Tech

Unions face historic votes at Amazon


Bradley Moss is Have a busy year. A consultant for the union avoidance firm The Burke Group, Moss was Amazon traveled across the United States from Bessemer, Alabama, to Staten Island, New York, holding meetings and traversing warehouse floors to try to convince 12,000 workers at two warehouses to vote against unionization.

Friday marks the end of voting at election at BHM1, Warehouse Bessemer where the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) is starting to work after Amazon was discovered to have Labor law violations in last year’s election. In the first vote last March, the union lost by more than two to one. Meanwhile, another election runs through Friday through March 30 at the JFK8 facility on Staten Island, home to the independent Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which includes current and former employees. employees, are facing their first challenge of representing Amazon warehouse workers.

Both face difficulties, in part because of weak US labor laws that favor employers. Amazon has poured millions of dollars into an anti-union campaign, flying into anti-union consultants like Moss, who are paid $375 an hour, according to testimony from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ) last year. Union organizers said the company held mandatory anti-union meetings around the clock, sent consultants to speak directly to workers, distributed anti-union flyers and bought anti-union goods. Facebook Ads. Unions have filed dozens of unfair labor practices allegations during their campaigns, accusing the company of activities ranging from illegally removing pro-union leaflets to retaliation against workers. trade union support.

Courtesy of Jason Alexander
Courtesy of Jason Alexander

Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel wrote in a statement: “Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. “They always have. As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees. Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work.”

Workers at both warehouses complain of low wages, job insecurity, high turnover rates, and insufficient rest time during their 10-hour plus shifts. The minimum hourly wage at JFK8 is around $18, which some employees say is a low wage relative to the cost of living in New York. ALU organizers say some workers sleep in their cars in garages, while others work multiple jobs for a living. “The first thing I would like to see change is the fundamental recognition that we are human beings, and not just a means of helping them make more money and get as many packages as possible,” said Isaiah Thomas, a of the workers said. at BHM1. “Because it costs people. Everyone died there.” In May, a worker died after reported collapse at the base.

Staten Island ALU organizers, which went public with their union last April, say they saw what happened in Bessemer and learned from it, building an alliance that Amazon will try to fight. They found that one of the company’s strategies during the BHM1 election, common in anti-union campaigns, was to portray unions as outsiders rather than as a group driven by workers. control. “That’s why we chose to be independent,” said Connor Spence, an ALU staff member. “Because when you form an established union, Amazon just paints them as a greedy third party hunting down Amazon employees. But when unions are Amazon employees, just a grassroots organization in a warehouse, it’s harder for them to attack us. They are still trying. But they were a bit discredited when people found out that we were just workers.”

Although both unions participate in the same giant company in back-to-back elections, they are not equivalent. Some in the labor movement abbreviated ALU when it first started, noted San Francisco State University professor of labor studies John Logan. As a new union with all employees volunteering and with no membership income, they have fewer resources than an established union, limiting their ability to do more expensive work. Effort is like knocking on the door. Their main source of funding is GoFundMe . page. The organizers had to withdraw their original election petition in November when it failed to hit the 30% signature threshold because too many of the people who signed it left the company. (Amazon’s company-wide annual sales rate is reported to be 150%, a major challenge for organizers. Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, attributes some of this to tenants. short term signed to earn extra income.) They still haven’t organized a single workplace, let Logan say: “the richest and most sophisticated anti-union company on the planet”.

While Logan considers the win to be a long shot, “anyone who thinks they don’t know what they’re doing, I think that’s just fatally wrong,” he said. “I think there is a strategy there, which involves the rather sophisticated use of media and social media to create an atmosphere of excitement and energy around the campaign.”

Over the past few months, organizers have covered Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok with swaggering, warlike images and close friendship. They appeal to union vandals by Name. They posted the video from inside the warehouse accused of labor law violate. The crow about the anti-union closure the meeting. They advertise theirs Celebrity support. “If they say something optically super disgusting, we’ll leak it online,” Spence said.





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