People protest in support of the union efforts of the Alabama Amazon workers in Los Angeles, California, March 22, 2021.
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters
Amazon properly defeated a union at one of its warehouses in Alabama last week, a major victory for the e-commerce giant that has long been fighting a union effort at its facilities.
Workers at the Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse voted overwhelmingly in favor of union rejection, with less than 30% of the vote. The union Retail, Wholesale and Department Store, which led the union, are set to contest the result, arguing that Amazon violated the law with some of its anti-union activities before and during the vote.
The result is a setback for organized labor, which hoped the Bessemer election would help establish a foothold at Amazon. But unions, advocates for workers and some employees at the Bessemer facility, known as BHM1, said they believe the Bessemer election will organize further efforts at other warehouses across the country. Labor leaders say the Bessemer election also revealed to the general public how long employers will be working to prevent unions.
According to several workers and union representatives who described the tactic, Amazon has launched an aggressive PR campaign at BHM1, including text messages to employees, pamphlets, a website that encouraged workers to do so without fees and kites flying in bathrooms posted to encourage workers. to vote ‘NO’. ‘
Amazon sent text messages and emails urging employees in its Bessemer, Alabama, to “vote NO”.
Amazon’s biggest opportunity to influence employees was the so-called captive audience meetings, which had to be attended by employees during their shift. Amazon held the meetings weekly from late January until polls were sent in early February. Workers sat for about 30 minutes through PowerPoint presentations to discourage union and had the opportunity to ask Amazon representatives questions.
Hearing meetings in captivity is a common tactic used by employers during union campaigns. Supporters of proposed reforms in labor legislation, such as the Protection of the Right to Organize Act (PRO), which is awaiting passage in the Senate, have argued that inmates of audience meetings serve as a forum for employers to deliver anti-union messages without giving the union an opportunity to respond. “The PRO Act will prohibit employers from making these meetings compulsory.
Amazon said it offered regular meetings in small groups as a way for employees to get all the facts about joining a union and about the election process itself.
The company also defended its response to the union campaign more broadly, citing a statement following the result that workers “heard far more anti-Amazon messages from the union, policymakers and media outlets than they heard from us.”
Why some voted ‘no’
The messages from Amazon during the meetings were more compelling to some BHM1 workers than others.
One Bessemer employee, who started working at Amazon last year, said he feels Amazon is using some scare tactics when talking to workers about the union, but also told CNBC he does not understand how the union workers at BHM1 would not help. This person, who asked for anonymity to prevent retaliation, said the RWDSU did not explain what they were going to do for workers, and did not respond to his request for information on how they helped employees at other workplaces.
Aside from his doubts about the RWDSU, this employee said he also had a primary experience working at Amazon. While some workers have complained about the stressful, demanding nature of the work, he said a previous construction job had prepared him for the physical labor of warehouse work, so he finds it easy. Amazon’s pay and benefits are also a step higher than its previous work.
Eventually, this worker voted against union.
In private Facebook groups where Amazon employees connect with each other, other BHM1 employees shared their thoughts on the union campaign. One employee was afraid that employees would lose if they voted in the union, but they would lose access to certain benefits that Amazon offers, such as the training program, where Amazon pays a percentage of the tuition fee to train warehouse workers for work in other velde.
Another worker felt that a union was not necessary, claiming that if you work hard, you can succeed at Amazon: ‘I voted no. Amazon is just a game with rules. Learn the rules, play the game, move on, win. “
Compulsory meetings
Some BHM1 workers have found Amazon’s anti-union messages too aggressive.
One BHM1 employee who works as a storekeeper, which involves the transfer of items to vacant trash cans throughout the facility, said Amazon designed the texts, flyers and mandatory meetings to convey a message that the union would not help anyone not. This worker demanded anonymity out of concern about losing their job.
The worker, who voted for the union, said he was wary of giving support to union in front of Amazon and his colleagues, and he was nervous about asking questions and rather playing dumb not to be fired.
Aerial view of the Amazon facility where workers will vote on unions in Bessemer, Alabama, March 5, 2021.
