Friday, April 9th, 2021
US employees follow Jeff Bezos
Amazon prevents union formation
Amazon is the second largest employer in the United States. But unions have nothing to report in Jeff Bezos’ Giga group. That could have changed, but the initiative in the state of Alabama has failed. There is a threat of repercussions.
The world’s largest online retailer Amazon has won the eagerly watched vote on the first union in a US location. Even if the count is still ongoing, it is already clear that the majority of employees in Bessemer, Alabama, have decided against employee representation. At least 1,608 out of a total of 3,215 votes were against joining the RWDSU retail trade union. At that point there were only a little more than 600 yes-votes.
Should the result not be overturned, the multibillionaire Jeff Bezos’ group would have won the historic election and prevented the first breakthrough by a US employee representative body in its 27-year history. However, the RWDSU announced that it would contest the result and accused Amazon of having exploited a “broken voting system”. The union had campaigned for safer working conditions and fair wages.
Vote of national importance
The almost 6,000 employees of the logistics warehouse in Bessemer had almost two months to vote on the employee representatives – due to the pandemic – postal vote. The vote attracted great interest across the country, and during the election campaign the union received support from top politicians, including President Joe Biden and a number of other celebrities. In the logistics center in Bessemer, management campaigned against unions at conferences and distributed corresponding flyers in the toilets.
The RWDSU should not simply accept a defeat. The union accuses Amazon of “illegally” influencing the vote and has announced strong opposition. Observers believe that protracted legal consequences are possible. Before the election, Amazon had tried with all its might to delay the vote, but failed with an objection to the NLRB labor protection authority.
The Bezos Group was of the opinion from the start that no union was necessary, as the employees would already get everything they could stand up for. Amazon boasts one of the highest wages in the industry, comprehensive fringe benefits from day one on the job, career opportunities and a safe and modern work environment. But especially in the logistics centers, employees repeatedly complain about the high and strenuous workload and alleged surveillance.
Stressful work
Working conditions at Amazon are also a hot topic in Germany. Strikes have been ongoing since 2013 – without any tangible results in the deadlocked conflict. Most recently, the Verdi service union called on employees at six locations to go on strike for four days before Easter.
Even if Amazon was able to prevail against the RWDSU in the USA, the election campaign was in many ways embarrassing for the company. For example, after a heated Twitter dispute with a US MP, the company had to admit for the first time that delivery drivers sometimes cannot find toilets and are therefore forced to urinate in bottles under time pressure.
The group had recently benefited massively from closed stores in the wake of the corona lockdowns worldwide, as business shifted even more to the Internet. Amazon’s sales increased by 38 percent to around $ 386 billion last year, and profits doubled year-on-year to more than $ 21 billion.
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