Friday October 22, 2021
Warehouse workers organize
Amazon should get first union
Amazon is the second largest employer in the United States. But unions have so far been left out of the online giant. Warehouse workers who want to change something about this criticize that the company is fighting their plan “with all means”. But they want to continue.
Amazon in the US is faced with another attempt to form a union. An association of warehouse workers at the mail order company in New York complained on Thursday that the group was taking action against their plans “by all means”. An Amazon spokeswoman rejected this, but spoke out against the formation of unions in principle.
So far, no Amazon subsidiary in the US has managed to form a union. At the beginning of April, the first attempt of this kind at a logistics center in Bessemer, Alabama, failed. A large majority of employees voted against employee representation. Amazon had previously taken decisive action against the union plans.
“We are faced with the same strategies that were used in Bessemer, Alabama,” said the association in New York, the self-proclaimed Amazon Labor Union (ALU) now. Posters would be hung in the toilets or “external consultants who specialize in combating trade unions” would come to the workplace to “divide workers”.
“Our employees have a choice”
The ALU plans to file its application along with 2000 collected support signatures on October 25th with the US Labor Law Agency (NLRB). If approved, a vote will be held at the Staten Island location, a borough of New York. The potential future union demands, among other things, higher wages, safer working conditions and more vacation.
“Our employees have the choice to join a union or not,” Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel told AFP. But “as a company, we do not believe that unions are the best solution for our employees”. She referred to “great progress” that had already been made in recent years on the subject of salaries and occupational safety.
Amazon is criticized in the USA for the working conditions of its 950,000 employees. Unions and politicians criticize the fact that the employees at Amazon are exposed to high work pressure and permanent control. Amazon had profited massively from closed stores in the wake of the corona lockdowns. The group employs around 1.3 million people worldwide; In 2020, around 500,000 additional people were hired.