A few months ago Amazon was blasted for it's harsh fulfillment center working conditions

[MikeOlsen]

Like this expose here...

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/amazon/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917,0,6503103.story

Well now they have done something about it.

Amazon.com to buy Kiva Systems for $775 million

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc said on Monday it agreed to buy Kiva Systems Inc for $775 million in cash, a deal that will bring more robotic technology to the e-commerce company's giant network of warehouses.
The acquisition, which has been approved by Kiva's stockholders, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012, Amazon added in a statement.
Kiva develops robots that zip around warehouses, grabbing and moving shelves and crates full of products. The technology helps retailers fulfill online orders quickly and with fewer workers. Companies including Gap Inc, Staples Inc and Crate & Barrel, have used the technology.
Amazon has traditionally used more employees in its warehouses, or fulfillment centers as they are known. However, Kiva's robots have been used by other e-commerce companies acquired by Amazon in recent years, such as Quidsi and Zappos.

So who says corporate America doesn't respond to workers needs?

http://news.yahoo.com/amazon-com-buy-kiva-systems-775-million-205003888.html

[Lionessa]

1. I'm sorry but I side with Amazon on this... when a technology

comes through that can handle repetitious, dangerous, etc. type work, we would be remiss not to begin utilizing it, whoever we are.

Many, many moons ago, I was a bookkeeper, this technology here, that we are using right now has put many of us out of business, first by the pc then by online Quickbooks et al.

So I totally get the pain, but would you really do without this, the internet and all that comes with, so that I could stay employed at a 50K job? Sure some bookkeepers are still employed but their wages are stagnant for decades now if not reversing, and many, many have had to move on to other or step up to accountant/cpa qualifications, not easy, not painless, but the right thing for a society, in my opinion.

[randome]

3. What a refreshingly objective viewpoint.

[Lionessa]

7. Yep, I'm known and the bleeding heartless liberal

I really look at things very logically, not compassionately, and even with that, I'm a liberal or progressive, whatever term, but far left because it's logical to be so.

[eridani]

4. This suggests why we seriously need to rethink "work"

Productivity has grown by a factor of 4 since the end of WW II. What are we supposed to do with the other 3 people? There are fewer and fewer jobs to retrain for. The solution is to mandate reduced work hours at the same pay. Lavorare meno! Lavorare tutti!

[JHB]

2. Why does buying up a company count as "doing something about it"?

They couldn't just buy the systems themselves?

[Nye Bevan]

5. If Apple is able to replace all its Chinese workers with robots,

surely everyone here would applaud?

[Mopar151]

6. Depends on if I get a peice of making the automation

Or making the automation work - programming, maintainence, upgrades. A lot more to it than Robots. If we actually caught up on deferred maintainence and repairs on infrastructure, there would be work for all.