People are protesting to support the union efforts of Alabama Amazon workers in Los Angeles, California, on March 22, 2021.
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters
Last week, Amazon profoundly defeated a union in one of its Alabama stores, a major victory for the e-commerce giant that has long fought syndication attempts at its facilities.
Workers at the Bessemer, Alabama warehouse voted overwhelmingly in favor of rejecting unionization, with less than 30% of the vote in favor. The union Retail, Wholesale and Department Store, which led the union, intends to challenge the result, arguing that Amazon broke the law with some of its anti-union activities before and during the vote.
The result is a setback for organized labor, which he hoped Bessemer’s election would help establish a foothold on Amazon. But unions, workers’ advocates and some employees of the Bessemer facility, known as BHM1, said they believe the Bessemer election will further fuel organizational attempts at other warehouses across the country. Labor leaders say Bessemer’s election also revealed to the general public how long employers will go to avoid unions.
According to several workers and union representatives who described the tactics, Amazon launched an aggressive public relations campaign at BHM1, including text messages to employees, brochures, a website urging workers to “do it without quotas” and flyers posted in the toilets urging workers to “vote” NO “”
Amazon sent text messages and instant emails to workers at its Bessemer, Alabama facility to “vote NO.”
Amazon’s greatest opportunity to influence workers came in the form of so-called captive audience meetings, which workers had to attend during their turn. Amazon held meetings weekly from late January until votes were sent in early February. Workers were for about 30 minutes through PowerPoint presentations discouraging unionization and were given the opportunity to ask questions to Amazon representatives.
Captive audience meetings are a common tactic used by employers during union campaigns. Proponents of proposed reforms to labor legislation, such as the Right to Organize Act (PRO) that is expected to be passed in the Senate, have argued that captive public meetings serve as a forum for employers to send anti-union messages opportunity to respond. ”The PRO Act would prohibit employers from making these meetings mandatory.
Amazon said it organized ongoing meetings in small groups as a way for employees to learn all the facts about joining a union and about the electoral process itself.
The company also defended its response to the union campaign more broadly, arguing in a statement after the result that workers “heard far more anti-Amazon messages from the union, political leaders and the media than they knew about us. “
Why some voted “no”
Amazon’s messages at the meetings were more compelling for some BHM1 workers than for others.
A Bessemer employee, who started working at Amazon last year, said he felt Amazon used some scare tactics when talking to workers about the union, but he also told CNBC he didn’t understand how the union would help BHM1 workers. This person, who asked for anonymity to avoid retaliation, said RWDSU did not explain what they would do for the workers and did not respond to their request for information on how they had helped employees from other jobs.
Beyond his doubts about RWDSU, this employee said he also had a mostly positive experience working for Amazon. While some workers complained about the stressful and demanding nature of the job, he said previous construction work prepared him for the physical work of the warehouse, so he finds it easy. Amazon’s salary and benefits are also a step further than their previous work.
In the end, this worker voted against unionization.
In private Facebook groups where Amazon workers engage, other BHM1 employees shared their thoughts on the union campaign. One worker feared that if the union was voted on, employees would lose access to certain benefits provided by Amazon, such as its training program, where Amazon pays a percentage of tuition costs to train warehouse workers for jobs. work in other fields in high demand.
Another worker felt that a union was not necessary, and stated that if you work hard you can succeed on Amazon: “I voted no. Amazon is just a game, with rules. Learn the rules, play, go up, win. “
Mandatory meetings
Some BHM1 workers found Amazon’s anti-union messaging too aggressive.
A BHM1 employee working as a gardener, which involves transferring items to empty storage containers throughout the facility, said Amazon designed the texts, flyers and mandatory meetings to convey a message the union would not help. no one. This worker applied for anonymity out of concern for losing his job.
The worker, who voted in favor of the union, said he was wary of being in favor of unionization in front of Amazon and his co-workers and was nervous when asked questions, instead of becoming dumb to avoid being fired. .
Aerial view of the Amazon facility where workers will vote if unionized, in Bessemer, Alabama, March 5, 2021.
