replacement in the biennial House of Representatives election. In addition, in 1992 In the general election, Clinton won Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes. This is not an indispensable number. He may have done something to win over the bottom public to stabilize this vote base.
The major unions in the Rust Belt have always been die-hard supporters of the Democratic Party.
As for the moral integrity of the Clintons, for the position in the White House, it doesn’t matter whether they have it or not.
Simon believes the lawsuit is just an appetizer.
The current state of the Westeros system can no longer be described as a tree standing in the forest. It is simply a towering giant tree standing on a flat prairie, and any evil spirit can find it.
Sure enough, after Robert Mann sued, another weekend passed. On October 16, more than 200 truck drivers belonging to the three contractors responsible for the transportation tasks of the Wisconsin distribution center suddenly announced a strike, which directly caused the business of the distribution center to be paralyzed. .
Strikes usually take place after negotiations between employees and their employers have broken down.
This time it happened suddenly.
Complete surprise.
The news soon broke that the truck drivers owned by one of the contractors were dissatisfied with the company's compensation for a traffic accident that had been disputed for more than a month. Therefore, the American Teamsters Union made a direct decision to directly bypass the contractor in the form of a strike. The businessman proposed conditions to Yigret, requiring Yigret to abandon the contractor model and establish an exclusive transportation department to directly hire a team of truck drivers.
If last week's negative lawsuit was just an appetizer that suppressed the rise in Eagle's stock price, this sudden truck driver's strike, which paralyzed a large logistics distribution center owned by Amazon, was a very obvious direct impact.
The interests involved in this matter are also quite complex.
Not to mention the political short sellers who are even planning to short the technology stocks of the Westeros system, but the matter itself is quite complicated.
Let’s start with the operation model of Amazon’s logistics distribution system.
The current Amazon online mall logistics and distribution system is only an initial stage of e-commerce development. Amazon has built logistics and distribution centers across the United States, which only complete the first phase of distribution from Amazon warehouses to contracted express delivery companies, rather than direct delivery to customers.
Because traditional U.S. express delivery is expensive and slow, the official initiative is responsible for the first phase of delivery, which can not only improve efficiency and shorten the delivery schedule, but also reduce costs to a large extent. After completing the first phase of distribution, express companies such as USPS receive the express shipment and then use their complete national distribution network to deliver the package to specific customers.
During the construction process of Amazon's current primary distribution system, in order to avoid the entanglement of the huge American Truck Drivers Union, it chose the outsourcing model and split the transportation business to different small transportation companies instead of setting up its own transportation team. .
This is a plan that Simon personally designed based on his memory of Amazon’s operating model.
Employees in logistics distribution centers are new types of work, so there are no established trade unions to rely on. It is relatively easy to prevent these employees from forming a union.
The Teamsters Union in the United States is an old union organization that has existed for many years like the United Auto Workers. The union has 1.4 million members, which is larger than the current Union of Auto Workers, which is declining rapidly.
The e-commerce business is destined to be inseparable from truck transportation, which accounts for more than 70% of the domestic transportation capacity in the United States.
So we can only take a roundabout way.
Adding a layer of contractors will inevitably increase costs to a certain extent. However, by using many independent small transportation companies as a buffer and avoiding direct contact with the truck drivers union, Eaglet can definitely save more in the long run. many.
Otherwise, if the transportation department is established to directly hire truck drivers, as Yigrit’s e-commerce business continues to grow, hundreds of thousands of truck drivers who will rely on Amazon’s logistics distribution network in the future, backed by the union, will definitely become Yigrit. Rhett's nightmare has a negative impact no less than that of the United Auto Workers, which is still clinging to the American auto giants.
Why are U.S. government departments so inefficient that they were compared to otters in the later "Zootopia"? Why are U.S. airlines' service quality so poor that they often violently treat passengers and even beat them to the point of bleeding their heads? Why are some municipal projects in the U.S. Repairing a small section of pavement that can be completed in one day in China often takes months, all because of labor unions.
Be confident.
