The new organising tactics come two months after the
National Labor Relations Board ordered a do-over election upon determining that
Amazon unfairly influenced the first election last year. Workers back then
overwhelmingly rejected the union in a vote of 1,798 to 738 and a turnout of 53
percent.
The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, which
like last time is spearheading the union drive, has solicited help from other
unions, including those representing teachers and postal clerks.
Stuart Appelbaum, president of the RWDSU, says the union is
also courting community groups like Greater Birmingham Ministries to amplify
the message that Amazon workers are not just warehouse workers but belong to
communities and deserve respect.
“Alabama has a long history of denying the rights of workers
in order to attract corporations," said Scott Douglas, executive director
of Greater Birmingham Ministries. ”We have to put a stop to this.”
RWDSU estimates that more than half of the roughly 6,100
workers at the Alabama facility who voted last year remain eligible to vote in
the current election. But the numbers also speak to high worker turnover — an
issue that has made it difficult for organising efforts to gain traction in
Bessemer and elsewhere.
Organisers are nonetheless optimistic. Vaccines have made it
easier for them to do face-to-face meetings during the pandemic as opposed to
the texts, emails, and phone calls they relied on last year.
They also say workers are more open to being unionised and
that new employees are taking note of the labor unrest that has become even
stronger in recent months, not just at Amazon but other companies such as
Starbucks.
“We are letting Amazon know that we are going to stick
together. We are going to work together and we are going to be one," said
Bessemer worker Kristina Bell during a union-organised call last week.
A repeat of the election puts the spotlight back Amazon and
how it treats its workers. Pro-union employees at the Bessemer warehouse
complain of 10-hour shifts on their feet with little time to take breaks.
Barbara Agrait, an Amazon spokeswoman, countered in an email
to The Associated Press that full-time employees at the Bessemer facility earn
at least $15.80 (roughly Rs. 1,200) an hour and have access to health care on
the first day of work, and a matching 401(k) programme with matching company
contributions.
In addition, Amazon will pay the full cost of employees'
college tuition after three months on the job. Agrait further noted that more
than 450 employees have been promoted since the opening of the warehouse in the
spring of 2020.
“Our employees have always had the choice of whether or not
to join a union, and our focus remains on working directly with our team to
make Amazon a great place to work," Agrait said.
If organisers are successful, the Bessemer warehouse would
be the first unionised Amazon facility in the US. The company is fighting a
separate attempt by workers to unionise a New York City facility, where last
week the nascent Amazon Labor Union lined up enough support to hold a vote.
The RWDSU still faces an uphill battle with Amazon, which
hasn't relented on its anti-union stance. Workers say the company continues to
rely on consultants and managers to hold mandatory staff meetings to talk about
why unions are a bad idea.
Agrait defended the meetings: “If the union vote passes, it
will impact everyone at the site, which is why we host regular informational
sessions and provide employees the opportunity to ask questions and learn about
what this could mean for them and their day-to-day life working at
Amazon."
The company is also keeping a controversial US Postal
Service mailbox that was key in the NLRB's decision to invalidate last year's
vote. Amazon had argued it wanted to make it more convenient for workers to
vote but the NLRB said the mailbox gave the false impression that Amazon was
running the election.
The mailbox has since been relocated from the entrance of
the facility to another part of the parking lot. And, under the new election
rules, it no longer contains the signage that Amazon erected last year.
But the union says that the mailbox is still under camera
surveillance and can leave workers under the false impression that they can
only drop off their ballots there as opposed to the post office or mailing
their ballots from home.
“The whole election was overturned because of the mailbox.
It needs to be removed," said Darryl Richardson, an Amazon worker in the
Bessemer facility.
The NLRB declined to comment. The agency will begin to send
ballots to workers on Friday; the ballots must be returned to the NLRB regional
office by March 25. Vote counting starts on March 28.
For its part, Amazon reached a settlement with the NLRB
pledging to refrain from activities such as threatening workers with discipline
or calling the police when they're engaging in union activity in exterior
non-work areas during a non-work environment.
But John Logan, director of Labor and Employment Studies at
San Francisco State University, says the settlement only required Amazon to act
within the labor law, which favours employers.
He noted the current labor law allows companies lot of
leeway, including holding mandatory meetings that can potentially intimidate
workers and send a barrage of anti-union messages throughout the workers' day.
Appelbaum and some Amazon workers say they have pushed back
at these mandatory meetings, correcting consultants or other managers on any
false statements and sometimes even shutting the meetings down.
Still, Logan says while Amazon made missteps in the last
election, it continues to get better at anti-union campaigns, figuring out what
it can and cannot do.
“They're learning, and they're becoming more sophisticated,”
Logan said.