The National Labor Relations Council (NLRB) has begun publicly voting for a proposed Amazon union in Alabama, which would be the first of its kind nationwide. The score, which is done on Zoom, may not contain all the eligible ballots, but it will give an early look at the results.
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) announced yesterday that 3,215 ballots had been received from the approximately 5,800 employees at BHM1, a fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama.
Amazon workers at Bessemer voted by mail in February and March, and the official counting process began on March 30. Representatives can challenge the voting rights of individual workers, and these ballots will not be counted during this vote – but they may later be considered eligible and may affect the outcome of the election.
BHM1 opened in March last year, and the trade union effort began to take shape not long after. Employees were frustrated with the strict and automatically applied productivity measures of the company, the grueling pace of work and an atmosphere that many described as dehumanizing and disrespectful. Amazon has received nationwide criticism over this. Last month, it further sparked controversy by falsely denying that workplace standards have led employees to urinate in water bottles rather than take bathroom breaks.
A group has reached out to the RWDSU, which represents workers in poultry plants and other businesses in the area. By November, organizers had gathered enough signatures to request the NLRB for an election held by post due to the pandemic. Voting begins in early February and ends on Monday, March 29th.
Amazon has always strongly opposed unionism: workplaces are monitored for signs of organization, contracting with consultants who break unions and firing workers who protest working conditions. Although some of the company’s warehouses are united in Europe, where labor legislation greatly facilitates organization, only one other warehouse in the US put it to a vote even before BHM1, and it was only a small group of 30 repair workers at a Delaware warehouse. And they lost.
The BHM1 drive, on the other hand, is huge: around 5,800 workers. This is not just the biggest union vote at Amazon. It would be the largest group of workers to achieve in three decades in the United States an important victory for organized labor after years of decline.
Amazon fought the effort aggressively, heavily advertising, holding mandatory anti-union meetings and sending several workers a day to workers. It protested against the vote by mail, and it pushed the U.S. Postal Service to install a mailbox near the warehouse just before the vote began. According to a move, the organizers said they could influence votes and be the reason for a challenge if they lose.
The company even changed the timing for a traffic light leaving the warehouse parking lot – a measure that Amazon said was intended to alleviate congestion during shift changes, but according to organizers, they have an important place for recruiting workers. deprived. ‘I’ve never seen Amazon fight for something like this. “I have never seen them try to push something so hard,” a longtime Amazon employee said earlier. The edge.
Amazon has so far tipped against Amazon’s union in every step, and it will have further chances to do so. Employers often stone the wall in negotiations over a first contract, sometimes for years, in an effort to survive the employees who insisted on it and discourage others from organizing. If Amazon follows this route, organizers will likely have to use protests, political pressure and other measures to get Amazon to negotiate.
Attention will also be drawn to labor activism elsewhere in Amazon. For years, the organization at Amazon warehouses consisted primarily of informal demonstrations. While they have occasionally achieved victories over specific issues, such as changing the time frame or having redundant workers repaired, the Bessemer vote shows that union offers a possible way to include more lasting improvements. The RWDSU recently said that since the launch of the BHM1 campaign, more than 1,000 Amazon employees interested in union have been contacted.