Amazon is gearing up for its toughest labor fight yet, with two separate union elections coming to a head as soon as next week that could provide further momentum to the recent wave of organizing efforts across the country.
, with two separate union elections coming to a head as soon as next week that could provide further momentum to the recent wave of organizing efforts across the country. Warehouse workers in Staten Island, N.Y., and Bessemer, Ala., will determine whether or not they want to form a union. s coming to a head as soon as next week that could provide further momentum to the recent wave of organizing efforts across the country.
Ballots for the second election were mailed to 6,100 employees in early February. The counting process is expected to start on Monday and could last for several days. In Staten Island, Amazon workers are currently organizing under the independent Amazon Labor Union led by Chris Smalls, a former employee who says he was fired after leading a protest over the warehouse’s working conditions in the early days of the pandemic.
New York is not a right-to-work state, and Amazon is attempting to use that to its advantage. The company is telling workers it could fire them should they unionize but fail to pay union dues. But that requirement is not an across-the board mandate for non-right-to-work states and is something that is negotiated during union contracts, said Jennifer Sherer, senior state policy coordinator at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Workers from across the New York metro area trek long distances to get to the company’s warehouse, many times alternating between the subway, a ferry and 40-minute long public bus rides. The online retail giant continues to hammer the message that it offers benefits such as health care, 401 plans and a prepaid college tuition program to help grow workers' careers. It launched a website for workers at both warehouses that casts doubt on the benefit of unions and has been blasting out mailings, text messages, emails and flyers.
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