Despite the corporate office’s efforts to foil unionization efforts a several different warehouses, it appears that an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island will be the first unionized Amazon warehouse here in the United States. Workers from the JFK8 facility in Staten Island voted in favor of unionization, despite the fact that workers had to file a second petition with the National Labor Relations Board after not receiving enough signatures to go ahead with the vote on their first attempt to unionize. Already the union has asked Amazon for some key changes, which range everything from basic increases to pay and more time off, to “more reasonable” productivity targets (which aims to tackle Amazon’s notorious reputation as a company that actively tracks its workers while on the job, establishes aggressive performance quotas and penalizes employees for stepping away from their stations to do things like go to the bathroom). Long story short, this pro-worker victory is a blow to Amazon, who spent $4.3 million on anti-union consultants just last year. As another Staten Island-based Amazon facility is gearing up to vote on whether or not to unionize, this pro-union win may be just the first sign of a new, unionized Amazon ecosystem. As for today, a race-ready upgrade for the Toyota Corolla, a look at Panerai’s slate of new watches and the launch of the Hypervolt Go 2 get the spotlight today. This is Today in Gear.
Today in Gear is our daily roundup of all the latest product announcements, drops and news. Send your most pressing product questions to [email protected].
The Sunfish Lockback returns in a slightly smaller handle at A.G. Russell Knives.
A.G. Russell KnivesSunfish knives (also known as an “Elephant Toe” shape) earn their name from the big, round, workhorse of a blade with beefy handles to match. A.G. Russell’s latest take on the style is an attempt to make the handle slightly smaller without cutting down on blade size — which is how the knife earned the internal nickname of as an “Elephant’s Toenail” pocketknife. Engineering the “Interrupted Lockbar Pivot System” with Phil Gibbs, the proprietary design allows the blade to fit the area normally used by the lock bar pivot pin. The end result is room for a wider blade without needing to widen the handle width.
