As Jeff Bezos relinquishes his CEO title and is heading into space, there’s another attempt to unionize Amazon workers.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with over 1 million members, “voted overwhelmingly” to organize hundreds of thousands of Amazon’s warehouse and delivery workers and unionize them.
The Teamsters formalized a resolution to address “Amazon’s exploitation of its employees and contractors” on Thursday. The resolution states that “the union will fully fund and support the Amazon Project and supply all resources necessary” to help the online retailer’s workers.
James P. Hoffa, International Brotherhood of Teamsters general president, said, “In my more than two decades of service as Teamsters general president, I’ve yet to see a threat quite like the one Amazon presents to hardworking people, small businesses, the logistics industry and our nation’s middle class.”
Hoffa added, “Our 1.4 million Teamster members, their families and communities stand together in solidarity with Amazon workers, and we commit our union’s full support as they build worker power for a better future. I’m proud that all levels of our union have united behind these efforts and proud that this work will continue and expand under the next generation of Teamster leadership.”
The Times wrote that Bezos “discovered what he thought was another inefficiency worth eliminating: hourly employees who spent years working for the same company.” His theory of people, according to the article, is that workers expect raises. The inconvenient fact, according to the reporting, is that while people want raises, their input decreases over time. Since it’s contended that workers become disengaged and less enthusiastic as time goes on, Amazon encourages workers to leave. When they leave, the spot is presumably filled with a fresh face, eager to work.
This churn in employees keeps wages down. In an effort to jettison workers, who are believed to be depreciating assets, the New York Times wrote, “After three years on the job, hourly workers no longer received automatic raises, and the company offered bonuses to people who quit. It also offered limited upward mobility for hourly workers, preferring to hire managers from the outside.” It is reported that turnover at Amazon far exceeds that of many other companies, with an “annual rate of roughly 150% for warehouse workers.”
It’s understandable that the Teamsters are targeting Amazon. The giant retailer employs over 1 million workers. It’s the second largest employer in the U.S.—after Walmart. It would be a huge victory to get the workers unionized.
There was a prior movement to unionize workers at Amazon. A vote was taken in an Bessemer, Alabama facility to determine if the warehouse would become the company’s first unionized U.S. facility. The union efforts didn’t prevail. A union could be costly for Amazon. The company has tried to dissuade the efforts and ran a “hard-nosed campaign to sway its Bessemer workers against unionizing.” You can get a feel of the animosity from a Twitter exchange between Warren and an Amazon corporate account.
Randy Korgan, International Brotherhood of Teamsters national director for Amazon, said, “Amazon presents a massive threat to working-class communities and good jobs in the logistics industry.” Korgan added, “Amazon workers face dehumanizing, unsafe and low-pay jobs, with high turnover and no voice at work. The Teamsters have fought hard to create and protect worker standards in the warehouse and delivery industries for more than 100 years, while helping build worker power before meaningful labor laws were in place. Amazon workers are calling for safer and better working conditions, and with today’s resolution, we are activating the full force of our union to support them.”
There is also a nascent attempt of unionizing 5,000 workers on Staten Island, a borough of New York City. In April 2020, warehouse workers were concerned about Covid-19. Chris Smalls , who helped coordinate a protest walkout in Staten Island, said, “We’re not returning to work until they close the building down.” Smalls complained, “If you don’t come in because you choose to be safe with your family, they’re not paying us.”
Amazon said in a statement that Smalls was paid for the two weeks he self-quarantined. Amazon generally denies any and all accusations of unsafe environments, asserting, “These accusations are simply unfounded. We have taken extreme measures to keep people safe, tripling down on deep cleaning, procuring safety supplies that are available and changing process to ensure those in our buildings are keeping safe distances.” Amazon also raised its pay by $2 an hour for a certain time period.
After he helped organize the protest walkout, Smalls was fired from his job. Amazon claims that Smalls violated a company order to self-quarantine. The online retailer also alleges that he put his co-workers at risk of contracting the virus.
Smalls is now “spearheading an effort to unionize more than 5,000 workers at four Amazon facilities in Staten Island, including a giant warehouse.” He started an independent union, the Amazon Labor Union, unfettered from the “crushing defeat” of a previous effort to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Alabama earlier this year.
Smalls said, “New York is a union town. The bus drivers, the sanitation workers, the police, the firefighters, they’re all unionized. Everybody is related or knows somebody in a union. I believe we’ll be successful.” Smalls’ GoFundMe has collected about $4,500.
At the time of publication, Amazon had not returned requests for comment.
Source: Forbes
