About 6,000 employees at an Amazon distribution center in Alabama voted Monday for or against creating a union chapter. The formation of a union would be a first for the e-commerce giant, which has thus far managed to avoid it. This act would also be the reflection of an important sign of the evolution of the labor conscience in the United States.
Bessemer, a small town of 20,000 in the heart of Alabama, has in recent months become the center of a historic union struggle in the United States. Around 6,000 employees at Amazon’s distribution center spoke out on Monday, March 29, on the creation of the first union section within the e-commerce empire in the United States.
The vote count may take several days and then it will be necessary to wait to know the result of that scrutiny that can profoundly change the landscape, not only for Amazon.
Wall against unionism
The importance of this vote is due, in the first place, to the fact that Amazon has always defended itself against unionism in the United States. In 2014, a first attempt to create a union ended up failing in a small distribution center in Middletown, in Connecticut, following an intense campaign by the group to discourage employees from voting.
The same scenario occurred a year later in Chester, Virginia. But this time Amazon was singled out by the National Labor Relation Board (the federal authority for monitoring abuses in the world of work) because of the pressure it exerted on employees. The e-commerce giant was accused of monitoring workers tempted by unionism and threatening them with sanctions.
Amazon never acknowledged using these techniques, but was forced to post a document at the Chester factory premises recognizing the rights of employees to form unions.
This history did not prevent Darryl Richardson from contacting the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU, one of the most influential unions in the United States in the large distribution sector) in June 2020. This employee wanted to create a union section in Bessemer, not for salary reasons – Amazon is known for being one of the most generous employers in the country, both in terms of pay and social protection – but to obtain better working conditions.
Darryl Richardson not only denounced the infernal rhythms and the constant pressures of the hierarchy, he also estimated that during the Covid-19 pandemic Amazon was doing very little to protect its employees. Richardson knew that the road to the vote would be full of obstacles, just as it did.
The e-commerce giant began lobbying employees after November 2020, after about half of the distribution center workers expressed interest in establishing a union section at Bessemer.
The importance of a traffic light in the union struggle
The Internet giant multiplied the mandatory informal meetings on voting problems. One way to highlight the “dangers” of a union, according to several employees of the Bessemer center interviewed by various US media.
Amazon also created a website whose sole rationale is to highlight the financial cost of unionizing. “Why not save that money to buy rather books, gifts and things that you really want?”
Employees’ cell phones are also inundated, several times a day, by text messages from Amazon to campaign against the union.
These tactics may sound like fair game, but Amazon went even further. For example, in December 2020, the company succeeded in turning the signal light at the intersection outside the distribution center to green faster.
The group claims to have wanted to help the flow of traffic, but the members of the RWDSU union emphasize that, because they cannot enter the factory premises, it is there that they meet to convince employees to vote for the creation of a union .
If Amazon is trying so hard to nip this new effort in the bud, it’s because “if a vote like that is passed in Bessemer, it can probably be successful everywhere else,” says Marc Bayard, director of the Institute for Policy Studies, a center. liberal think tank based in Washington, interviewed by the Financial Times.
Indeed, Alabama, a very conservative state, is known to be particularly hostile to unions. It is also a bastion of racism in the United States and a large majority of Amazon workers are African American. If employees demonstrate that they can overcome the natural hostility that exists in front of them in this region by unionizing, “that will be a very strong signal for the more than 400,000 workers in the 800 Amazon centers in the United States.” states the Washington Post.
Renewal of unionism in the United States?
The vote is not just a test for Amazon. It is also an important indicator of the health of unionism in the United States, which seemed moribund just over a year ago. The unionized worker rate went from 30% in the 1960s to just over 10% last year, recalls the Washington Post.
But support for unions has been renewed since the beginning of the pandemic, as the pulse between employers and workers is increasingly tilted in favor of the former because of the economic crisis. Now, more than 65% of Americans approve of the work of unions, according to a Gallup poll from September 2020. It is “the highest approval rate in more than two decades”, Times magazine specifies.
Workers in Alabama – and all across America – are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace. It’s a vitally important choice – one that should be made without intimidation or threats by employers.
Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union. pic.twitter.com/2lzbyyii1g
– President Biden (@POTUS) March 1, 2021
Unions also found an ally in the White House with new Democratic President Joe Biden. “Unions built the middle class in America and my administration will support the right of every American to unionize,” Joe Biden said in a video posted on Twitter on March 1.
Bernie Sanders, one of the main tenors of the left wing of the Democratic party, even traveled to Bessemer on Friday, March 26, to support Amazon employees in favor of the creation of a local section of the RWDSU.
For the ruling party, a vote in favor of the creation of a union within Amazon could constitute a change in the mentality of Americans. Something that the e-commerce giant also tries to avoid: going down in history as the company that, despite itself, fueled a union revival in the United States.
This article has been adapted from the original France 24 français.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/amazon-why-the-vote-for-a-union-in-alabama-is-historic/
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