Dustin Chambers | Reuters
At a mandatory meeting held in February before the ballot was distributed, Amazon said that Amazon wanted to question how employees’ money would be spent by telling employees that the RWDSU spends more than a hundred thousand dollars a year on employee vehicles . The worker was skeptical about Amazon’s presentation and thought that Amazon probably spends a lot more on cars every year than the union did.
Trade union president Stuart Appelbaum said in an interview that the RWDSU buys cars for some representatives whose job it is to travel from workplace to workplace for organizing campaigns.
Amazon said it wants to explain to workers, especially those who had no knowledge of unions, that a union is a company that collects fees, and wants to explain how the fees can be used.
In another mandatory meeting, the two Bessemer workers told CNBC, Amazon distributed examples of previous contracts the RWDSU had won, and tried to highlight the union’s shortcomings. Amazon also claimed that the RWDSU was primarily a poultry trade union that had limited experience representing warehouse workers.
Appelbaum said poultry workers form a significant part of RWDSU membership in Alabama, and many of the organizers who led the campaign, and approached Amazon workers outside BHM1 as they closed their shifts, came from poultry plants in the area. . The union also represents workers in other industries, including retail, food production, nonprofit and cannabis, said Chelsea Connor, spokesperson for RWDSU.
In response to questions about whether the RWDSU is characterized as a poultry union, Amazon said it wants to highlight to employees how well (or badly) the union can understand their employer.
During the meetings, Amazon also tried to highlight negative outcomes from the vote for the union. Amazon has told workers the union could force workers to strike and that workers could lose their benefits in the future, employees told CNBC.
The RWDSU’s Mid-South office, which led the organization at Amazon, contradicted Amazon’s claim that the union would force BHM1 workers to strike and called it a ‘fear tactic’, according to the workers’ statement.
“Amazon has insinuated that the union will ‘pull you out of a strike’,” Randy Hadley, president of the Mid-South Council, said in a letter to employees in February, which also addresses other demands made by Amazon has. ‘Here are the facts, our membership and our membership ONLY determine whether he wants to strike with a super-majority. That means nearly 4,000 Amazon employees will have to vote to strike. A strike can be helpful when needed, but it is also very, very rare. This is another fear tactic from Amazon. ‘
Amazon said it wants to point out to workers that if there is a vote in a union, the union could call a strike, as it is the union’s main lever over an employer.
In response to questions asked if they told employees that they could lose their benefits if a union voted, Amazon said it wanted to inform employees, as part of the general union education, that there are many outcomes may be due to collective bargaining negotiations.
Not the last attempt
Amazon employees, labor leaders, and labor advocates are hopeful that the loss in Alabama will not be the last attempt to organize the retail giant’s vast workforce.
There may also be future campaigns at BHM1. The worker who voted for the union said some pro-union workers had discussed the possibility of approaching the Teamsters and pursuing a future union campaign in their warehouse.
Elsewhere, Amazon employees and unions are considering different organizational strategies. The Teamsters are communicating with Amazon executives and warehouse workers at a facility in Iowa and are considering ways to pull workers together after the election process. Amazon workers in Chicago formed a group to organize employees at facilities in the area Amazonians United Chicagoland.
A worker at an Amazon facility in New Jersey, who also requested anonymity, said they had earlier approached a union about organizing their facility. After seeing the outcome in Bessemer, the employee said he was going to the drawing board again and exploring more informal tactics to achieve the leverage.
Susan Schurman, a professor at Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations, pointed to the Alphabet Workers Union, a newly formed union of more than 800 Google employees, as a potential model for Amazon workers.
Unlike a traditional trade union, minority unions do not represent the majority of workers. They are also not recognized by the NLRB and do not act as negotiating agents with employers.
However, Schurman said minority unions could serve as a “way to majority unions” and could be a powerful tool for supporting construction workers, even before launching a formal campaign with the NLRB.
“Why don’t you stay and build an organization and stick to it?” Schurman said. “Let workers recruit new members and show the value of a joint bargaining power.”
Appelbaum, the RWDSU president, said a minority union strategy was worth considering.
“We have not yet made a decision on that, but I think we will look into it,” Appelbaum said. “We know we’re not leaving.”