Bessemer, AL – A March 20 solidarity caravan made up of delegations from three Tennessee city Labor Councils – Chattanooga, Memphis and Nashville – traveled to meet Amazon workers who have joined the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) in Bessemer, Alabama, where they held a rally at the union hall before going to the gates of the Amazon center to hold up pro-union signs and interact with workers entering and exiting the plant.

Speakers such as RWDSU organizer “Big Mike” Foster and the Ohio politician Nina Turner highlighted the link between the struggle at Amazon, led mainly by its Black workers, and the historical connection between the labor movement and the movement for Black civil rights.

#BessemerAL #PeoplesStruggles #Amazon #RWDSU

Each day Amazon workers receive text messages from the company, often many times a day. Many of these texts have implied that if the union is voted in, then Amazon may have to close the facility, costing the workers their jobs. Union elections in the U.S. private sector are governed by the National Labor Relations Act, which states that an employer may not “Threaten employees with adverse consequences, such as closing the workplace, loss of benefits, or more onerous working conditions, if they support a union, engage in union activity, or select a union to represent them.” While these texts are a clear violation of the law, Amazon continues to send them, making it clear they will stop at nothing to keep their workers from having a voice in the decisions by joining the union.

Taking their illegal union-busting activities a step further, on February 20, Amazon sent workers emails offering a $2000 bribe in the form of a “bonus” to workers who had been there through at least two peak seasons if they agreed to quit their jobs before the union vote, and raising the price of the bribe to $3000 if they had been there through three peak seasons. To attempt to bribe your employees out of supporting a union is also in direct violation of the NLRA.

In a particularly public and brazen union-busting effort Amazon has even used their connections to get local authorities to shorten the times of the stoplights in front of the Amazon location to make it harder for union supporters to hand out union literature to their coworkers.

All of these attempts to stop the union point to the same thing. Amazon apparently knows that if the union vote goes through, their workers will have more decision-making power at their jobs, and Amazon will likely end up having to pay them more and give them better benefits. At the same time that Amazon holds meetings attempting to convince the workers that joining the union will not win them anything, they show that they know this is false by working feverishly and spending huge sums of money to stop the vote from going through.

Union supporters are using the bosses’ own tactics to help their coworkers understand the power they will have by joining the union. They argue that if the boss can afford to offer their workers thousands of dollars each in bribes to quit, then they could afford to simply pay them better to begin with.

The vote is happening over seven weeks through mail-in ballots, and voting will continue through March 30. Votes will be counted soon after that. The only thing that is clear right now is that Amazon is trying any tactic it can, legal or illegal, to stop these workers from joining the union.

#BessemerAL #PeoplesStruggles #Amazon

Bessemer, AL – Voting formally began Monday, February 8 for Amazon workers at a large distribution center in Bessemer, Alabama. They are voting on whether or not to join the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Ballots are being mailed to workers and voting will continue through March 29.

Amazon’s attempts at union busting included trying to stop the mail vote from happening by filing objections with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) insisting on an in-person vote to take place at the worksite instead of the mail-in vote that was scheduled. Attempts to make voting harder are a common practice used by professional union busters who frequently refer to themselves by names like “union avoidance attorneys” or “consultants.” These attempts at making voting more restrictive are often used when an employer believes that a vote is likely to go through, so making it more difficult improves their chances of stopping the workers from joining the union.

The NLRB threw out Amazon’s objection and ruled that the vote would continue as planned. Ballots should start hitting mailboxes in the coming days and the vote count, overseen by the NLRB, is set to begin on March 30. Joining the union at the Amazon facility in Alabama would be the first time Amazon employees successfully joined a union in the United States.

Amazon has come out clearly against their employees wish to join the union and has argued that the latest union effort lacked support from a majority in Bessemer, while also noting that it offers above-average wages and benefits. These arguments are typical ones used by professional union busters to thwart attempts by workers to join unions. The reality is that what percent of workers support joining a union is not information that is made public to the employer, and in most cases the number of union cards submitted dramatically underrepresents the amount who support the idea, because it is often not possible for the supporters to reach everyone to ask them to sign a card, meaning many supporters are never able to sign before the vote. All that is known for sure, is that at least 30% of the workers submitted cards to the NLRB requesting membership in the union, meaning the threshold was met to trigger a legally binding vote.

The attempt to join the union comes amid a series of protests around the United States over safety and working conditions at Amazon and at the same time as the coronavirus pandemic has increased workload and pressure on those employees.

In dismissing the objection to the voting process, the NLRB said that there were no substantial issues in need of review and that the safety of all involved with the voting “is best served, at this time, by avoiding the type of in-person gatherings that a manual election entails.”

Amazon is the second largest employer in the United States with more than 800,000 employees, most of who are “essential workers” who must work in person. The Bessemer location employs more than 5800 workers. If this vote is successful this would be a significant win for unions in the South and at Amazon.

#BessemerAL #union #Vote #Amazon #Alabama #Bezos

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Amazon has dramatically increased in size and now employs more than 1.2 million workers, which is up more than 50% from one year earlier. The Bessemer warehouse employs more than 5800 workers and would be the first in the United States to form a union if the vote goes through later this month.

RWDSU says that they see the organizing drive as both about fighting for union rights and about fighting for civil rights. Alabama is a right-to-work state and if these workers vote to unionize it would be a major victory for the labor movement in the South. Additionally, a vote to join the union would be significant as a road map for other Amazon workers across the country who wish to form unions and have a legally recognized voice in decisions.

Bessemer’s population is predominantly Black. Black workers have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic both in death rate, access to healthcare, and economically. RWDSU has a history of fighting alongside Black workers to form unions in the South. A Black organizer with RWDSU named Henry Jenkins reported being shot at multiple times in past union campaigns in the area, and a bomb was found in 2011 attached to his car outside of a church in Selma, Alabama.

The National Labor Relations Board ordered a mail ballot vote to take place starting on February 2, but Amazon is trying to delay the vote and instead demand an in-person vote in which each person who wished to vote would be required to drive in to vote in-person despite the pandemic. Attempting to delay votes and make it harder to cast ballots is a common tactic used to bust unions during organizing drives. The company is claiming that the union does not represent the opinions of the majority of Amazon employees, but by attempting to delay the vote, it would appear that they do not believe their own words. The vote is set to continue as planned.

#BessemerAL #PeoplesStruggles #Amazon #RWDSU