Amazon Launches Aggressive Anti- Union Drive To Discourage First- Ever Warehouse Union
'Amazon intensifies 'severe' effort to discourage first-ever US warehouse union.' The Guardian, Feb. 3, 2021. Movement to unionize workers in Alabama faces tough opposition as the retail giant launches aggressive anti-union drive. - Ed. -
A push to unionize workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama is running into tough opposition as the retail giant, whose profits have boomed during the coronavirus pandemic despite concerns over worker safety, has launched an aggressive anti-union drive. If workers at the BHM1 warehouse in Bessemer, near Birmingham, succeed in their efforts they would form the first union at an Amazon warehouse in the US. The warehouse opened in March 2020, during the beginning of the pandemic. By the end of 2020, the Retail Wholesale & Department Store Union said over 2,000 workers at the warehouse signed union authorization cards ahead of the election workers filed for in Nov. 2020.
Ballots for the election are scheduled to be mailed out to about 5,800 Amazon workers on 8 February, with vote-counting scheduled for 30 March 2021.
Lawyers for Amazon are currently trying to appeal against the decision to allow the election to be carried out by mail, and have requested the election be delayed until their appeal is reviewed. Ahead of the union election, Amazon has strongly encouraged workers to vote against the union through texts, messaging, an anti-union website and several anti-union captive audience meetings with workers at the warehouse. In the texts, Amazon claims workers will “be giving up your right to speak for yourself” by signing a union authorization card and emphasizing union dues, claiming “unions are a business,” telling workers “don’t let the union take your money for nothing” and prompting them to visit their anti-union website DoItWithoutDues.com.
Amazon has also sponsored ads on Facebook featuring their anti-union website and telling workers to vote “no” in the union election. “When it comes to this union busting, it’s severe. We’ve never seen anything like it on this level,” said Joshua Brewer, an organizer with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.. Amazon’s sales and profits have boomed during the pandemic and its outgoing CEO and founder, Jeff Bezos, added more than $70bn to his net worth during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, which is now nearly $185bn.
But the company has also faced criticism for safety concerns in its warehouses.
Brewer explained some of the reasons workers have cited as wanting to form a union, with the primary one being the lack of communication between workers and managers within the warehouse as disciplinary measures are often carried out by an app, making it difficult for workers to appeal write-ups, terminations or address grievances in the workplace. Una Massey, a former level 5 area manager at BHM1, affirmed the lack of communication, disorganization, and mistreatment of workers at the warehouse. She worked at Amazon for over 4 years before she was terminated in Aug. 2020 after she claims she made several complaints about discrimination and harassment against her and other female managers from men in management, all of which were ignored...
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/03/amazon-intensifies-severe-effort-discourage-first-warehouse-union
