{"id":563073,"date":"2022-03-18T20:24:37","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T20:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/?p=284659"},"modified":"2022-03-18T20:24:37","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T20:24:37","slug":"one-year-after-the-failed-amazon-union-drive-workers-in-bessemer-are-voting-a-second-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/03\/18\/one-year-after-the-failed-amazon-union-drive-workers-in-bessemer-are-voting-a-second-time\/","title":{"rendered":"One year after the failed Amazon union drive, workers in Bessemer are voting a second time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Bessemer, Alabama\u2014Amazon warehouse worker Isaiah Thomas is a certified troublemaker, a term meant to be disparaging that workers have reclaimed and redefined to celebrate courage and militancy. He got a slap on the wrist from Amazon management in January for talking to coworkers about the benefits of building a union, in violation of the company\u2019s solicitation policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile we understand your activity may have occurred during your break time, you were interfering with fellow associates during their working time, in their work areas,\u201d the warning letter reads<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At captive-audience meetings, workers are required to sit and listen to Amazon\u2019s highly paid anti-union consultants launch scorched-earth speeches replete with lies, distortions, and fear-mongering. Thomas was inoculated against these tactics\u2014and he let the consultants know it. When one consultant tried to paint the union as an outside \u201cthird party\u201d that would get between workers and management\u2014presumably sullying Amazon\u2019s world-renowned worker-manager relations<\/a>\u2014Thomas countered: \u201cThat\u2019s not true. A union is us workers, bargaining with management.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n He said workers in the meeting would then look up \u201cWhat is a union?\u201d on their phones. Then they would turn to the consultants and ask: \u201cWhy are you lying to us?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThen, the union-buster would get upset and practically kick us out,\u201d Thomas says. He remembers one consultant saying, \u201cWell, we have another meeting coming up,\u2019\u2019 to which Thomas replied, \u201cWell, you didn’t even finish the PowerPoint.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dale Wyant, who works in the warehouse\u2019s stowing department, described one anti-union consultant telling him that collective bargaining couldn\u2019t guarantee workers an increase in pay but that they could go and talk to managers, despite not having collective bargaining rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n