The major auto giants in the United States can also breathe a sigh of relief by relocating factories overseas to reduce costs. This is obviously not feasible for Yigret's e-commerce business. If the conditions of the Truck Drivers Union are agreed to, and the directly-affiliated transportation department relies on the union to continuously demand high wages and benefits and completely loses efficiency, there will be no need for the Amazon online mall owned by Yigrit to continue to exist.
There is never a shortage of smart people in this world.
The intention of Yigrit's outsourcing strategy is not subtle. The American Truck Drivers Union found that it is difficult for its members to take advantage of a large group of small transportation companies. However, Yigrit, which has just completed its IPO, is a fat and oily person. existence, it will naturally give rise to the desire to eat big houses.
This sudden attack was obviously a test.
If Eaglet compromises in Wisconsin, the next thing will be very easy to handle. As long as a large number of truck drivers change from indirect contractor employees to regular employees of Eagle, the company is not yet at the mercy of the American Teamsters Union.
Both parties understood each other's intentions. The Truck Drivers Union made a sudden attack, and Eaglet was also decisive. Several people in charge knew the consequences if the Truck Drivers Union succeeded, so they decisively suspended the operations of the Wisconsin distribution center.
Then there was still the quarrel.
The Truck Drivers Union suddenly chose to go on strike without any communication. This time, Ygritte was actually the one who was in control.
However, the Truck Drivers Union wanted to communicate directly with Yigrit, but they would not let it succeed. While they publicly accused the Truck Drivers Union of being reckless and lacking in credibility in their strike actions, Yigrit made another move. , stated that the three contractors would be held accountable for the losses they caused to Yigret.
In any case, they completely ignored the American Teamsters Union's request for Eagle to set up a direct transportation department. They didn't even think about dialogue. They just urged the Teamsters Union and contractors to resolve their differences as soon as possible.
The Wisconsin Distribution Center is mainly responsible for distribution services in the five central states of the United States.
While suspending the Wisconsin distribution center, the Amazon team also immediately used other channels to make up for the market vacancy caused by the suspension of the distribution center. They also conducted public opinion campaigns in Wisconsin, saying that once the Wisconsin distribution center was shut down for more than two weeks, the business would be disrupted. After other distribution centers take over, Eaglet will lay off employees at the Wisconsin distribution center.
Those truck drivers who suddenly go on strike will be blacklisted by Yigrit.
When the news spread, many people were dumbfounded.
Located in the Rust Belt, Wisconsin has been the state with the highest unemployment rate in recent years. The unemployment rate has only recently dropped from 8.6% two years ago to 6.1%, which is still higher than the current federal unemployment rate of 5.6%.
Therefore, it is actually very rare for Amazon logistics distribution center employees to have a job with a very low threshold and a high salary level. Otherwise, in the union vote at the beginning of the year, even with official lobbying factors, the distribution center employees would not only have only 21% people voted in favor.
The hourly wage of $9 is also a figure determined by Simon himself. In the housekeeper's original plan, the basic hourly wage was only $7.
Not only to a group of executives, but also to the entire Westeros system, out of the desire to create a 'Westerosian', Simon has been deliberately giving a relatively high salary, because he also always believes that this can mobilize people to a large extent. Employee motivation and generates loyalty and a sense of belonging.
In addition to relatively generous salaries, the school for the children of Wisconsin Distribution Center employees has been receiving special care from the Westeros Family Foundation for more than a year. In the future, all descendants of 'Westerosian' will have the opportunity to gain more opportunities to climb to the top. Chance.
However, although it is relatively high, it is by no means outrageous. Simon will not accept the restraint and coercion of the union.
If Simon is not willing to give it, no one can take it away.
At the same time, the Truck Drivers Union suddenly launched an attack on Yigrit's e-commerce business, and other demons and monsters began to act up. The impact was very intuitive.
On October 16, Yigret's stock price fell by 2.1%, and then fell by more than 3% amid fluctuations in the following days. The strike lasted until October 20. In five days, the overall decline in Yigrit's stock price had already Reaching 6.2%, at the close of trading on Friday, Igret's market value has dropped to US$237.9 billion from US$253.7 billion on Monday, with a book loss of more than US$15 billion.