Amazon Unions?

On February 16, 2020 New York's Attorney General Letitia James sued Amazon, 'claiming the massive e-commerce company's "flagrant disregard for health and safety requirements" during the coronavirus pandemic put the lives of workers and the general public at risk.'  This quote comes from an NPR article that was published yesterday.

This lawsuit follows one filed by Amazon trying to prevent the attorney general from suing.  Amazon argued that 'federal labor and safety laws take precedence over New York laws', meaning Letitia James would not have the authority to sue Amazon over workplace safety violations.  Amazon, of course, denies the charges, stating that the suit does not accurately represent 'Amazon's industry-leading response to the pandemic'.

This whole investigation by James started back in March of 2020, around the time that Christian Small was fired from Amazon.  James had received multiple complaints from both former and current Amazon employees.  I wrote about the situation with Christian Small in a few other blog posts that you can read here, here and here.

In the current court filing, Letitia James stated that 'Amazon has cut corners in complying with the particular requirements that would most jeopardize its sales volume and productivity rates, thereby ensuring outsize profits at an unprecedented rate of growth for the company and its shareholders.'  During this pandemic, Amazon has made a profit of around 130 billion dollars.  The company has also had about 20,000 cases of coronavirus and at least 8 deaths.  

Because of this lawsuit and the many other complaints that Amazon employees have been making, 6,000 Amazon warehouse employees in Bessemer, Alabama are now voting on whether or not to unionize.  They would be joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union if the vote passes.  Voting will continue until March 29th, 2020.  This is the first union vote in an Amazon warehouse since a 2014 vote against unionization in Delaware. 

Amazon, as a company, has tried to delay this vote, saying that it should happen in person instead of through the mail.  The mail-in voting was authorized due to the need for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.  If voting needed to be in person, this vote would most certainly not be decided by the end of March.

I have my own opinions regarding unions, employee benefits and workplace culture.  And I also have my own opinions on Amazon warehouses.  I don't believe that every industry should be unionized, but I also don't have personal faith in Amazon to do the right thing for their employees within their warehouses, especially during this pandemic.  I am curious to see what the outcome of this vote might be and I will be watching closely as it reaches its end.

Until then.....

-Vicky

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