Sept 2022 | Volume 14, Issue 2

Read the full article on CNN

According to the article, the union that was the first to win a representation vote at an Amazon facility has filed for an election among about 400 employees at another Amazon distribution center.

The facility is in suburban Albany, New York. The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees union representation votes, has confirmed the filing but has yet to verify the signatures of the employees who signed cards asking for the vote. At least 30 percent of the employees in a potential bargaining unit need to sign cards for an election to be held.

"We're proud and happy for these workers to be standing up and fighting for their rights," said Chris Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union, which won the vote at an Amazon facility on Staten Island, New York, in April, but lost the vote at a second nearby facility in May.

Smalls said he is talking to employees who are working to hold elections at other facilities across the country, although he wouldn't say how many organizing campaigns are underway.

"There will be plenty more to come after that in short order. It's growing every week," he said. "All we can do is continue to build and organize. Hopefully, the company will change their outlook once they see this is something not going away."

An Amazon spokesperson said the company had only received the petition from the NLRB recently.

"Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. They always have. As a company, we don't think unions are the best answer for our employees," said the company's statement. "Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work."

Amazon continues to challenge the results of the April vote it lost in Staten Island and has yet to negotiate an initial contract with the union.

A separate union has lost two votes to represent workers at a different Amazon facility in Alabama, though that union is challenging the results of the most recent vote.

While a bit more than one-third of government workers are members of a union, according to Labor Department statistics, only 6.1 percent of workers employed by businesses are union members. And those private sector union members are concentrated in a few specific industries, such as manufacturing, airlines, construction, and health care. Only 4 percent of retail workers are union members.

But there has been a growing effort to win union representation in the service sector, which is the largest employment sector in the U.S. economy. About 200 Starbucks stores have voted in favor of representation by a union since the first victory at a store last fall in Buffalo, New York.

 

Discussion Questions

1. The article references the “NLRB.” What is the NLRB? What are the responsibilities of this organization?

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law regarding collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. According to its website, www.nlrb.gov, “(t)he National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects the rights of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve their wages and working conditions.” For more information regarding the power and responsibilities of the NLRB, please see the aforementioned NLRB website.

2. According to Amazon, “…we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees.” On what basis would Amazon (or any other company) make such an assertion?

Obviously, this statement is part of Amazon’s effort to discourage workers from voting in favor of certifying a union as the collective bargaining agent for Amazon employees. By federal law, Amazon (and other private sector employers) have the right to speak out against union formation. The “$64,000 question” here is whether the statement sincerely means that a union is not the best for employees, or whether the statement really means that a union is not good for Amazon the corporation. In their vote regarding unionization, Amazon employees have a crucial, perplexing determination to make; namely, whether unionization will translate into better pay, job security, and working conditions, or whether “staying the course” in terms of non-unionization is the better choice.

3. According to the article, only 6.1 percent of workers employed by businesses are union members, and only 4 percent of retail workers are union members. Do these statistics surprise you? Why or why not?

These statistics may not surprise younger students; after all, they have lived during a time in which union membership in the manufacturing industry in the United States has been in almost-constant decline. In fact, union membership in the manufacturing sector in the U.S. has been declining for the last four decades, beginning in the 1980s. The fact that only 4 percent of retail workers in the U.S. are union members should come as no surprise; after all, the U.S. retail sector has never really been unionized.

Whether these numbers reverse and instate a new trend remains to be seen. The choice is “in the hands” of the workers.