Partial count shows Amazon workers rejecting union by a 2-to-1 margin

[SilentPanda]

A closely watched effort to unionize an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama appears to be headed for defeat. With about half the votes counted, 1,100 workers have voted against forming a union, while only 463 voted in favor.

The National Labor Relations Board is counting the 3,215 votes that were cast by workers at the Bessemer facility. The union needs to win at least half the votes in order to become the official representative of the roughly 6,000 workers at the Bessemer facility. Counting has ended for the evening and is scheduled to resume at 8:30 AM Central Time on Friday.

Click to shrink...

The stakes are high for both Amazon and the labor movement. Amazon has more than 1.1 million workers overall, with hundreds of thousands working in fulfillment centers. A successful vote in Bessemer would embolden labor organizers at other Amazon fulfillment centers around the country. An organized workforce could force dramatic changes in the way Amazon manages its warehouses.

Click to shrink...

Amazon mounted an aggressive campaign against unionization. The company posted anti-union literature all over its facilities, including in bathroom stalls. Employees were required to attend regular meetings where Amazon presented anti-union arguments.

Click to shrink...

"Our system is broken," said Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union that led the organizing effort, in a statement to the Washington Post. "We will be calling on the labor board to hold Amazon accountable for its illegal and egregious behavior during the campaign."

Click to shrink...

Amazon workers in Bessemer have voted not to form a union

The unionization vote had huge stakes for Amazon and the labor movement.

arstechnica.com

Alabama warehouse workers on track to reject forming Amazon’s first US union

Results have not yet been finalized, but workers so far have voted 1,100-463 against forming a union at the Bessemer facility

www.theguardian.com

This might be useful to add to the OP.

Click to shrink...

So are people not voting yes, because they are afraid if they do vote that way, they will lose their job?

 

[chefbags]

That's very likely. I've seen how that could happen back when I was in amazon. Hints of any types of union talk and you're super gone.

Amazon is fucking dangerous. I'm sure they've used all sorts of ways to threaten the workers or have constant propaganda that unions are bad.

 

[chokeartist]

Amazon workers in Bessemer have voted not to form a union

The unionization vote had huge stakes for Amazon and the labor movement.

arstechnica.com

Alabama warehouse workers on track to reject forming Amazon’s first US union

Results have not yet been finalized, but workers so far have voted 1,100-463 against forming a union at the Bessemer facility

www.theguardian.com

So are people not voting yes, because they are afraid if they do vote that way, they will lose their job?

Click to shrink...

they know that amazon will just up and leave.

 

[Fat4all]

honestly, not too shocking

 

[Aprikurt]

Bald, conspicuously moustachioed Amazon worker "Jeb Bezon" is thought to be behind the anti-union sentiment

 

[Batarang]

Not surprised. It's Alabama. Red states will always vote against their best interests.

 

[Carbon]

they know that amazon will just up and leave.

Click to shrink...

Yup, unfortunately nothing is tying Amazon to any one location, especially not with distribution.

But someone HAS to at least try until slow-ass legislators finally start taxing and regulating Bezos-brand late-stage capitalism.

 

[thefit]

Not surprised. It's Alabama. Red states will always vote against their best interests.

Click to shrink...

This was always the part that got me about all this. Why would you start the effort in a red state?

 

[Deleted member 82064]

Or maybe people have given up on unions? I left my union since I have no interest give money for them so they can sell out the young workers and please the seniors who only have couple of years left in their career anyway.

edit. Given that with Amazon you can't actually do worse with union.

 

[Atom Heart Mother]

Or maybe people have given up on unions? I left my union since I have no interest give money for them so they can sell out the young workers and please the seniors who only have couple of years left in their career anyway.

Click to shrink...

People have given up on unions because unions in this country have been cracked down hard. It's a cycle of constant shitty things.

 

[sbenji]

40 years of concerted disinformation about unions and workers rights in the US on display. South is really anti union. Surprised if the vote is as close as 2 to 1 against.

 

[KtSlime]

It's likely that lots of Americans have bought into the anti union propaganda they are fed.

 

[deimosmasque]

We are all brainwashed at an early age to be anti-union in the US.

See the unions are all run by the mob and are really just about making criminals richer. Your union dues go to that don't you know.

The popularity of mafia movies and shows help reinforce that.

 

[Dekim]

A $15/hr job in Alabama is pretty decent money. I'd imagine workers are scared of Amazon up and leaving instead of dealing with a union, which I'm sure Amazon management conveyed to workers not-so-subtlety before the vote. If you are an Amazon worker in Alabama, where do you think you can find another $15/hr job in the state? No reason to take the risk.

