Amazon Union Busting Tactis Exposed

18 posts / 0 new

Sun, 2020-09-13 21:25

Aristotleded24

Krystal Ball reported on the lengths Amazon is going to in blocking unionization. It is really disturbing the lengths they are going to, and this could have implications for all kinds of workplaces. It's so bad that the technology will actually fire you rather than managers.

She also notes that Amazon is using the social distancing rules against union organizing.

Also take a look at the 911 calls that come in from Amazon warehouses:

Quote:
The Daily Beast's report was based on interviews with current and former employees and a review of 911 call logs and police records.

"It's this isolating colony of hell where people having breakdowns is a regular occurrence," the former Amazon employee Jace Crouch told The Daily Beast. An anonymous employee told The Daily Beast that the company treated its workers like "robots."

The Daily Beast said its report was "not evidence that Amazon staffers experience suicidal episodes more often than other American workers, in or out of a warehouse." And the rate of suicide in the US is on the rise — the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention estimated that there were 1.4 million suicide attempts in the US in 2017.

Amazon disputes this characterization of its work culture and said it offers employees a number of resources when it comes to mental health.

Tue, 2020-10-13 23:50

Aristotleded24

Strike in Germany on Prime day:

Quote:
Amazon workers in Germany are marking Prime Day—the massive annual sale event being held on Tuesday and Wednesday—by striking for better pay, safer working conditions, and the right to organize free from the e-commerce company's pervasive surveillance and harassment.

Warehouse workers in the cities of Leipzig, Bad Hersfeld, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben, and Koblenz are participating in the strike, which was organized by ver.di, a German labor union, CNBC reported Tuesday.

Ver.di union secretary Andre Scheer expects thousands of Amazon employees to take part in the strike, which overlaps with an especially busy time for the company's warehouses as a result of the Prime Day surge in bargain purchases.

The Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank, used Prime Day as an opportunity to remind people that Jeff Bezos has become $73 billion richer during the pandemic alone.

...

In September, Amazon posted and then deleted two job postings for "intelligence analysts," whose duties would include tracking "labor organizing threats" and monitoring "hostile political leaders."

After European Union lawmakers sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos last week asking if he was spying on workers, trade unionists, and left-wing political representatives, a spokesperson for the company claimed that "the job post was not an accurate description of the role—it was made in error and has since been corrected."

"Amazon workers in Germany and everywhere are fighting for better pay and decent working conditions," said Hoffman, "but they also expect to keep their constitutional rights intact and have private conversations without Big Brother watching over as they organize online."

Fri, 2021-02-05 17:59

josh

Amazon workers are exposing what's happening in Alabama. They say Amazon is forcing them into anti-union meetings, texting them up to 5x daily, putting messages in bathrooms, even changing traffic light patterns to harm union organizing.

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1357796064670212098?s=20

Sun, 2021-02-07 17:16

Unionist

Amazon has lost its bid to prevent mail-in voting for unionization at its Alabama warehouse. Nice try though.

National Labor Relations Board denies Amazon bid to delay election and says vote can be conducted by mail

Thu, 2021-04-08 16:54

robbie_dee

Votes are being counted now. Currently running about 2-1 against the union. :(

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/technology/amazon-union-vote.html

Fri, 2021-04-09 02:31

NorthReport

Too bad

https://www.rawstory.com/amazon-union-election-alabama/

Fri, 2021-04-09 06:38

josh

Amazon's election tactics will likely be challenged before the National Labor Relations Board, which has the power to order a new election. However, the anti-union history in the Deep South remains a strong obstacle.

Fri, 2021-04-09 19:07

josh

More Perfect Union has obtained new details about Amazon’s illegal actions to defeat the union. The violations make it overwhelmingly likely that the NLRB will overturn the results and give workers a second election. Details in the video and thread below.

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1380622130170228738?s=20

Sat, 2021-04-10 13:16

NDPP

No wonder Biden endorsed this. No wonder it's been getting such glowing press. Perhaps Amazon workers realized they could do better than Appelbaum's RWDSU.

Leadership of the Amazon Trade Union Movement: RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum, a Government Official

https://labornewswire.com/leadership-of-the-amazon-trade-union-movement-...

"A look at the background of RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum is instructive. He is a longtime government official deeply embedded in the Democratic Party and the AFL-CIO bureaucracy, including the AFL-CIO's overseas operations conducted with the aim of undermining workers's resistance to tyranny and oppression. He is a member of the Democratic National Committee where he serves on the Executive Committee of the DNC. He is co-chair of the DNC resolution committee and chair of the DNC working council. Appelbaum was a delegate of the democratic national conventions of 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. In 2008 he was a member of the Electoral College in New York.

