Don't Say the "M" Word!

Underpaid and exhausted: The human cost of your Kindle!

Whoever enters here honors me; whoever doesn’t- pleases me.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

          

     Live Yet Pre-recorded- Episode LXX of:

 Don’t Say the “M” Word!

         

         A Silent Radio Hour: Live Yet Pre-Recorded

J: We’re back!

         POW: And surely running outta time!

         D: Here on “our” ‘A Silent Radio Hour’!

         J: In the heart of downtown Seattle, Washington at The Spank the Monkey Café!

         D: Kitty-corner to the mighty online retail giant Com.com!

         POW: The totally hard-core, dutifully hard-assed competitor of the up and coming, and so many say ‘look out!’ but Jonathan says!

         J: Bullshit! Amazon.com!

         Mr.SASMO: In the United States of Hey People! We’re Quickly Catching Up with Those Chinese on Human Rights Violations Especially in the Field of Working Class People Here or USHPWQCUTCHRVEFWCPH in: America!

         POW: Spot on! And let’s begin! “Mr.” SASMO, please!

Underpaid and exhausted: The human cost of your Kindle!

Mr.SASMO: In an article in The Guardian, Gethin Chamberlain, reporting from the Chinese city of Hengyang, where he’s found a fatigued young woman whose part of the disposable workforce assembling gadgets for Amazon.com owned by the world’s richest man. Five o’clock in the morning and the worker’s eyelids are drooping. All night she’s been removing spots of dust from Amazon smartspeakers with a toothbrush. Time seems to crawl. Now she is overwhelmed with exhaustion. The worker works on, more and more slowly, until she can do any more. She looks around the workshop. Other workers rest their heads on the bench. She slumps forward and falls asleep. Yo! Chinese workers! What are you doing here?

Workers not paid legally by Amazon contractor in China!

 

D: Then what are they doing there SASMO?

         J: Yeah! And if it’s such an unspeakably horrid place to work, why don’t they do something else?

Mr.SASMO: First! Let’s look at the work situation and then answer the question of why later? It’s an overcast morning in the city of Hengyang, in the southern Chinese province of Hunan. More than seven million people live in this city, the second-largest in the province but many people even within China would struggle to find it on a map!

D: Even with Google maps SASMO?

Mr.SASMO: Even with Google maps Drew! It’s really out there off in the distance! Anyway! The morning’s warm but overcast with a light haze that could be fog or pollution; who knows?

POW: Certainly not Jonathan and Drew!

J&D: The Anal Brothers!

Mr.SASMO: Right! The road to the Foxconn factory in Baishazhou Industrial Park is wide and lined with well-cared-for plants. There’s a steady stream of cars, motorbikes and buses heading towards the factory where Blue-Uniformed Security Staff or BUSS keeps watch on those coming in and out!

J&D: Look out for the Blue Shirts or BS!

Mr.SASMO: Always! Dozens of workers are arriving! Most are young and there’s a good mixture of women and men. Ahead of them lies a 60-hour week! Eight regular hours for five days plus two OverTime hours or what’s called OT each day and another 10 on Saturday!

J: When do they sleep?

D: Where do they sleep?

Mr.SASMO: When and wherever possible! Who knows?

POW: Who cares?

J&D: For certain!

Mr.SASMO: Not Amazon.com and its gazillionaire Jeff Bezos!

J&D: Thank you “Mr.” Bezos!

D: SASMO: Do you think he’s soul suffers because of this?

Mr.SASMO: I’ll answer that with a parable Drew! It’s called The Parable of the Rich Fool from the gospel of St. Luke! ‘Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.  And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’  “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’  “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things but is not rich towards God.”’

POW: He’s in for a heap of trouble now!

D: Can he do something to save himself SASMO?

Mr.SASMO: Absolutely! Share with others from your abundance especially those who labor for you! Those whose toil have brought him super-abundance! Just ask that Scrooge fellow from the famous Tell Of Tales or TOT: A Christmas Carol!

POW: I heard that other famous Christmas story: The Night Before Cyber-Monday or TNBCM!

J: And what about the beloved: ‘Bust Down the Doors its Black-Friday or BDDBF!

POW: Jolly Good Show or JGS! And back to “our” story! “Mr.” SASMO, please! 

Mr.SASMO: The workers are expected to hit tough Productivity Targets or PTs and must ask permission to use the Toilets or Ts!

POW: Mother may I TT?

