Rally organized by Workers Assembly Against Racism in support of Amazon workers from a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, has the right to unite in Union Square across the Whole Foods Market owned by Amazon.
Lev Radin | LightRocket | Getty Images
A group of Democratic members of Congress traveled to an Amazon warehouse in Alabama on Friday to show support for workers amid a vocal union vote.
Among the lawmakers who visited the Amazon plant in Bessemer, Alabama, were representatives Andy Levin of Michigan, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, Terri Sewell of Alabama and Nikema Williams of Georgia. Lawmakers met with some workers from the facility, known as BHM1, before leaving for the warehouse.
“I want Amazon workers across the country to pay attention because you have to do the same in your workplace,” Bowman said Friday in a press release outside the RWDSU Mid-South Council’s Union Hall in Birmingham, Alabama. “And we’m not stopping at Amazon. It’s Lyft, it’s Uber, it’s Walmart, it’s Tesla – all the companies across the country that are still abusive and offer terrible working conditions to workers, we stand with u. “
Bowman said during the press conference that the trade union campaign in Alabama shows the need to establish better protection for workers at Amazon and other businesses in the USA.
“If workers get out of line, they get some form of deficiency, and if you accumulate enough disadvantages, you get fired from your job,” Bowman said. “Are we dealing with machines or widgets, or are we dealing with people?”
Earlier this month, nearly 6,000 workers at the Bessmer facility began voting by mail on whether they wanted to join the retail, wholesale and department store union, which launched the first major union effort within the company since 2014. Workers at the Alabama facility in November last year. informed the NLRB of their plans to vote on whether they would be represented by the RWDSU.
Legislators’ support shows just days after President Joe Biden on Sunday expressed solidarity with Amazon workers trying to unite the Bessemer facility and told them to ‘make your voice heard’. Biden did not specifically name Amazon, but he did refer to “workers in Alabama.”
Several workers from the Bessemer Amazon plant also attended the information session. Kevin Jackson, a BHM1 employee, said the union campaign is about ensuring that Amazon employees have a place at the table like everyone else. ‘
“We are here to say that we are not going to be intimidated by someone trying to say they are going to fire us because of what we want,” Jackson said.
Amazon Jackson worker Kevin Jackson speaks on the steps of RWDSU Mid-South headquarters ahead of a tour of a congressional delegation to a nearby Amazon plant to show their support for workers who will vote or unite, 10 weather forecast for Birmingham, Alabama.
Dustin Chambers | Reuters
Amazon said earlier that they respect the right of employees to join a union, but also that the employees do not need a union to get between them and the company. Amazon made clear its position on the union campaign to employees in the Bessemer facility by holding mandatory meetings declaring the case against union and setting up a website encouraging workers to do so without fees.
In a statement, Amazon spokeswoman Heather Knox urged lawmakers to visit one of the company’s fulfillment centers to observe the working conditions there.
“We hope that these members of Congress will spend the same amount of energy on raising the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour – as Amazon did for all of our employees in 2018,” Knox said in a statement. “We are proud to pay more than double the federal minimum wage, while also offering comprehensive benefits, paid off time and short- and long-term career growth – all in a safe and modern work environment.”