 

[loco]

Maybe i need to read the article more but would love to see what the union is offering compared to what they are already getting.

 

[Josh5890]

That 2 to 1 ratio does not surprise me at all.

 

[KtSlime]

Maybe i need to read the article more but would love to see what the union is offering compared to what they are already getting.

Click to shrink...

Future bargaining power at least.

 

[RastaMentality]

A $15/hr job in Alabama is pretty decent money. I'd imagine workers are scared of Amazon up and leaving instead of dealing with a union, which I'm sure Amazon management conveyed to workers not-so-subtlety before the vote. If you are an Amazon worker in Alabama, where do you think you can find another $15/hr job in the state? No reason to take the risk.

Click to shrink...

Yup

 

[eZn]

Amazon had a mailbox placed at the facility so employees could vote there. So it's safe to assume some ballots were filled out and mailed with management standing over their shoulder.

 

[TeaberryShark]

I fear for my job, I don't work at Amazon, but thanks to some fuckery (of which I made a thread about recently) involving management, there has been union talk going around our plant. They brought in a union buster guy to give us a big lecture on how bad unions are and yadda yadda' the end of the presentation it was Q and A and it got pretty heated with everyone, I asked him, if he was there to give us the facts, why wasn't he sharing the stage with someone representing the union so we could hear both sides? I'm afraid I flushed a fifteen year job down the toilet :/ There are a lot of people who are just fine with the "devil you know" and will never rock the boat because they don't realize how taken advantage of they are until its too late.

 

[eZn]

Also $15/hr with benefits is a lot better than fast food or retail are paying. So some of the employees are probably fairly happy.

Amazon circulated this news story around to help the No vote. In 2018 a local in Boston sent seasonal employees home with $0 paychecks

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2018/12/20/i-team-seasonal-ups-workers-entire-paychecks-teamsters-union/

Teamsters local 25 gave a ton of ammunition to anti-union folks.

So I can certainly understand why someone might vote against unionization.

 

[leder]

Also $15/hr with benefits is a lot better than fast food or retail are paying. So some of the employees are probably fairly happy.

Click to shrink...

It's a lot worse than comparable union warehouse work though

 

[Fleck0]

It's likely that lots of Americans have bought into the anti union propaganda they are fed.

Click to shrink...

Yeah this definitely didn't help. Years ago I worked at macy's for a few weeks and during orientation they had a whole anti-union segment with filmed company skits to scare people. Apropos of nothing too, there wasn't an active effort to unionize at the time.

 

[VirtuaModel]

This might be useful to add to the OP.

 

[Armadilo]

people don't like the idea of having to pay for the union, plus $15 in Alabama is pretty damn good, but in a place like amazon unions would help

 

[SageShinigami]

Yup

Click to shrink...

Bruh that DC number is wild. $30?! NY is only $25!

 

[nelsonroyale]

This is democracy in name only....if this was monitored by a electoral committee with any impartiality it would be equivalent to free and fair elections in Thailand or Belarus...This is just an example of engineering an outcome through coercive force.

Fuck Bezos. Fuck Amazon.

 

[Perkin_Warbeck]

The most depressing one for me was the Chattanooga VW plant rejecting unionization. It's going to take a lot more work to reverse the damage of decades of anti-union propaganda with nary a counter message.

 

[Perkin_Warbeck]

Bruh that DC number is wild. $30?! NY is only $25!

Click to shrink...

DC is just city remember. You have upstate NY counting in the statewide average.

 

[JonaB1986]

Not surprised. It's Alabama. Red states will always vote against their best interests.

Click to shrink...

Jefferson County is a blue county, and Bessemer is a mostly minority city. This isn't a Dem vs. GOP thing. This is straight up Amazon scare tactics.

 

[eZn]

I feel like if we get one warehouse to vote Yes and the negotiate higher wages and benefits then the other locations will start to follow suit.

 

[SilentPanda]

This might be useful to add to the OP.

Click to shrink...

Add to top post

 

[Tapiozona]

Bruh that DC number is wild. $30?! NY is only $25!

Click to shrink...

Because it's averaged across the entire state. NY has the upstate areas that are far cheaper than Manhattan while DC doesn't have that luxury of space and rural areas to average down

 

[Zona]

It's not like this is shocking, in the heydays of Unions in this country they never managed to gain a serious foothold in the south.
Mostly due to racism mind you.

 

[farmland]

Very depressing result if this holds.