Mr.SASMO: Somewhat correct! The overtime, up to 80 hours a month, is far in excess of the 36 hours stipulated in Chinese labor laws but companies can and do seek exemptions which are normally granted! Also, workers desperately need the overtime to boost their basic pay which is disturbingly low!

POW: Just like you SASMO back at Ont 6 in Moreno Valley, ca?

Mr.SASMO: Exactly! Could never make the cost of living on $14.25 an hour! Had to have the OT always! 55 hours week in week out! And then it disappeared and I face losing everything!

J&D: Thank you “Mr.” Bezos!

POW: Indeed! Thank all those CEO million and billionaires out there living The Highlife!

J&D: May TheJefferys bless the 1%!

POW: Even more than He already has?    

Mr.SASMO: Now listen! These are the people who are making the smart speakers and tablets that Amazon hopes to make a fixture in millions of homes around the world! The Echo and Echo Dot, both of which spring to life when the user addresses them as Alex! And those damn Kindles which are worth less-than-zero!

J&D: Thank you “Mr.” Bezos!

Mr.SASMO: Yes! Thank TheBezos! It’s a year since Amazon Sealed-The- Deal or STD with the giant Foxconn company to ramp up its hardware production in Hengyang, with the Chinese firm reportedly adding 30 new production lines and creating 15,000 jobs.

POW: Mostly low paying jobs SASMO?

Mr.SASMO: Self-explanatory! We’re talkin’ ‘bout TheAmazon here! The Foxconn factory producing Amazon Echo smartspeakers and Kindles in Hengyang which’s China’s largest single private employer and in March it reported a 4.2% increase in profits with net income rising to ￡1.84bn in the last three quarters of 2017. Profits for the first quarter of this year were ￡605m and its CEO, Terry Gou, has a fortune reported to be about ￡5.3bn.

J: I’d imagine that figure’s a little more than what “your” average worker gets who by the way’s actually making the damn devices?

Mr.SASMO: The Foxconn factory in Hengyang relies on the tried and tested formula of low wages and long hours!

POW: Too exhausted to fight back!

J&D: Thank you “Mr.” Bezos!

Mr.SASMO: But here there’s another element! The extensive use of agency workers who don’t have the security of a regular job! These employees known as ‘dispatch’ workers in China are hired in from labor companies as an off-the-shelf workforce. They are slightly better-paid than permanent workers but they get no sick pay or holiday pay and can be laid off without any pay at all during quiet months when production drops off! In some ways they resemble the Amazon products they are making: wanted one day and discarded the next!

POW: Been there!

Mr.SASMO: Done that!

D: Sounds awful!

J: And the government lets them get away with it?

Mr.SASMO: It’s this increasing reliance on a disposable workforce by companies which has alarmed the Chinese government! Therefore in 2014 it changed its labor laws to limit ‘dispatch’ workers to just 10% of a company’s staff, and then only to cover temporary work. Companies were expected to fill most positions with regular staff on employment contracts.

D: Does the Good Ole USofA or GOUSA…

J&POW: USA! USA! USA!

D: … change their laws as well SASMO?

Mr.SASMO: Hell no! The wage slips pinned to the walls of the Foxconn factory in Hengyang suggest that the message may be taking some time to get through! They show that about 40% of the workforce in the Hengyang plant is bought in from agencies. These are the workers on whom Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos is relying to further entrench his position as the world’s richest man!

J&D: Thank you “Mr.” Bezos!

Mr.SASMO: Bezos is worth an estimated ￡102bn, a fortune he acquired against a backdrop of global reports of misery for Amazon’s warehouse workers exhausted by the demands made on them in return for the most basic of wages! Unions and labor rights groups have protested about low pay and harsh working conditions!

J&D: Thank you “Mr.” Bezos!

Mr.SASMO: Last month it was revealed that ambulances had been called 600 times to Amazon’s UK warehouses over the past three years. There have been repeated calls for Amazon to improve the lot of its workers. But Bezos doesn’t see the need. Collecting an award for ‘outstanding personalities who are particularly innovative, and who generate and change markets, influence culture and at the same time face up to their responsibility to society’ a couple of months ago, he was questioned about the controversies surrounding the way he made his money!

POW: He earned it the Old Fashioned Way or OFW!

J&D: How’s that Warren?

POW: In an Embarrassing “Open” Mic Moment or EOMM, this was heard: ‘The Old Fashion Way? I steal it!’

