Amazon Workers Unionizing, L.A. and 45 Cities Hold Support Rallies

Nearly 6,000 Amazon warehouse workers at the Bessemer, Alabama plant are at the center of a potentially game-changing union vote that is taking place right now through the end of March. On Feb. 8, ballots were sent to workers via mail to decide if they want to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Just getting to this point was a major victory considering the aggressive union busting tactics of the world’s largest retailer and the fact that employees are working during the pandemic. 

Workers have been subjected to aggressive anti-union messaging, but if the union drive works, Amazon could be forced to negotiate workers’ raise in pay, workplace safety conditions, and more. A victory could mean that Alabama becomes home to the first unionized Amazon workplace in the United States and could inspire Amazon workers everywhere else to unionize.

LA rally Supports Unionization Drive

A rally took place in LA as part of nationally coordinated protests in 45 cities at Amazon warehouses or Whole Foods Markets (owned by Amazon). Held in front of the notorious anti-labor law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, hired by Amazon to crush the organizing drive. Morgan Lewis, has been attacking the union movement for decades. It has backed Amazon on federal tax disputes, hazardous COVID conditions, and discrimination against pro-Black Lives Matters employees. 

The rally was sponsored by the LA Workers Assembly and featured Fernando Ramirez, a United Electrical Workers Union organizer, who told the protesters, “The only way we will win hazard pay is through struggle. We are profoundly against Amazon and its anti-worker, anti-union efforts. 

“Our union is in solidarity with the Amazon workers who are making history in their organizing drive, which is an inspiration to other workers to stand up against unsafe working conditions and low wages and exploitation in general.” 

Also speaking was Rebecka Jackson who told us, “My father tested positive while working at an Amazon warehouse in Atlanta from lack of PPE and neglected sanitation across the facility. It ended up infecting our entire family, taking them out of work for days.” 

Sonali Kolhatkar founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up with Sonali,” a radio show on Pacifica stations told the media, “As a proud union member of SAG-AFTRA at KPFK Pacifica Radio we have benefited regularly from such protections even against a small nonprofit public radio station struggling to make ends meet. 

When faced with a ruthless for-profit corporation that has built its empire on the backs of a non-unionized workforce, Amazon’s workers are on the front lines of those who most need the protections a union can provide.

Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the RWDSU, described in a Lifeissue interview what he calls “the most aggressive anti-union effort I’ve ever seen…They are doing everything they possibly can,” he said. The company has been “bombarding people with propaganda throughout the warehouse. There are signs and banners and posters everywhere, even in the bathroom stalls.”

Amazon is also texting its workers throughout the day urging a “no” vote and pulling people into “captive-audience” meetings. Unsurprisingly, resorting to the most commonly told lie about unions: that it will cost workers more money to be in a union than not. One poster pasted on the wall of the warehouse claims, “you already know the union would charge you almost $500 a year in dues.” But Alabama is a “right-to-work” state where workers cannot be compelled to join a union if they are hired into a union shop, nor can they be required to pay dues.

A slick website that the company created, DoItWithoutDues.com has photos of happy workers giving thumbs-up signs create a veneer of contentment at the company and includes scare-mongering reminders of how joining a 

union would give no guarantee of job security or better wages and benefits. It says, “Why pay almost $500 in dues? We’ve got you covered with high wages, health care, vision, and dental benefits.”

On Amazon list of “Global Human Rights Principles,” it says “We respect freedom of association and our employees’ right to join, form, or not to join a labor union or other lawful organization of their own selection, without fear of reprisal, intimidation, or harassment.”

In the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, the company attempted, but failed in a National Labor Relations Board decision, efforts to have a one-day union vote “conducted manually, in-person, making it easy for associates to verify and cast their vote in close proximity to their workplace.” 

Organizers in Bessemer had taken to engaging the workers while stopped at a red light upon leaving the Amazon warehouse, and have also held outside rallies.

So aggressive are Amazon’s anti-union tactics that 50 members of Congress sent the company a warning letter saying, “We ask that you stop these strong-arm tactics immediately and allow your employees freely to exercise their right to organize a union.” Even the company’s own investors are so shocked by the tactics that more than 70 of them signed a letter to Amazon to remain “neutral” in the vote.

The path to this union vote was paved by staggeringly high inequality that worsened during the pandemic as workers were stripped of their insultingly low hazard bonus of $2 per hour on top of their base pay of $15 per hour. Meanwhile, Amazon made billions. Former CEO, Jeff Bezos is the world’s second-richest man worth a mind-boggling$188 billion with his wealth increasing by $75 billion, over the past year alone—the same time period that about 20,000 employees tested positive for Coronavirus. The Federal Trade Commission announced Amazon had stolen nearly $62 million in tips from drivers working for its “Flex” program. 

