Amazon claimed a resounding win in its fight over unionization on Friday, and the vote will likely have larger implications.
On Friday, the National Labor Relations Board finished counting thousands of ballots from employees at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, who were voting on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. In the end, the workers voted 1,798-738 against unionizing, dealing a major blow to organized labor.
Amazon had worried that if its employees in Bessemer had voted to unionize, it could spark a chain reaction and result in unionization efforts at its other facilities spread across the country. Unions were also hoping that an affirmative vote could help generate interest in organized labor.
Rachel Greszler, an economics research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the Washington Examiner that not only Amazon but other large companies like Walmart are breathing a sigh of relief after the decisive defeat. She noted that unions have been on the decline for decades and that only 6% of private sector workers are unionized, with even fewer in right-to-work states.
UNION DEMANDS INVESTIGATION AS ALABAMA VOTE APPEARS TO BE WON BY AMAZON
Greszler said that while unions are on the decline, she foresees a desire for an alternative in which organized labor could still play a beneficial role for workers, but she said membership would have to be on voluntary terms.
“You could have representation-only services so that only workers that want to pay to be represented by the union would pay, and they would only be paying for that representation and not also for the political activity,” she said, noting that she thinks there has been a lot of dissatisfaction with corruption within some unions and with them using members’ dues for political activities.
The Bessemer vote was championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has long been a staunch advocate of organized labor. Some employees at the facility had complained of poor labor practices and work conditions, and Sanders invited one of the workers to a hearing during which the matter was discussed in the context of income inequality. He also lashed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for not attending.
After the Friday results, the Vermont socialist took to Twitter to say he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the vote’s outcome. He mentioned that the RWDSU has contacted the National Labor Relations Board demanding an investigation and accusing the retail giant of illegally interfering in the election.
“It is extraordinarily courageous for workers to take on one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful corporations, a company that spent unlimited sums of money to defeat the organizing effort,” Sanders said. “The fact that the company was able to force workers to attend closed door, anti-union meetings is just one reason as to why we need legislation that finally gives workers a fair chance to win organizing elections.”
Although, he said that despite the apparent loss, the union drive has “inspired workers everywhere.”
Despite complaining about Amazon’s role in the election, the RWDSU said that the Bessemer vote has generated renewed interest in organized labor and, even before the election was over, said that it had been contacted by more than 1,000 Amazon workers across the country as a result of interest in the vote.
“This campaign has proven that the best way for working people to protect themselves and their families is to join together in a union,” said union boss Stuart Appelbaum in a statement after Amazon clinched the win.
Reacting to the news of the loss, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka cited a poll by his organization that found that 77% of registered voters nationwide supported the unionization effort in Bessemer. The poll was conducted from March 28-29 and had a 4-point margin of error, according to the AFL-CIO.
“They spoke out and shared a reality that too many working people recognize—the brutality of being underpaid, overworked and constantly afraid of what lies ahead,” he said of the workers after the returns. “That’s why more than three-fourths of Americans supported this organizing drive, and it’s why this moment is reverberating far beyond a small town in Alabama. America’s workers are pushing ourselves harder than ever, rewarded only with more insecurity and disrespect.”
President Joe Biden, who courted the support of union voters during the 2020 presidential election, did not explicitly endorse the Bessemer employees who were attempting to unionize, but he did back their right to vote on the matter.
When asked about the matter on Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden will wait to provide comment on the election until once the labor board completes its analysis of the results. Psaki said the White House knows it is “very difficult for workers to make the choice to form a union.”
Amazon cheered the results and thanked its employees for backing it by such a large margin. It said in a statement that there has been “a lot of noise” the past few months and that it was glad that its facility’s “collective voices were finally heard.”
Amazon has also touted the fact that it has a $15 companywide minimum wage and healthcare benefits for all employees, while the federal minimum wage, which lawmakers like Sanders have been trying to raise, still sits at less than half of what it pays its workers.
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“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,” the company said in a Friday blog post.