WSWS writer David Walsh wrote: 'The AFL-CIO continues to conduct dirty operations around the world through organizations like the American Center for International Labor Solidarity or the Solidarity Center, 96 percent of which is funded by the US government. The ACILS is part of the National Foundation for Democracy (NED), a line for state funds that were previously covertly passed on by the CIA.

Appelbaum sits on the board of Freedom House, a right-wing anti-communist group that served as a conduit for CIA propaganda during the Cold War. In 1998, Noam Chomsky and Edward S Herman wrote in their book Manufacturing Consent that Freedom House 'locks' itself with various ultra-right outfits and US government agencies like Radio Free Europe and the CIA. 'It has served a long time', they wrote, 'as a virtual propaganda arm of the government and the international right-wing.'

Appelbaum is chairman of the Jewish Labor Committee, a pro-Israel lobby within the American trade unions. In this capacity he tries to give the ongoing Israeli oppression of the Palestinians a slightly 'progressive' sheen. His resume begs the question of what kind of genuine 'workers organization' would tolerate such a figure as its leader..."

Fri, 2021-04-16 18:03

#10

josh

Amazon pulled out the same playbook that employers have used since the 1980s: hire an expensive anti-union law firm, shower employees with anti-union literature, force them to sit through anti-union meetings and bombard them with messages about union dues. This is all perfectly legal under a labor-law regime captured by corporations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/opinion/amazon-union-alabama.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Fri, 2021-04-16 19:29

#11

kropotkin1951

This is what freedom and democracy looks like. The rich are free to do whatever they please because they have the same freedom of expression as any other citizen or corporate person. This is exactly the reason why the US warmongering elite, from both sides of their duopoly, want to export their brand of democracy everywhere.

Sat, 2021-04-24 17:01

#12

josh

Spending millions on anti-union consultants, companies like Amazon, Google and Boeing unleash “union avoidance”campaigns that all follow the same playbook. Even before the election gets underway, employers try to game the outcome in their favor, starting with legal maneuvers to block or delay the vote. They gerrymander the voting district (known as the “bargaining unit”), trying to pack in workers they believe lean anti-union and to carve out those they think are more pro-union. In Amazon’s case, the company insisted that the Bessemer bargaining unit include temporary and seasonal workers, nearly quadrupling its size from 1,500 to 5,800 members.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/its-all-too-easy-for-employers-to-interfere-in-union-elections/2021/04/23/f2378ca6-a2d1-11eb-85fc-06664ff4489d_story.html

Sat, 2021-04-24 20:17

#13

NDPP

See #9

Sun, 2021-11-14 14:55

#14

kropotkin1951

Here is a very insightful piece by a union activist from Montreal. Well worth the read, I am impressed by Breach Media.

Personally, after a month of working in the Laval facility, I had seen enough. To give my resignation, I called a 1-800 number and spoke to an employee service representative who simply updated my file. It was impersonal, and seemed like a fitting end—I’d experienced what it’s like to become a cog in Amazon’s giant machinery, squeezed of every possible ounce of human energy. The sheer fatigue of workers by the end of the shift allows little time for much—for me, I barely had energy to talk to anyone but my family, let alone participate in activism or organize meetings.

https://breachmedia.ca/infiltrating-amazon-what-i-learned-going-undercov...

Mon, 2021-11-29 20:42

#15

josh

NLRB orders new election at Bessemer

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1465419812646051841?s=20

Wed, 2021-12-01 12:38

#16

Mobo2000

This is good news, still a long shot for the vote to come up yes, as the last one was about 2-1 'no', but glad the union-busting efforts were at least noticed and had consequences.

Wed, 2021-12-22 19:00

#17

josh

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1473765015689863176?s=20

Fri, 2022-01-28 19:44

#18

josh

Federal labor regulators on Thursday accused Amazon of illegally surveilling and threatening workers who are trying to unionize a Staten Island, N.Y., warehouse.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/01/27/amazon-staten-island-nlrb-complaint/?link_id=6&can_id=b01b7e58d5fbdf645a5c1ceadeda1bbc&source=email-afscme-fyi-friday-january-28-2022&email_referrer=email_1424312&email_subject=afscme-fyi-friday-january-28-2022