Some Amazon employees see no need for a union. Ora Mcclendon, a “packer,” quoted in The Guardian, said working at the warehouse is great. 

“The pay is great. The benefits are awesome,” she said. “You get your benefits from day one, but at many other companies, you have to wait 60 – 90 days.” 

Mcclendon, 62, who had worked at a plastics factory, denied that the pace of work was too rapid or stressful. 

“I come from another packing plant,” she said. “I’m used to the culture. I don’t think it’s too fast. It’s fair, and it’s workable.”

She praised the fulfillment center’s managers, saying they “stress teamwork.” 

At the same time, she voiced skepticism about the union.

“I don’t know what they’re offering us. I talked to one of their leaders on the telephone, and I asked what they could bring to the table that we don’t already have, and he couldn’t give me anything. I don’t see why they want to be here.”

Another worker, Bates, 48, complains about the relentless pace and the paucity of rest breaks. “A robot can work longer than we can,” she said. “We’re human. Our bodies get tired. I think Amazon understands that, but they don’t care.”

Bates said that some co-workers are scared to support a union. 

“They’re afraid of losing their jobs,” she said. “One guy said he used to make $7 an hour and worked three times as hard and was glad to be making $15 now. He doesn’t ever want to go back to $7.” 

Union organizers said several managers had warned that the warehouse might close if the RWDSU wins. But this is what every company says when threatened with a union.

National support for unionization

Major national figures including Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Stacey Abrams, and Danny Glover are supporting the union. Other unions have been present at support rallies in Bessemer and elsewhere.

At the JFK8 Amazon Fulfillment Center, employee Chris Smalls (Interviewed by this reporter for RLNews previously and who appeared on Sixty Minutes) was fired for organizing for safety conditions and personal protective equipment for workers there. Smalls drove to Alabama to support the unionization effort. In an exclusive phone interview with Random Lengths, he spoke of his experiences there.

Smalls described traveling to Bessemer, Alabama as akin to stepping into a time machine. The East Coast labor explained that after speaking with locals in Selma and learning the history of labor organizing in their state was the most important thing to get a grasp on what they were up against. 

“I traveled with three other members of The Congress of Essential Workers who are also workers of Amazon, some coming all the way from Arizona to join us,” Smalls said. 

Smalls explained that on their first night, while doing some grocery shopping, they randomly ran into a full-time employee of Amazon Fulfillment Center – BHM1. 

“I approached her and kindly and introduced myself,” Smalls said. “Before you knew it, we [had] spoken for a half an hour. She informed me that she was on the fence and had not filled out her ballot yet. After that conversation and her learning my story, not only did she give her promise to vote yes she said she will spread the word to her co-workers as well.” 

The next day, Smalls and his team canvassed the area outside the facility in Bessemer. 

“I found out how they operated with police at every entrance,” Smalls said. “Traffic lights were adjusted by the city, so workers don’t even have the opportunity to stop and speak with union reps anymore. The hotspot for conversation was the Circle K gas station across from the warehouse. The Amazon cafeteria has a history of being overpriced with poor selections.” 

Smalls explained he’d learned that Amazon made all workers attend four classes [during their shift] in small groups, at which they were handed union busting gear. 

“Our team learned that the plant General Manager has a million dollar budget to spend on incentives to get workers to vote no,” Smalls said. 

From Smalls organizing experience, he knew workers need one-on-one conversations leading up to the last day because workers are being misinformed daily while Amazon continues to hire. 

“I shared my feedback with the lead organizers as we departed, and plan to assist back in New York and New Jersey,” Smalls said.

The union sees the historic union vote as more than just a labor struggle. Eighty-five percent of the people who work at the facility are African American. This is as much a civil rights struggle as a labor struggle. 

Appelbaum explained the situation of the modern worker best.

 “People get their assignments from a robot. They’re disciplined by an app on their phone, and they’re fired by text message. Every motion they make is being surveilled,” Applebaum said.

Amazon is transforming industry after industry, and they’re also transforming the nature of work,” Applebaum said. 

Indeed, the level to which Amazon has fought against unionization at just one warehouse in Alabama is an indication of how important it is to the company that its workers remain powerless.

For more information on the Amazon workers’ efforts to unionize at www.BAmazonunion.org.