Dustin Chambers Reuters
At a mandatory meeting held before the distribution of ballot boxes in February, this worker said, Amazon tried to doubt how workers’ dues would be spent by telling workers that RWDSU spent more than $ 100,000 a year on vehicles. for employees. The worker was skeptical of Amazon’s presentation, thinking that Amazon would probably spend a lot more on cars each year than the union.
Union President Stuart Appelbaum said in an interview that RWDSU buys cars for some representatives who aim to travel from one workplace to another to organize campaigns.
Amazon said it wanted to explain to workers, particularly those who had no prior knowledge of unions, that a union is a company that charges dues and explain how those dues can be used.
At another mandatory meeting, the two Bessemer workers told CNBC, Amazon distributed examples of previous contracts RWDSU had won, trying to highlight the union’s shortcomings. Amazon also claimed that RWDSU was primarily a poultry union that had limited experience representing warehouse workers.
Appelbaum said poultry workers account for a significant portion of RWDSU’s membership in Alabama, and many of the organizers who led the campaign and approached Amazon workers outside of BHM1 when they finished their shifts came from poultry plants. close. The union it also represents workers in other industries, including retail, food production, nonprofits and cannabis, said Chelsea Connor, a spokesman for RWDSU.
In response to questions about whether it characterized RWDSU as a poultry union, Amazon said it wanted to highlight workers ’degree of understanding (or misunderstanding) of their employer’s union.
During the meetings, Amazon also tried to highlight the negative results that could result from the union vote. Amazon told workers the union could force workers to strike and that employees could lose their benefits in the future, workers told CNBC.
RWDSU’s Mid-South office, which ran the organization on Amazon, countered Amazon’s claim that the union would force BHM1 workers to go on strike, calling it a “fear tactic,” according to the communications distributed to workers.
“Amazon has hinted that the union will ‘strike you,'” Randy Hadley, chairman of the Mid-South Council, said in a letter to workers in February, which also addresses other claims made by Amazon. “Here are the facts, our membership and our membership NOT MORE controls whether or not to attack with a super majority. That means about 4,000 Amazon workers would have to vote to go on strike. A strike can be helpful when needed, but it is also very, very rare. That’s another Amazon scare tactic. “
Amazon said it wanted to point out to workers that if a union is voted on, the union could call a strike, as it is the union’s main leverage over an employer.
In response to questions about whether workers were told they could lose their benefits if a union was voted on, Amazon said it wanted to inform employees, as part of general union education, that there are many results that they may result from collective bargaining negotiations.
It is not the last effort
Amazon employees, labor leaders and workers’ advocates hope the loss in Alabama will not be the last attempt to organize the retail giant’s workforce.
There may also be future campaigns in BHM1. The worker who voted for the union said some union employees have discussed the possibility of approaching the Teamsters and conducting a future union campaign at their warehouse.
Elsewhere, Amazon workers and unions are considering different organizational strategies. Teamsters communicate with Amazon drivers and warehouse workers at a facility in Iowa and study ways to bring workers together beyond the election process. Amazon workers in Chicago have formed a group to organize employees at facilities in the area Amazonians Units Chicagoland.
An employee of an Amazon facility in New Jersey, who also requested anonymity, said he had previously approached a union to organize his facility. After seeing the result in Bessemer, the worker said he would return to the drawing board and study more informal tactics to achieve leverage.
Susan Schurman, a professor at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, pointed to the Alphabet Workers Union, a union recently formed by more than 800 Google employees, as a potential model for Amazon workers.
Unlike a traditional union, minority unions do not represent the majority of workers. They are also not recognized by the NLRB and do not act as bargaining agents with employers.
However, Schurman said minority unions can serve as a “path to majority unions” and can be a powerful tool for generating support for workers even before launching a formal campaign with the NLRB.
“Why not stay and build an organization and keep going?” Schurman said. “Let workers hire new members and demonstrate the value of a collective bargaining power.”
Appelbaum, the president of RWDSU, said a minority union strategy “is worth thinking about.”
“We haven’t made any decisions on that yet, but I think we’ll look at that,” Appelbaum said. “We know we’re not going to leave.”