Subscribe USA Today On Friday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) made a surprise approval of a young union in an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. In the opinion, Rubio institutes the union system as a necessary response to the invasive power of Amazon, a long-standing target for Republicans.
“If the conflict between working Americans and a company whose leadership has decided to wage a war against working class values, the choice is easy – I support the workers,” Rubio wrote in the open. “And that’s why I stand with those at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse today.”
Workers at the Bessemer warehouse are voting on whether to unite, as under the supervision of the National Labor Relations Council. Amazon tried to slow down the vote or vote in person, but both attempts were ultimately unsuccessful. The election process will conclude at the end of the month, with a simple majority required to certify the union.
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which will represent the Bessemer workers if the union is successful, welcomed the call. “We welcome support from all quarters,” Stuart Appelbaum, president of RWDSU, said in a statement. “Senator Rubio’s support shows that the best way for working people to achieve dignity and respect in the workplace is through trade unions. This should not be a biased issue. ”
Amazon has launched an aggressive campaign against the union, placing material in the workplace and offering digital advertising on various platforms, emphasizing the benefits of a union-free workplace. In one incident, Amazon executives worked with local provincial officials to change the timing on a streetlight near the warehouse, which, according to union organizers, was made to obstruct the union campaign.
Because of being a conservative Republican, the approval will surprise many people – but this is not the first time Rubio has measured unions. In a Atlantic ocean in December 2018, he wrote ‘every discussion of the dignity of work should be called trade unions’, referring to his father’s experience with the Culinary Workers Union.
It is particularly important that the action does not have a general endorsement of organized labor, and that ‘conflicting labor relations are generally harmful’. Rubio also presents his support for the union conservatively and presents it as a bulwark against cultural liberalism in the workplace. “It may be workplace conditions today,” the Senator wrote, “but tomorrow it may be a requirement that workers accept the latest ‘awake’ human resourcefulness of management.”
The op-ed comes after a video statement by President Biden earlier this month, which expressed broad support for workers’ right to unite on the Alabama website and elsewhere, and warned employers against anti-union efforts in a phrase that many considered targeted at Amazon. “There may be no intimidation,” Biden says in the video, “no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda.”
The battle over the Bessemer union battle must only come before Congress next week. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, was invited to testify On Wednesday before the Senate Budget Committee next week, on the same day, a worker from the Bessemer plant will speak.
The chairman of the committee is Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), one of the earliest supporters of the Congressional Organizational Campaign. “It cannot be exaggerated how powerful it will be if Amazon employees in Alabama vote to form a union,” Sanders said. said in February. “If they win, it will not only improve wages and working conditions in Bessemer, but it will also cause a shock wave across the country.”