One last oneAmazon’s attempt to delay the vote on unionization in one of its largest stores has failed, paving the way for the first serious effort to organize the tech giant’s workers since a failed attempt in Delaware in 2014.
On Friday, the National Labor Relations Board said about 6,000 workers at the company’s compliance center in Bessemer, Alabama, could use email voting to determine if the center joins the Union of Retailers, Wholesalers and Department Stores (RWDSU). In doing so, the agency rejected objections that Amazon had previously presented to them about the union push.
Originally workers requested the right to a vote on unionization last November and NLRB thereafter granted them this right. However, Amazon quickly tried to deter and delay this scenario, filing an appeal in January, the original sentence of the Office was questioned. The tech giant also asked workers, instead of voting by email attend a face-to-face vote in situ, despite the health risks associated with the pandemic.
However, in its resolution on Friday, the NLRB said the petition to vote on unionization “does not raise substantial issues that justify the review” and could continue. The agency also thwarted Amazon’s attempt to force a vote in person. As a result of the decision, Bessemer workers will be able to start voting on the initiative next Monday, February 8, and will continue until March 29.
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Amazon fights with attempts at work organization have taken place across the country—And their tactics to deter and discourage such efforts often it involved draconian surveillance of activists and employees, included hiring Pinkterton detectives, among other things.
In the midst of all this, Bessemer has become a key point of pressure in the technology giant’s labor management conflicts. Local activism has helped galvanize the thrust of extended protections, although the company has worked hard to deter workers. That recently reported that Bessemer’s employees were being lured into “propaganda” sessions where managers are trying to “sow doubts about the union.” Perhaps this is not surprising, given that there are many reasons in this upcoming vote. How Bloomberg reports:
A defeat for the union would affect the reputation of the labor movement, which has repeatedly failed to organize the workers of the second largest private employer in the United States after Walmart. A union victory, on the other hand, would provide a tactical roadmap for the hundreds of thousands of people working at Amazon’s facilities.
“Once again Amazon workers have won another fight in their effort to win a union voice,” Chelsea Connor, RWDSU’s director of communications, said after the NLRB decision. “Amazon’s blatant disregard for the health and safety of its own workforce was demonstrated once again by its insistence on a face-to-face election in the midst of the pandemic. Today’s decision shows that it has been a long time since Amazon is beginning to respect its own employees, and allow them to cast their votes without intimidation or interference. “
When it arrived by email Friday, Amazon’s spokesman Heather Knox said the company was “disappointed” by the NLRB’s decision and said voting by mail would reduce turnout: “Our goal is for as many workers as possible to vote and we are disappointed with the NLRB’s decision. the NLRB provide the fairest and most effective format for achieving maximum employee participation, ”Knox said in a statement. He further stated that postal voting would be less effective than Amazon had planned as an alternative: a “secure on-site electoral process validated by covid-19 experts who would have allowed our associates to vote the way to, during, and their shifts already scheduled “.
Somehow, voting as you rush between companies and colleaguesdesignated tasks – as far as possiblesuper-spreader event”No more and no less, it does not seem as effective as voting from the comfort of your home. In fact, instead of seeing this as an attempt to increase voter turnout, some might even interpret it as a way to deter it.