Some streamers boycott Twitch in support of Amazon Prime Day strike

Unless you have the most powerful ad blocker in the world, you're probably painfully aware that it is Prime Day, a holiday that Amazon created because he could. The offers are running naked in the streets and the company is organizing lavish concerts, all to encourage Amazon Prime subscribers to stay. For the second year in a row, however, some Amazon warehouse workers are striking in the middle of all this. German workers are on strike for an unfair wage, while those in Minnesota are on strike for unsafe working conditions. Amazon owns Twitch, and some streamers are boycotting the streaming platform for the next two days as a sign of solidarity. For other streamers, however, the situation is not so black and white.

Last year, warehouse workers in Germany, Poland and Spain chose to strike during Prime Day. This year again, Amazon workers in Germany are again on strike and now workers at a Minnesota distribution center are joining the strike. "Amazon is going to tell a story about it, that is, they can send you a Kindle home in a day, it's not so wonderful," said William Stolz , an Amazon employee based in Minnesota and organizer of the strike, Bloomberg. "We want to take this opportunity to talk about what needs to be done to make it work and to pressure Amazon to protect us and create safe and reliable jobs."

Amazon, led by the richest man in the world, has finally increased its minimum payment for warehouse workers in the United States to $ 15 later than last year after campaigns workers and pressure from politicians like Bernie Sanders. However, many people believe that the company's focus on productivity quotas often goes against the basic standards of workplace safety. In addition, workers hope to see more temporary jobs turn into full-time jobs. In addition to strikes in Minnesota and Germany, protests are taking place in San Francisco, New York, Seattle and other parts of Europe.

Meanwhile, on social media platforms, people are encouraging others to stay away from Amazon-owned products and platforms, such as Kindle, Audible, Goodreads, IMDB, Whole Foods , Comixology, Amazon Web Services and Twitch. During this period, however, Twitch is also hosting its own Prime Day event entitled "Twitch Sells Out", which may not have been the most surprising naming choice given the entire strike. . Twitch describes Twitch Sells Out as a "shopping-style program" in which popular streamers discuss operations in the ever-fertile fields of gaming, electronics and, of course, "related products" . All of this has sparked a debate over what it means to cross a picket line when the company in question has its hands in countless pies and you are an entrepreneur on a platform where a few days of radio silence can be ruinous.

For some Twitch streamers, darkness for two days is a no-brainer.

"I think it's very simple to show solidarity with people who have difficulties," he said. Adam "Yoman5" Hernandez, a competitive Magic: the rally streamer that will not be streaming for the next two days, in a Twitter DM for Kotaku. "A two-day strike has already worked wonders in Polygonand although it is a much less important matter, a strike is really disruptive to the company's production and can force it to solve its problems. A boycott in solidarity with the strike can strike Amazon in the only place that interests them: sales figures. "

Josh Boykin, video game critic who regularly airs on Twitch and who plans to organize a Tacomamega-business discussion on the first day of his return to Twitch later this week, approved. "Amazon workers have gone on strike several times beyond Prime Day, but taking these two days off in particular allows them to pay more attention to their collective action and constitutes a modest way to raise awareness, "he said. Kotaku in a DM. "I took advantage of Twitch, but Twitch and Amazon have taken steps that seem to have a negative effect on the health and safety of the people who feed their ecosystems. Whether it is banners victimized by harassment or workers in unfair working conditions, I think for those of us who have the ability, it is helpful to take time and to ensure that we all reflect on these and the many others that come with our work. . "

"That it's about streamers suffering from harassment or workers in unfair working conditions, I think for those of us who have the ability, it is worth taking a little time and to ensure that we all reflect on these and the many other issues that accompany our activities. job."

But for some streamers, it's not that simple. Twitch is a platform designed to channel visitors to the almost infinite bunny content with pages filled with algorithmic recommendations, tags, navigation features that encourage you to look around even when you're watching others. streamers, etc. Twitch's viewers may be capricious, seemingly inclined to seek new entertainment (and withdraw valuable subscriptions) when broadcasters do not strictly adhere to a regular schedule. Two days off may not seem like much, but for some streamers trying to keep viewers sustainable or even defend them via programs such as Twitch's partner program, which requires an average of 75 simultaneous stream viewers, is a bridge too far away. .

Even if Hernandez strikes himself, he says that he understands why not everyone would do it. "Twitch streamers are independent contractors under Amazon with no guaranteed revenue," said Hernandez. "Taking days off without a net has a dramatic negative impact on that income. Even a day or two can really hurt someone's ability to stay in touch with the people and I do not think it's fair to involve them in the strike. Streaming is not my main income, so I can personally take this step and delay my usual Monday flow to not coincide with the strike and the boycott, but I know the harsh realities of streaming and the cumulative effects of A day or two compared to other jobs. "

It should be noted that few senior broadcasters support the boycott, although they almost certainly have the means and the bandwidth to do so. Meanwhile, a host of larger streamers are participating in the Twitch Sells Out event. Kotaku have contacted a handful of them to ask if there were commercial obligations to do so despite the strike, but they have not heard from them yet.

There was not much discontent with the streamers who chose to live despite the strike. This has led to calls for people to understand where some streamers come from.

"If you are participating in the Amazon strike, please do not punish Twitch's streamers for their work," said PinkuShika, an artist who is streaming today. on Twitter. "Many use it as a platform to earn an income in order to pay rent, bills and buy food. Most do not have other stable sources of income, like artists! Taking a break is not an option for some.

Adam Koebel, a table-centric streamer who often talks about workers' rights, first expressed this view with even greater force, saying on Twitter that people should "buy shit today". cheap if that makes you happy, or completely boycott Amazon "and apply similar approach to Twitch, because ultimately" when we eat our comrades alive to not be left behind enough, "businesses and other powerful entities win. In a Twitter account at KotakuHowever, Koebel stated that he had deleted his initial tweet because he realized that he had appeared to be flippant. What he was trying to show, he said, is how Amazon has pioneered many elements of our lives, online and offline, and how this makes the expression of solidarity more complex than it originally appeared.

"I think what is happening, it's this deep and strange problem where we want to fight against bad business practices (in this case, the treatment of warehouse workers) and if this was a world simpler, it would simply act to support the strike directly, "he said." Because Amazon is deeply rooted in our Internet experience, we see Amazon's secondary services, such as Twitch , and the self-employed who use these services to make a living, are attributed violations of solidarity by the association. "

Amazon's dominance and the disempowerment of workers trapped in its many tendrils, Koebel explained, puts everyone involved in a precarious position, to the point that even a simple strike can be a tenuous proposition. It's good for the business and bad for workers who want more.

"I do not know whether it is ethical or not for a particular person to issue on Twitch during Prime Day," said Koebel. "I think it's a good thing for people to avoid the services Amazon provides in solidarity. I do not know if it's the right choice for every broadcaster to risk his life during the same period. I hope people will think about how they criticize themselves. I raised a badly expressed point and I am grateful for the answer I gave to it and to have the chance to present it from another angle. Is broadcasting the same as crossing a picket line or buying a new TV on Day One? I do not know if I have a concrete answer. "