Our Perspective
Amazon Workers
Demand
Historic Change
By Stuart Appelbaum, President
Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union, UFCW
Twitter: @sappelbaum
In Bessemer, Alabama, a historic, worker-driven
grassroots union organizing campaign is underway at
the Amazon warehouse there. The votes are being cast
and will be counted, and the campaign could drastically
change the lives of over 5,800 workers at the facility, who are demanding better
treatment and a voice on the job.
The Amazon campaign is so important because it represents the story of
working men and women in the pandemic era. Americans depend now more than
ever on working people: workers at supermarkets, pharmacies, food processing
and health care facilities – many of them RWDSU members – and of course, at
Amazon. From daily necessities to luxury items, Americans depend every day on
the work done by these Amazon employees.
This sprawling facility opened in March of last year, just as the world was
coming to grips with COVID-19. And workers there had the same health and safety
concerns of all frontline workers, which were exacerbated by Amazon’s workplace
conditions and grueling productivity quotas. Workers perform their jobs close
together, and short and infrequent breaks often don’t allow for adequate
handwashing and sanitizing. Workers say Amazon monitors their productivity so
closely that they are afraid to take bathroom breaks.
The concerns of workers in Bessemer reflect those of Amazon workers across
the world. Thousands of Amazon workers have signed a petition calling for better
health and safety policies. Amazon workers at facilities in Germany, Spain, Italy,
Poland, and the United Kingdom have held strikes or other worker actions to
demand safer workplaces. Here in New York, the Attorney General’s office has filed
a lawsuit against Amazon for failing to provide adequate health and safety
measures and for firing and disciplining employees that objected to Amazon’s
unsafe work conditions. Even amidst the Alabama workers’ organizing drive,
Amazon continues to disregard safety, having insisted upon an in-person union
election despite the COVID-19 pandemic. That move was shot down by the NLRB,
which instead called for a mail-in vote. With at least 13 deaths at Amazon facilities
– even before the pandemic – Amazon made the National Council for Occupational
Safety and Health’s “Dirty Dozen” list of dangerous employers two years running.
The Alabama Amazon workers approached the RWDSU because they saw the
difference the union was making in Alabama. The RWDSU was at the forefront
fighting for frontline workers in the early days of the pandemic, bringing swift
attention to the unsafe working conditions at poultry plants. In the wake of the
RWDSU’s efforts, poultry plants improved their social distancing policies, erected
barriers between workers, provided PPE and sanitizer for workers, implemented
COVID testing, and increased pay for workers who were risking their lives to feed
America while also providing pay for workers who were under quarantine.
Bessemer Amazon workers took notice, and by December of last year, thousands
of them had signed union cards.
The Amazon organizing drive is more than just about one campaign; it’s a
moment working people are seizing to demand change, and to be treated as
human beings. Regardless of the outcome of their campaign, the Amazon workers
in Bessemer, Alabama, have already made history. They’ve brought renewed
attention to the labor practices of the world’s largest retailer, and
shown that when workers stand together, they can stand up
against any employer in the world. Their inspiring
campaign has already changed the landscape, and is
resonating with working people everywhere who now
know they can demand safer workplaces and the
dignity and respect of union membership.
www.rwdsu.org
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