As the historic union election at Amazon in Alabama heats up, Amazon is trying all the tricks to stop the union.
Contrary to Amazon’s social distance policy, Amazon has forced employees to attend anti-union meetings and sent daily text messages to workers, suggesting that a union could potentially lead to the closure of the warehouse. Amazon even stopped local authorities from taking the time to shorten stoplights outside the plant so that union organizers could not distribute pro-union literature so that union organizers could not easily distribute pro-union literature to workers driving in their cars. .
Now Amazon is doing something that labor observers have never seen in a union election; they are offering $ 2000 “resignation bonuses” to quit.
Last night, workers across the factory received emails offering them bonuses if they just quit their jobs. The emails offer workers, who have worked two peak seasons, at least $ 2,000 to quit. If workers have been there for at least three peak seasons, they offer $ 3,000.
Some Amazon employees, who do not like their job at the warehouse, may find the bonuses an enticing bridge to quit their jobs and look for something better. Workers are even told that they would be able to return to work later after the union election if they quit.
However, if workers quit now, they will not be eligible to vote in the ongoing union election. Meanwhile, many labor observers expect Amazon to try to appoint replacements who will vote firmly against unions.
“It must be illegal. How can you pay someone to resign, ‘says 48-year-old Black Amazon worker Jennifer Bates. “They go all the way, they pull everything out.”
Under federal labor law, the bonuses can be considered bribery and can lead to the union election being thrown out. Employers are strictly prohibited from improving the material conditions of workers in the run-up to elections, and the ‘resignation bonuses’ may be the reason for the union to petition the National Labor Relations Council (NLRB) to order a new union election should RWDSU lose this round. .
“The NLRB regularly finds violations for ‘granting benefits’ to entice employees not to vote for a trade union during the ‘critical period’ between the time the petition is submitted and the election is held,” said Mike Duff. , Professor of Labor Law at the University of Wyoming. , a former prosecutor of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
However, the bonuses may fall back on Amazon. Some union supporters use the bonus offer to argue that Amazon can easily afford to pay workers more than the company wants.
“If you know they need it, why not give it as a bonus anyway,” Bates adds.
Union organizers are nervous, but despite the intimidation and anti-union tactics, they are not intimidated in their struggle to unite.
‘I think there’s this wall in front of me now. And that’s because I can not see what is on the other side, ”said Bates of the union election which will end on March 30. And I think many times in life, this is when you really need to take a step. Because just because you do not see what is on the other side, does not mean that it is not victory ”.
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