In Bessemer, Alabama, Amazon workers and administrators are making door-to-door calls, playing pro-union T-shirts, and challenging anti-union messaging through Amazon's hired consultants as they try to persuade their colleagues for the second time. Trying to please. Unite their warehouse in the election, which begins with a secret ballot on Friday.
The new organizational strategy comes two months after the National Labor Relations Board ordered a Dover election to determine if Amazon had unfairly manipulated last year's first election. At the time, workers overwhelmingly rejected the union with 1,798 to 738 votes and a 53% turnout.
The retail, wholesale, and department store unions, which, like last time, are leading the union campaign, have asked for help from other unions, including those representing teachers and the postal clerk.
RWD SU President Stuart Applebaum says the union is also working with community groups such as the Greater Birmingham Ministries to spread the message that Amazon workers are not just warehouse workers but belong to communities and deserve respect. ۔
''Alabama has a long history of denying workers rights to attract corporations," said Scott Douglas, executive director of Greater Birmingham Ministries. We have to stop it.
RWD SU estimates that more than half of the nearly 6,100 Alabama facility workers who voted last year are eligible to vote in the current election. But the numbers also speak to the turnover of more workers - an issue that has made it difficult to manage efforts to gain attention in the wireless and elsewhere.
The organizers are optimistic anyway. Vaccines have made it easier for them to meet face-to-face during epidemics, as they relied on texts, emails, and phone calls last year. He also says workers are more open to unions and that new employees are noticing labor unrest that has intensified in recent months, not just Amazon but other companies such as Starbucks.
"We're telling Amazon we're going to live together. We're going to work together, and we're going to be one," said Christina Bell, a wireless worker, during a union-organized call last week.
The recurrence of the election sheds light on Amazon and how it treats its employees. At the Bessemer warehouse, pro-union workers complain of 10-hour shifts on their feet and have little time for breaks.
Amazon spokeswoman Barbara Egret responded in an email to the Associated Press that full-time employees at the wireless facility earn at least. 1580 (approximately Rs. 1,200) per hour and would have access to healthcare on the first day of work. Is, and is a Match 401 (k) program in collaboration with Match Company. In addition, Amazon will pay the full cost of employee college tuition after three months on the job. Agra added that more than 450 employees have been promoted since the warehouse opened in the spring of 2020.
"Our employees always have the choice of joining or not joining the union, and our focus is on working directly with our team to make Amazon a better place to work," Agra said. "
If the organizers are successful, the wireless warehouse will be Amazon's first union facility in the United States. The company is battling a separate effort by workers to unify a facility in New York City, where last week the fledgling Amazon Labor Union provided significant support for the vote.
RWD SU still faces a tough battle with Amazon, which has not backed down from its rival union. Workers say the company relies on consultants and managers to hold mandatory staff meetings to discuss why the union has a bad idea.
Agra defended the meetings: "If the union vote is passed, it will affect everyone on the site, which is why we host regular information sessions and ask employees questions and find out. Provide an opportunity to see what it means to them and their day-to-day life at Amazon. "
The company is also holding a controversial US Postal Service mailbox, which was key in the NLRB's decision to annul last year's vote. Amazon had argued that it wanted to make it easier for workers to vote, but NLRB said the mailbox gave the wrong impression that Amazon was running in the election.
The mailbox is then moved from the facility entrance to the other side of the parking lot. And, under the new election rules, it no longer has the mark that Amazon did last year.
But the union says the mailbox is still under camera surveillance and could give workers the false impression that they can just leave their ballots there, rather than at the post office or at home.
"The whole election was turned upside down because of the mailbox"
NLRB declined to comment. The agency will begin sending ballots to workers on Friday. The ballot must be returned.
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