Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama will not be forming a union.
The vast majority of votes cast by Amazon’s workers in Bessemer, Ala., were against joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in a stinging defeat of the union drive. The final tally showed 1,798 votes against unionizing and 738 votes in favor of the union.
This is from a news story from National Public Radio. The piece, by Alina Selyukh, is “It’s a No: Amazon Warehouse Workers Vote Against Unionizing in Historic Election,” NPR, April 9, 2021.
One nice thing about the news story is how objective it was. She gave both the union’s side, Amazon’s side, and, to some extent, the side of workers who didn’t want a union.
The lopsided vote, with 71% of those who voted saying no, suggests that they don’t see themselves gaining from having a union.
Here’s a quote from an Amazon statement after the election:
It’s easy to predict the union will say that Amazon won this election because we intimidated employees, but that’s not true. Our employees heard far more anti-Amazon messages from the union, policymakers, and media outlets than they heard from us. And Amazon didn’t win—our employees made the choice to vote against joining a union. Our employees are the heart and soul of Amazon, and we’ve always worked hard to listen to them, take their feedback, make continuous improvements, and invest heavily to offer great pay and benefits in a safe and inclusive workplace. We’re not perfect, but we’re proud of our team and what we offer, and will keep working to get better every day.
Actually, Amazon did win, but so, probably, did the majority of the employees who voted no.
Here’s an interesting nugget from Sebastian Herrera, “Amazon Workers in Alabama Vote Against Forming a Union,” Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2021:
“A lot of us are in agreement that we don’t need anybody there to speak for us and take our money,” said Cori Jennings, 40 years old, who works there and voted against unionizing. Ms. Jennings, who talked to The Wall Street Journal before the results were final, said she and many of her colleagues were also eager for the national attention to fade: “We want our lives to go back to normal.”
For more, see what I said about the issues in that election last month.
READER COMMENTS
David Seltzer
Apr 11 2021 at 6:46pm
I was raised in Gary Indiana. During the 1960’s and 70’s several steel mills in NW Indiana were serviced by no less than 25 machine shops, foundries and casting plants. One summer I worked in one of the machine shops where unionizing the machinists was discussed and voted on. The Vote was NO. When one of the machinists was asked why they decided against unionizing by a local news outlet, he said “it makes us less competitive.”
Alan Goldhammer
Apr 12 2021 at 9:07am
I wonder how many of those shops are still open today.
David Seltzer
Apr 12 2021 at 9:59am
Alan,
They left when the Steel mills left Gary, Chicago, Pittsburgh, I could go on. Todays machine tool technology is more efficient with fewer shops and fewer operators who are more productive. many, if not most, are open shops.
Alan Goldhammer
Apr 12 2021 at 9:10am
As opposed to the quick news items in the paper or the airwaves, one might turn to Alec MacGillis’s fine new book on Amazon, “Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One Click America.” A more thorough presentation of the labor and safety issues at Amazon warehouses is presented. It is well worth reading.
Stéphane Couvreur
Apr 13 2021 at 6:37am
Would the federal and/or state law allow the 738 in favor to form a union on their own?
robc
Apr 13 2021 at 6:48am
Freedom of Association is entirely dead, as far as I can tell.
Stéphane Couvreur
Apr 13 2021 at 6:58am
Thanks. That was my question, indeed…
Christophe Biocca
Apr 13 2021 at 7:26am
Federal law does allow for it. Looking around there’s a few mentions of it being an option in this particular case, so I don’t think it’s banned under state law.
It’s not done very often because there’s no affirmative duty under the NLRA for employers to bargain with such unions, so they have much less power beyond what arises naturally from “we’ll all quit if you don’t agree to these demands”.
David Henderson
Apr 13 2021 at 10:05am
Christophe’s answer is correct. What gives the union power is two things: (1) the requirement that the employer deal with them and (2) its monopoly over the whole labor force at the location, whether or not the employees want to be represented by the union.
Comments are closed.