The workforce at Amazon’s Alabama warehouse is predominantly black, and had the usual gripes about Amazon’s working conditions: Punishing workers for bathroom breaks and other time away from the floor, high production quotas, and the pay of $15 an hour, which is the minimum wage in many states (but not Alabama, where the minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour).
When some workers approached the union, those complaints seemed to offer an opening. But when the election was finally held, the union lost 1,798 to 738. How did that happen?
Amazon fought unionization ferociously, spending millions and deploying the full panoply of anti-union, including hiring $3200-a-day consultants whose job was to pressure and persuade workers to vote “no.” Employees were forced to attend frequent — sometimes daily — anti-union meetings (a practice the Biden administration wants to make illegal). Managers temporarily made nice to them.
In addition, high turnover (over 100% a year) diluted the union’s efforts, which were also hobbled by organizers’ inability to visit workers in their homes due to the pandemic. Plus, the deck was always stacked against the union:
“When people hear there’s an election, they think, well, everybody gets to vote, there’s a secret ballot,” Bruskin explained. “What they don’t understand is the company has access to the workers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and has enormous influence over their lives. They can threaten, they can give raises, they can demote, they can not grant favors. Every worker knows that.”
The union has appealed the election to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), complaining that Amazon broke the law, in which case the NLRB could throw out the results and order a new election. But the outcome was so lopsided in Amazon’s favor that it’s doubtful a new election would change it.
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