.png "back to home page")
The election in Bessemer [www.aboutamazon.com]/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69105585/GettyImages_1231457370.0.jpg)
Amazon has released a statement on the union election results in Alabama
— Rebecca Rainey (@RebeccaARainey) April 9, 2021
“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 ...”https://t.co/GjebjCE2Jp
The vote today at the Alabama Amazon warehouse is extremely disappointing. Makes no sense that people would vote against having more rights and a voice in their workplace. We need to think again about how we are communicating the case for organising & tus https://t.co/v3leXS8uWB
— Faiza Shaheen (@faizashaheen) April 9, 2021
The willingness of Amazon workers in Bessemer to take on the wealthiest man in the world and a powerful company in an anti-union state is an inspiration. It takes an enormous amount of courage to stand up and fight back, and they should be applauded. https://t.co/vWHyEjnz8P
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 9, 2021
"The only way to bust a union is to lie, distort, manipulate, threaten, and always, always attack. Each ‘union prevention’ campaign, as the wars are called, turns on a combined strategy of disinformation and personal assault." https://t.co/1ViCzvqcfR
— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) April 10, 2021
This is very grim. https://t.co/EFIBGiiQwP
— Emily Best (@emilybest) April 9, 2021
If you want to understand why the Amazon union vote in Bessemer is so important, and why the U.S. economy is so rigged in favor of the wealthy, so unequal, this one graph - that we aired on my @MSNBC show on Sunday night - should do the trick: pic.twitter.com/ie1uAsGGKV
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 8, 2021
2/2 In the end, less than 16% of the employees at BHM1 voted to join the RWDSU union. Read more here. https://t.co/ofQ1gH01ZV
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) April 9, 2021
The union defeat at Amazon’s Alabama facility is dramatic & stunning.
— (((Charles Fishman))) (@cfishman) April 9, 2021
Vote not close:
• 1,798 votes against union
• 738 in favor of union
71% to 29% — union failed to persuade workers of its value, in a very tightly managed workplace.
https://t.co/6CcqVE7Kq0
Amazon broke many laws in their efforts to bust the union. There will be another election soon.
— Max Berger (@maxberger) April 9, 2021
The results today aren’t the end of the fight. They’re just the beginning. https://t.co/D77QAqZE16
In countries where union laws favor employees, some Amazon workers have successfully negotiated pay raises through their union. In Bessemer, workers had a much tougher road to travel.https://t.co/LgcqlHF1JV pic.twitter.com/oNpXaY3J53
— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) April 10, 2021
NYT--Labor leaders & progressive activists say they intend to escalate both the ground war & air war against Amazon after the failed union election
— Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) April 9, 2021
More than 1,000 Amazon workers across the country have contacted the retail workers union in recent monthshttps://t.co/xsAtzQR9oL
The big takeaway from the Amazon loss should be that the playing field is tilted heavily against unions when facing anti-union employers. Amazon had access to its workers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, while U.S. law let Amazon bar union organizers from entering the warehouse https://t.co/4O8SZAR2zo
— Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) April 9, 2021
The Amazon workers who voted for a union in Bessemer are already winners. This is just the first round. Amazon did things to intimidate & suppress the vote. The workers are filing complaints, & they will continue to stand up.
— Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (@RevDrBarber) April 9, 2021
The @BAmazonUnion workers have shown incredible courage to stand up and fight one of the world’s most powerful union-busting companies in one of the most anti-labor states in the country. https://t.co/ma1NW60rtq
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 9, 2021
Scholars will be arguing about @amazon for decades to come. A worker who voted against the union: “Amazon is the only job I know where they pay your health insurance from Day 1. This was not an African-American issue,’’ said Ms. Stokes, who is Black. https://t.co/OQji32HEyg
— Julia Vitullo-Martin (@JuliaManhattan) April 9, 2021
I’ve seen about 50 “labor lost here” takes, with many so-called labor experts weighing in, but not a single reporter I’ve seen has asked workers directly why they overwhelmingly opposed this union. The contempt for these workers is palpable. https://t.co/UYBPwKsh5l
— parker (@pt) April 11, 2021
What a beautiful story of struggle.
— David R. Smith (@mockumatrix) April 5, 2021
Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama pushed for a union. The world is watching what happens next - ABC News https://t.co/6YTScPu5y1
Amazon Workers Defeat Union Drive at Alabama Warehouse (71% vs 29%) https://t.co/troPy7TuD0
— Marcos Galperin (@marcos_galperin) April 9, 2021
Amazon didn’t beat a labor drive. Amazon workers decided that given $15/hr min wage & health benefits from day one, a union had little to offer besides being a tax.
— Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) April 10, 2021
NYT which has an anti-tech narrative positions as Amazon versus unions when truth is their workers were the story. https://t.co/wgz4feMQNo
I urge the @NLRB to investigate Amazon's actions that may have interfered with its employees’ legally-protected right to vote for a union. And Congress should pass the #PROAct to protect and strengthen workers’ bargaining rights. https://t.co/r7YblhaX5i
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 9, 2021
Final tallies:
— Jason Del Rey (@DelRey) April 9, 2021
1,798 votes against unionizing
738 votes for unionizing
505 challenged ballots (not enough to impact final result)
76 voided ballots https://t.co/Nk6qWRHtxZ
Amazon defeats union drive effort in Bessemer, Alabama (with shady & possibly illegal tactics). But I wouldn’t bet on this being over, Bessemer workers have inspired the nation. https://t.co/LE16dd8Y0d
— francesca fiorentini (@franifio) April 9, 2021
NEW: @amazon releases statement after workers in AL vote against unionizing: "Thank you to employees at our BHM1 fulfillment center in Alabama for participating in the election. There’s been a lot of noise over the past few months... https://t.co/gVLV5jtuCO
— Morgan Hightower (@mchightower) April 9, 2021
Chamber of Progress, a new technology industry lobby group, “sent out a press release that said Amazon employees' rejection of the union was a ‘progressive story’.”
— Tech Won't Save Us podcast (@techwontsaveus) April 10, 2021
Its members include Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instacart, and DoorDash. https://t.co/vFtIGN1apo
Amazon also sought to shape the voting process itself. The company reportedly pressed the USPS to install a mailbox outside the Bessemer warehouse to collect union votes.
— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) April 10, 2021
This potentially intimidated employees. https://t.co/7TuELJbOqa pic.twitter.com/JBcJOTpHkm
“Amazon is to the 21st century what the auto and steel industry were for the 20th century. If workers in the US want to have some kind of voice over what happens to them at work, there is only one way to get that. And that is to form or join a union."https://t.co/VPdjj4pZuW
— Daniel Harvey #BLM (@dancharvey) April 10, 2021
This was never a fair fight.
— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) April 9, 2021
Workers should have the freedom to organize a union free from corporate intimidation, and that’s no longer the reality in our country.https://t.co/RHbk644zTT
To be clear, today’s climate for forming a union in this country is absolutely brutal. The uphill battle that the workers in Bessemer & @RWDSU fought is beyond admirable & they likely opened the door even wider for the next effort to succeed. This fight with @Amazon isn’t over.
— Caitlin Rooney (@CaityRooney) April 9, 2021
The Amazon fight is bigger than Bessemer. It’s a harbinger of a broader conflict, reinforced by algorithmic management, and amplified by the pandemic. And it isn’t going away. My op-ed in today's @washingtonpost.https://t.co/BOWoUQzLNd
— Dr. Kate Crawford (@katecrawford) April 10, 2021
Amazon workers' union effort in Alabama was quashed after an intense intimidation campaign.
— AJ+ (@ajplus) April 9, 2021
Workers say Amazon hired cops to harbor union efforts and even changed the timing of traffic light symbols outside the Bessemer warehouse. pic.twitter.com/6CCITzIY2X
The election was a useful measure of union support.
— Jack Williams (@Jackcoall) April 9, 2021
The rank and file organizing committee will continue to be a powerful force for workers at Amazon.
Look forward toward the next election.
Keep organizing.
Bessemer, Alabama
"Some labor experts said the erosion of that early support showed the power that employers have in campaigning against unions by holding mandatory meetings and talking to employees during work hours about the downside of organizing."https://t.co/oHQcsYtrr6
— Monica S (@moniconga) April 10, 2021
A good journalist would follow up this story to ask why politicians like Bernie, AOC & Liz Warren were picking on Amazon when they actually raise the bar for how blue collar workers are treated (Costco does as well but most other similar employers are just terrible).
— Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) April 10, 2021
A crushing blow for organized labor: Amazon appears to have beaten its biggest labor threat so far. A vote tally showed a majority of workers at an Alabama warehouse voted against a union https://t.co/ejpLZSaVzr
— Alfons López Tena (@alfonslopeztena) April 9, 2021
Changing stoplights. Pressuring USPS to move mailboxes. Anti-union propaganda in bathrooms. Despite knowing the game is rigged, workers bravely challenged the richest man in the world.
— SEIU (@SEIU) April 9, 2021
We must make it easier for us to join together in a union. #Amazon https://t.co/cPI540Cfov
Amazon has released a statement on the union election results in Alabama
— Rebecca Rainey (@RebeccaARainey) April 9, 2021
“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 ...”https://t.co/GjebjCE2Jp
Here's the WaPo story as it ran online, the headline varying as is usual. It waits to give the actual, strikingly lopsided vote count (1,798-738) until paragraph 21. https://t.co/MYOuNnAPMg /4
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) April 11, 2021
This is an odd way to frame the story, given that it was workers who voted overwhelmingly against forming a union. https://t.co/RF5tSHMa37 pic.twitter.com/wZGYvs9iHj
— Aaron Ross Powell (@ARossP) April 11, 2021
?“Amazon also successfully petitioned the county to change the stoplight patterns in front of its facility, in what some workers said was a bid to make it harder to organize.” https://t.co/UJI3uEj4Jr
— Stephen Spaulding (@SteveESpaulding) April 11, 2021
I am so glad Vietnam has a national union. It may not be perfect but it's protected me in the past, it has fought to keep our minimum wage increasing EVERY YEAR (rate ~2x inflation), and serves as a safety net for every worker!https://t.co/fojtSSPWzt
— Born to be Commie ❣️ (@LunaOi_VN) April 11, 2021