Mr.SASMO: And besides that reply, this was stated: ‘When you’re criticized, first look in the mirror and decide: are your critics’ right? If they are right, change. Don’t resist.’ But Bezos’s mirror apparently showed him that his critics were wrong! ‘I’m very proud of our working conditions and very proud of the wages we pay!’ He told the audience gathered to meet him.

J&D: Get outta town!

POW: Not only that! In another Embarrassing “Open” Mic Moment or EOMM, this was heard: ‘Mirror Mirror on the wall? Whose the Biggest Bad-ass of them all?

J&D: Bezos! Bezos! Bezos!

POW: ‘Better bet your ass!’ was heard from off in the distance as Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon.com walked away in Pure Delight or PD while dumping his “award” in a near-by trash container!

Mr.SASMO: And now he and Gou have brought that same formula to Hengyang. But what draws two of the world’s richest men to set up in a city far from the big manufacturing hubs of Shenzhen, Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou, with their easy access to shipping and huge industrial bases?

J: Don’t rightly know sheriff?

Mr.SASMO: Easy answer here! It helps to know that your average worker is being paid 14.5 yuan an hour or about 2.26 US dollars. Foxconn could not pay so little in Shenzhen where the legal minimum wage is 19.5 yuan an hour or in Shanghai where it’s 20 yuan!

J&D: The Chinese workers in Hengyang say ‘thank you “Mr.” Bezos!’

Mr.SASMO: Hear this! Some days the workers get to work overtime. But when they open their wage slip at the end of the month they will only be disappointed because dispatch workers are paid only the same 14.5 yuan rate that they get for the main shift, instead of the time-and-a-half stipulated by Chinese labor law and Amazon.com’s own Supplier Code of Conduct or SCC!

D: So TheAmazon doesn’t follow its own policies?

POW: Too Big to Be Wrong or TBBW!

Mr.SASMO: Foxconn promises agency workers a minimum of 3,700 yuan a month but pay slips and workers’ own accounts suggest real wages rarely get close to that figure. Most earn between 2,000 and 3,000 yuan, with permanent staff earning between 2,000 and 2,500 yuan. In 2017, the average wage for a worker in Hengyang was 4,647 yuan a month.

J: How do they get away with it? I mean! What’s up?

POW: Amazon comes to areas, and here’s your answer to the opening question of…  ‘if it’s such an unspeakably horrid place to work, why don’t they do something else?’ Because they’re in Economically Depressed or ED areas with little else or even less choices! These are throw away, low paying jobs and these people go around declaring themselves as HEROS!

D: And are they Warren?

POW: Go back to that story about those receiving food stamps in Ohio! Do “they” sound like HEROS? No! Full and part-time workers have to rely on food stamps in order to feed their children!

J: Don’t see any HEROS here!

Mr.SASMO: Think about it! Pay rates have sky-rocketed in China but Hunan remains one of the provinces with the lowest wages! And why?

D: Why SASMO?

Mr.SASMO: It’s an Economically Depressed Region or EDR! Any job’s better than no job at all! Amazon and other companies like it bank on this!

POW: And the bank brings with it!

Mr.SASMO: Workers suffering! ‘While working at the same work position and doing the same motions over and over again each day, she felt exhausted and her back was sore and her neck, back and arms could barely take it any more.’ A diary makes no happier reading the following day. A woman of about 45 tells her how she has been scolded because she is not fast enough!

J&D: What was said?

 Mr.SASMO: ‘It might be because she was getting older so her speed was slower and her reactions also slower. When the line leader was telling her off, she started crying. After I returned to the dorm, an older woman … said that last time the line leader told her off, she also cried.’

POW: SASMO! You made the Anal Brothers cry!

J&D: No we’re not! It’s “our” allergies!

Mr.SASMO: She describes long nights of repetitive and relentless work with fellow workers close to falling asleep on their feet. During a break about midnight she sees that ‘many people were resting on the assembly line and sleeping while others had pushed together some chairs and were sleeping on those. Some had even stacked together some foam boards and slept on top of them.’

POW: Get it done SASMO! The brothers are crying louder!

Mr.SASMO: She finds little relief on returning to the dormitories where she notes that there’s no emergency escape plan in case of fire and ‘escape routes are unlabelled’. Workers constantly complain about the working and living conditions, including leaks in the roof and lights in the showers not working.

J&D: May TheJefferys damn TheAmazon! Damn TheAmazon!

POW: Given half a chance! Who wouldn’t?

Mr.SASMO: Alexa’s diary records her own frustrations on the production line and how she is overwhelmed by tiredness: ‘In my mind, I was both furious and lamenting as my hands continued the repetitive motions. My hands started feeling sore, but I managed to make it to 3am.

