Thread: Amazon, Microsoft and Starbucks act to support ‘Dreamers’

Amazon, Microsoft and Starbucks act to support ‘Dreamers’

Companies back lawsuit challenging Trump move to end scheme for undocumented children

Hannah Kuchler in San Francisco
September 7, 2017

Amazon, Microsoft and Starbucks have filed sworn statements supporting a lawsuit that challenges President Donald Trump’s decision to end the programme that protects undocumented migrants brought to the US as children.

The companies, all based in Washington state, are supporting the attorneys-general from 15 traditionally Democratic states and the District of Columbia who have filed a lawsuit aiming to stop the administration from scrapping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme.

Several of the Dreamers — migrants brought into the country when they were under 16 — work for these companies, the complaint, filed in New York, said.

“Many companies in Washington are dependent on Daca grantees to operate and grow their businesses. Daca recipients work for our state’s largest companies as software engineers, finance professionals, and retail and sales associates, including for Amazon, Microsoft and Starbucks,” the complaint reads.

Mr Trump’s decision announced on Tuesday is a victory for immigration hardliners. But even after announcing his plans to end the programme, he appeared to leave the door open to reform, tweeting: “Congress now has 6 months to legalise Daca (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can’t, I will revisit this issue!”

Amazon said it knew of nine employees who had been protected by Daca, a programme brought in by former President Barack Obama. The declaration said that if these employees lose their status and are deported, Amazon will “suffer injury”.

Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, said on Tuesday that the software maker had 39 employees who were Dreamers. He called on Congress for “urgent Daca legislation”, saying that scrapping the programme could be a “big step back” for the entire country.

Mr Trump’s decision to scrap the Daca programme has enraged business leaders. More than 300 leaders from chief executives to venture capitalists warned last week that the 800,000 Dreamers are “vital to the future of our companies and our economy”.

The decision has become the latest battle between Mr Trump and corporate America, following the mass resignations from his advisory councils because of his response to the recent white nationalist violence in Charlottesville.

The technology industry has been particularly vocal in support of immigration reform, with Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook chief executive and founder, leading a Facebook Live interview from his home with several Dreamers on Wednesday. He said ending DACA was “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in a long time”.

Almost 100 tech companies including Tesla and Airbnb signed an amicus brief in February in support of a lawsuit against the so-called travel ban that restricted travel to the US from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

https://www.ft.com/content/74fd7b78-...6-11d2f0ebb7f0

CBS Fake News Poll of 70% Support for DACA Amnesty Debunked




https://www.alipac.us/f8/cbs-fake-ne...bunked-354448/

Which goes to show you...these businesses just want their CHEAP labor.

Then US taxpayer are STUCK footing the bill for the illegal aliens anchor rats, crime, healthcare, welfare, food stamps, free school, free housing, free medical care...as they send 40 BILLION over the border and stuff 20 people into a house DESTROYING our neighborhoods.

Not to mention the diseases, TB, STD's, rape, murder, DUI, theft, graffiti, crime, child rape, auto accidents, ID theft, court, jail, lawyer, jury, lawsuits and a whole host of criminal activities they bring with them!


BOYCOTT THESE COMPANIES

DEPORT THEM ALL

AMAZON SUPPORTS DACA!!

BOYCOTT AMAZON!!!!

My friends said they will not shop at Amazon any more .

Thank you southBronx!!!!! Spread the word everybody!!! Back to the stores, support our retailers who work hard and spend lots of money trying to make nice places for us to shop. Without them, we wouldn't have any towns or cities. Our retailers make our communities. When you are a business working against our retailers, you are working against all of our communities, cities and towns!!!

Not only that but how many LOCAL shoppers also go out to eat?

They shop and then have lunch and support local restaurants! Run errands...support their local business!

Employ the locals, provide jobs that put food on their tables.


NOT SOME WAREHOUSE FULL OF CHEAP JUNK THAT GETS MAILED OUT!

AMAZON NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN!

Exactly!!

Jeff Bezos deemed richest man in world while Amazon warehouse workers suffer grueling conditions

Bezos’ net worth increases — while many factory workers report enduring unbearable work conditions

Nicole Karlis01.09.2018•3:41 PM

Amazon’s soaring stock this year has granted Jeff Bezos a title of a lifetime: the richest man in the world. Some claim that he’s the richest man in history.

While that’s debatable, Bezos is a very wealthy man and is likely to only going to get wealthier.

According to Bloomberg’s billionaire tracker, Bezos’ total net worth is $105 billion. This week alone, CNN reports he’s added $1.4 billion to his fortune; Amazon stock increased 1.4 percent on Monday and Bezos reportedly own 78.9 million shares. Market forecasters have publicly predicted that they don’t foresee a downward trend for Amazon in the near future.

It’s worth noting that Bill Gates would still likely be wealthier than Bezos now if he didn’t donate much of his wealth to charity.

The richest man in the world doesn’t become the richest man in the world without a little help, though. In Bezos’s case, his help is thousands of workers at fulfillment centers who are reportedly subjected to grueling work conditions— workers who are vital to Amazon’s success; ensuring Amazon’s picking, packaging and sorting.

A new study by Policy Matters Ohio showed that more than 700 Amazon workers receive food stamps in Ohio — yet, Amazon has reportedly received an estimated $123 million in tax breaks in Ohio. That means that American taxpayers are subsidizing Bezos's fortune, as Amazon isn't paying a living wage to many workers.

Amazon has faced multiple labor lawsuits and complaints in the last few years. In 2011, The Morning Call, the newspaper of record for Allentown, Pennsylvania, published an article about what it was like to work at the local Amazon warehouse.

According to the report, the Allentown factory allegedly reached a heat index of 102 degrees, and said that 15 workers collapsed because of the heat. In the report, Elmer Goris, who worked at the warehouse in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, told The Morning Call, “I never felt like passing out in a warehouse and I never felt treated like a piece of crap in any other warehouse but this one.”

In 2015, three plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Amazon alleging wage and hour violations in the company’s San Bernardino, California, warehouse. According to the report, workers were allegedly required to participate in individual security searches each day that cost 20 to 30 minutes of unpaid work. In 2017, workers at the Sacramento, Calif., fulfillment center also filed a class-action lawsuit. They alleged that they had also been denied rest breaks and overtime pay.

As Simon Head, author of Mindless: Why Smarter Machines Are Making Dumber Humans wrote in Salon, Amazon’s warehouse work conditions are comparable to those at Walmart.

Head wrote:

As at Walmart, Amazon achieves this with a regime of workplace pressure, in which targets for the unpacking, movement, and repackaging of goods are relentlessly increased to levels where employees have to struggle to meet their targets and where older and less dextrous employees will begin to fail. As at Walmart, there is a pervasive “three strikes and you’re out” culture, and when these marginal employees acquire too many demerits (“points”), they are fired.

https://www.salon.com/2018/01/09/jef...ng-conditions/