 

[Thorn]

Decades of propaganda against unions, deep red state, and implied threats? Yeah this never had a chance.

 

[nekkid]

I just can't fathom a culture where you feel so threatened because you're thinking of joining a union.

 

[Commedieu]

I just can't fathom a culture where you feel so threatened because you're thinking of joining a union.

Click to shrink...

america hates unions...

except for...

firefighters, postal workers, police, security, film, teachers/education uhm.. and many many more.

Its weird how the stigma of "i dont want a union tellin ME what to DO!" sticks when these unions are untouchable and unfortunately in some cases, really go to bat for their union (Police.)

 

[takriel]

That is fucking insane. They're actively voting against their own interests.

 

[RayFoxII]

That is fucking insane. They're actively voting against their own interests.

Click to shrink...

Are they though? If a yes vote means better working conditions for only a few months before Amazon shuts down the warehouse is that really in their own interests? It's sad that this is the way it is but Amazon will just move the warehouse if this passed. They're voting to keep their jobs basically. The whole system needs to be changed.

 

[Nobleman Swerve]

The most depressing one for me was the Chattanooga VW plant rejecting unionization. It's going to take a lot more work to reverse the damage of decades of anti-union propaganda with nary a counter message.

Click to shrink...

As long as the specter of the corporation shutting everything down the moment a plant unionizes hangs over these elections, I don't think much can change.

Especially regarding the situation with Amazon. It would one thing if this was a national drive to unionize, but one center in the middle of Alabama going it alone just creates so much more risk for the employees.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

I mean it's no surprise, working at these companies they are so overly anti-union everyone is scared they'd get fired and regardless of a successful outcome the corporations are so big they can just shut the shit down and move away.

I mean personally working at Walmart(in Alabama also) discussion of the apparent union busting in Texas had people scared to even have the word come up where Walmart could hear about it

Anti-union stuff is literally ingrained from day 1 orientation programs.

 

[Haint]

What sort of wages do you expect a union would demand if successful? $30 - $50hr?

 

[fragamemnon]

Yes, Amazon used the textbook approach to counter-organizing that's well known in corporate America, but I'm not sure that the union getting blasted like this is solely attributable to that. Fix the laws if you want that to stop, we haven't passed a labor bill in a half century. I don't think intimidation was the difference here. The cost-benefit calculus and risk assessment of the situation by the workers really matters.

The wages/benefits for workers in a place like Bessemer were likely within or above expectations of the employees for the area given other unskilled opportunities (AL has no minimum wage law at all, so it's federal minimum wage). The compensation is higher because the work is really hard. Many workers likely thought they could get a better deal for improved working conditions w/ the company than the opportunity cost (and there is one) that a union would bring the to the table.

I feel like the answer here is sectoral bargaining so that the potential drop-off in wages/benefits is not so high if Amazon was to bring in a giant army of robots to run the warehouse. Workers wouldn't fear that their next job would start at 65-70% of what they make now and lack health insurance. Amazon would already be working with a union so working with a workplace union on top of that wouldn't be quite so dramatic.

 

[Lishi]

What sort of wages do you expect a union would demand if successful? $30 - $50hr?

Click to shrink...

Well, their job would be demand as much as they can get away.
Since probably their existence itself mean that amazon will try to close shops. I doubt their they have so much margin.

 

[Clefargle]

As an Alabamian I can confidently say that there is a huge chance these people voted against their interests, happens every damn day down here

 

[Li bur]

Aside from pressure of getting fired, how do they sell the idea that union is bad?

 

[Deleted member 92267]

Yup

Click to shrink...

Really want more details on this post, is this like purchasing a one-bed room apartment?

You need to make above $60,000 to afford to live in Hawaii?

 

[chaobreaker]

Amazon implicitly gave those Bessemer workers the choice between being able to have a roof over your head and food to eat versus not having to piss in a bottle for work.

This is were the Feds are supposed to step in and enact better labor laws and the $15 minimum wage. Make their threats toothless and maybe people won't be afraid to push for unionization.

 

[Clefargle]

Amazon implicitly gave those Bessemer workers the choice between being able to have a roof under your head and food to eat versus not having to piss in a bottle for work.

This is were the Feds are supposed to step in and enact better labor laws and the $15 minimum wage. Make their threats toothless and maybe people won't be afraid when their managers are breathing down their necks while they put in their ballots.

Click to shrink...

Ok just a couple of friendly corrections:

- This Amazon facility in Bessemer already pays 15$ an hour wage iirc

- It's a roof over their heads