The employees of the Amazon factory in New York won the pulse of the technology giant and after several months of struggle were able to form the first trade union of the company in the United States this Friday, which tried in every possible way to thwart any initiative of the trade union organization.
This is the JFK8 plant in Staten Island, where workers celebrated the election victory by shouting “Yes, we can.”
“We worked, we had fun and we made history. “I welcome the first Amazon union in the United States,” union leader Christian Smalls wrote on his Twitter account a few minutes before opening a bottle of champagne with workers at the facility, which employs about 6,000 people.
In total, 2654 employees were in favor of the organization, 2131 employees were against the voting, the results of which must be confirmed by the National Labor Relations Council.
“Officially, the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) is the first Amazon union in U.S. history. Power to the people!” – The trade union writes on its official website.
Amazon is the second company with the most employees in the United States, just beyond the Walmart supermarket chain, and since the pandemic began, it has skyrocketed both its operations and profits and hired tens of thousands of new employees.
A trade union struggle caused by a pandemic
The outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 sparked the spirit of many Amazon workers and other large companies in the country, such as the Starbucks coffee chain in the US, who condemned that their employers did not take the necessary measures to protect them from the corovirus. Pandemic.
In December last year, a small group of employees at the restaurant giant’s cafeteria voted in favor of creating the chain’s first union in Buffalo, New York.
Since then, more than a hundred Starbucks stores have followed in Buffalo’s footsteps and filed a petition for a merger.
The Amazon Labor Union was formed by Smalls after he was fired in March 2020 for organizing a strike to condemn a lack of worker protection following the release of Covid-19, when he was a supervisor at a distribution center.
However, the company said it had expelled him for visiting the facility for violating safety protocols, despite being asked to self-quarantine after being exposed to the corovirus.
Amazon Strategy
The company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has put a lot of effort and money into uniting its workers to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement, which will be the next step as soon as the union is formally formed.
Over the years, its directors have managed to thwart any attempt at pressure, harassment, and information campaigns against the labor movement.
They recently decorated Staten Island facilities with “No No” posters, but in addition, the company has launched a website.
The purpose of the page is to pit employees against the idea of union, emphasizing that the union is an “external group” that represents even “those who do not vote” in favor.
Speaking about the trade union founded by Smalls, Amazon stressed that “he has no experience”, that he “never negotiated a trade union agreement” and that “he never received the millions of dollars he received from the salaries of the company’s employees”.
Like other large companies that oppose any type of trade union organization, Amazon has stressed that it is probably better to maintain direct communication between the company and the employee than through a third party.
Another major trade union battle in Alabama
In parallel with New York workers, Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, this week, for the second year in a row, voted to form a union.
The U.S. National Council on Labor reported that 993 votes were cast against the union and only 875 were in favor. However, there are still 416 ballots whose authenticity is questioned by either the company or the trade union promoters, so the U.S. Labor Department will have to hold a hearing to decide whether to count or not.
Last year, employees at Bessemer Warehouse outside Birmingham staged a similar process in which the union also refused, but the result was overturned by authorities because of violations committed by the company.
Source: El Diario
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
