Reich writes: "Emails reveal that the company pressed the United States Postal Service to install a mailbox on company property, despite an earlier ruling from the National Labor Relations Board stipulating that the company could not install ballot boxes at the warehouse."
Robert Reich. (photo: Getty)
09 April 21
mazon likely violated labor law during the seven-week union vote at its Bessemer, Alabama warehouse. Emails reveal that the company pressed the United States Postal Service to install a mailbox on company property, despite an earlier ruling from the National Labor Relations Board stipulating that the company could not install ballot boxes at the warehouse. The board rejected Amazon’s initial request because the company’s social distancing requirements could be used to “monitor the line leading to the voting tent” and “give the impression of surveillance or tracking.”
After Amazon went ahead and installed a dropbox anyway, union representatives raised the alarm that this gives the impression that Amazon has a role in running the election and could serve as a deterrent for workers afraid of retaliation. Previously, a USPS spokesperson claimed that the agency was responsible for putting the mailbox outside the warehouse, but the emails reveal that Amazon repeatedly pressed for it.
This is why the union vote is so crucial. For far too long, Amazon has easily crushed unionization efforts and kept on exploiting their workers to maximize profits. Even if the Bessemer workers don’t overcome the company’s egregious anti-union blitz, the vote has nonetheless sent the message that Amazon is not an impenetrable fortress. Already, thousands of Amazon workers have reached out to unions inquiring about how to organize their workplaces. The Bessemer vote is the beginning, not the end, of building back a powerful labor movement that can take on corporate greed and empower working people across America.