J&D: She’s so young!

Mr.SASMO: ‘Around 4am, the workers across from me stopped working. I continued observing. The workers across from me told me I didn’t need to watch any more as the quota had already been reached. At this time, I saw that some of the people in the work positions behind us had also stopped and were sitting due to lack of work. I felt very tired so I rested my head on the assembly line. After a while, the line technician came over and tapped me and said I couldn’t sleep on the assembly line, so I sat up again.’

At the end of the shift, Alexa leaves the workshop and goes to collect her phone from her locker: ‘There were a lot of people squatting or sitting on the curbside, eating a boxed lunch or playing with their phones. They all looked exhausted.’

         POW: Anything else?

Mr.SASMO: This! Talk in the factory is of agency workers being laid off without pay during quiet periods: 700 in April and May, and 2,700 in January and February. Yet among the workers there is no great simmering anger, no burning resentment. Few have heard of Amazon.com or Bezos. They aren’t expecting very much and aren’t particularly disappointed when not very much is exactly what Foxconn and Amazon gives them!

POW: Just gotta love “our” Capitalist System or CS!

J&D: All praise the Capitalist System or CS!

Mr.SASMO: Heaven help us! We let happen!

                                              *        *         *

To our cherished listeners out there hopefully if not finally glad to “not” be “VIEWING” “their” Com.com’s Live Streaming Service or CCLSS! But instead listening to our ‘A Live Silent Radio Hour’ which’s live yet pre-recorded here at The Spank the Monkey Café in the heart of downtown Seattle, Washington of the United States of Here’s Still Hoping for the Fifth Aeon to Finally Come and Save Us All Here or USHSHFAFCSUAH in: America! I’m Producer Only Warren or POW and many thanks once again to “our” cherished listeners who are finally delighted that ‘A Live Silent Radio Hour’ which’s live yet pre-recorded has returned! We’re still so sorry you had to live through that nasty “VIEWING” pardon the language, Crap or C! I mean to say! Really SORRY! But I wish to thank all of you for tuning in once more while again leaving any semblance of rational thought at the door as for the sake of TheJefferys: How in the hell can you listen to silent radio? Never understood that one but hey folks! We’re back! (Inspirational Pause!) And please cherished “LISTENERS”, come back next time to hopefully Find-Out-the-Facts or FOFs concerning the nature and cause of our Collective Delusion or CD as we Tell Our Tale or TOT of Misery or M here in a land known as America! Please stay safe and always watch out for those Frenzied, Extremely Agitated Regrettables or FEAR who see their own reflection in the Mirrored Sunglasses or MSs of those who would Un-Naturally or UN ridicule our Blessed Way of Life here on Silent Radio or SR! And please! Make sure to thank TheJefferys! And so I’m pretty certain! And Good Night Irene!

                                              *        *         *

D: Jonathan?

         J: Yes Drew?

         D: Is there really a God?

         J: Not that I can tell! But I surely so love some of those sayings and parables given by the Smiling Happy Mr. Jesus or SHMJ!

         D: For instance?

         J: From the gospel of St. Matthew: ‘Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’

         Mr.SASMO: So many things that Com.com, Amazon.com and Corporate America or CA can improve on!

         POW: No shit!

         J&D: The Chinese workers in Hengyang say: ‘Thank you “Mr.” Bezos!’

         J: And everybody sing: J&D&POW&Mr.SASMO: There’s a hole in the world tonight There’s a cloud of fear and sorrow There’s a hole in the world tonight Don’t let there be a hole in the world tomorrow They say that anger is just love disappointed They say that love is just a state of mind But all this fighting over who is anointed Oh, how can people be so blind? There’s a hole in the world tonight There’s a cloud of fear and sorrow There’s a hole in the world tonight Don’t let there be a hole in the world tomorrow Oh, they tell me there’s a place over yonder Cool water running through the burning sand Until we learn to love one another We will never reach the promised land There’s a hole in the world tonight There’s a cloud of fear and sorrow There’s a hole in the world tonight Don’t let there be a hole in the world tomorrow There’s a hole in the world tonight Hole in the world There’s a cloud of fear and sorrow Fear and sorrow There’s a hole in the world tonight Don’t let there be a hole in the world tomorrow!’

         D: Jonathan?

         J: Yes Drew?

         D: I’m thirsty! Where’s the waitress?

         J: She’s disappeared!

         D: Oh damn!