In Staten Island, Amazon auditors often call them “training.” At an Amazon warehouse in Alabama, auditors vaguely refer to these as “meetings.” Amazon says they’re officially “small group meetings.”
Whatever Amazon tells them, the company’s anti-union hearings for its employees this year have been part of an effort to fend off unions in two contentious elections.
Staten Island workers will vote in their warehouse Friday through Wednesday on whether to join the Amazon Labor Union, an independent union run by current and former workers. The National Labor Relations Board will announce the results in the coming days.
Warehouse workers in Bessemer, Ala., vote to be represented by the Association of Retail, Wholesale and Department Stores. The ballot papers used by the working board in the election held by mail sent In early February, it will expire on Friday and will count shortly.
The union victory at both sites—each employing more than 5,000 workers—will be the first in Amazon’s history in the United States and will almost certainly change the business model that enables same-day delivery. But unions have a long shot.
The Amazon Labor Union only qualified in the Staten Island election on its second run. unsuccessful To enroll the NLRB 30 percent of the employees it needs in its first petition, Organizers typically try to enroll the majority of eligible workers before applying for an election because attrition is common when a union campaign begins.
The retail workers union runs its second run at its Amazon warehouse in Alabama and has lost by a margin. more than 2 to 1 last year. working board later ordered a re-vote After concluding that Amazon violated election rules, however, unions tendency to lose so-called re-elections.
Union supporters at both warehouses say they want to increase wages, improve health and safety conditions, and be treated more humanely by supervisors. “I went to the bathroom and had two managers call me to see where we were,” said Michelle Valentin Nieves, who works at Staten Island. “I feel like we’re in the Twilight Zone.”
Union supporters said Amazon uses regular meetings, which typically involve several dozen employees and last about 30 minutes, to create a false impression of what unionizing will entail.
Inside video message The company, which played for workers at a recent meeting in Staten Island, said of the union: “The answer to most things, from their stance on Twitter to their cheers, is that they should shut down Amazon. How would that solve anything?”
Amazon says it’s up to employees to decide whether or not to join a union, and the mandatory meetings are aimed at educating workers on what union could mean for them. The company talks about its competitive pay — just under $16 per hour for a full-time entry-level worker in Alabama and over $18 Benefits in Staten Island that include per-hour—and health benefits for full-time employees as soon as they enter the company.
“We are committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and feel appreciated and respected,” said Kelly Nantel, spokesperson for Amazon. 300 million dollars for security projects in 2021.
Companies are allowed to hold anti-union hearings, commonly known as “captive audience” meetings, until a ban is enacted shortly before postal ballots are sent to workers or face-to-face voting begins. Amazon held more than 20 meetings a day at its two warehouses, often before these deadlines.
A senior Amazon employee relations officer said at last year’s labor board hearings on union election in Alabama, the company brought in up to 29 employee relations officers from elsewhere, most of whom led meetings and up to nine outside consultants. One consultant stated that he often attends meetings and answers questions from workers.
The Ministry of Labor files showed that a consulting firm after charges, he charged Amazon $3,200 per consultant per day, and Amazon another consulting firm.
The Amazon official said the meetings lasted four weeks and were investigating a variety of issues, including contracts negotiated by the retail workers union with other companies, arguing that Amazon “did not deliver for its members”. At other meetings, the company told workers they “could get more wages and benefits than they had before the union, or potentially less,” according to testimony.
unionized workers usually earn more Jake Rosenfeld, a specialist professor of unions at the University of Washington in St. Louis, said that there are more than comparable non-union workers, and it’s extremely rare for workers to see their compensation drop as a result of union bargaining.
Employees at both warehouses say the company highlighted similar themes at its meetings this year. “If a union is voted on, everything is open to negotiation and the Amazon Labor Union has never negotiated a contract,” he said in a video message to employees at the Staten Island warehouse.
The video later added: “Under any of their offers, you pay hundreds of dollars a year in dues and Amazon Labor Union gets millions. And remember that ALU has no experience managing this huge amount of money.”
Perry Connelly, who works at a warehouse in Alabama, suggested that workers will go on strike, noting that company officials attended a meeting where the retail workers union showed a recent budget and that the union had no money in the strike fund. own if there was a business stoppage. The union spokesperson said that in the event of a strike, the money will be transferred from other accounts.
Several workers at both warehouses noted that Amazon has changed its approach to meetings over time. For example, before last year’s elections in Alabama, some workers asked for their badges after asking questions or making skeptical comments, it created the impression that Amazon was following them. Company officials have generally not done so in recent months.
But employees at both warehouses said this year that supervisors sometimes avoid inviting workers to meetings as a way to potentially exclude people who might pull back on the company’s conversation topics if they were outspoken in supporting the union. Amazon said all of its employees usually attend one meeting a week and don’t leave anyone out.
The meetings seem to reflect a broader shift in Amazon’s approach to union campaigns: nationwide settlement With the workers’ board, the company appears to be relieved in some respects, for example giving pro-union workers greater access to breakout rooms to escalate their cases to their colleagues (retail workers union accused the company of unfairly restraining). this access).
But Amazon has become more aggressive in other ways.
In February, police officers on Staten Island arrested Christian Smalls, a former employee at the facility who now leads the Amazon Labor Union, after warehouse officials said he had trespassed while delivering food to workers.
Police also arrested two current Amazon employees, Jason Anthony and Brett Daniels, for obstructing government administration during the incident. The three men spent several hours in a cell before being released. Amazon said it only called the police for Mr. Smalls.
Mr. Daniels said in an interview that he himself was sometimes excluded from anti-union meetings for over a week. Hearing about a meeting recently attended by his colleagues, he said that he had tried to attend, but when he arrived he was told that he was not scheduled for it.
Mr. Daniels said he insisted and was told by a manager that he could attend a meeting at 4:30 am towards the end of the night shift. But that didn’t work either. “I go and they say, ‘Oh, no, you’re the only one scheduled,'” said Mr. Daniels. “’We have to cancel’”
Karen Weise, Jodi Kantor and Coral Murphy Marcos contributing reporting.