The Staten Island warehouse’s vote against efforts by the mega company to stop unionization is could be significant for labor across the country…
Or not…
Amazon and other non-union employer’s are certain to double down their efforts against this…
But a small, upstart independent union led by a former employee of the Staten Island warehouse mounted the first successful campaign to unionize Amazon workers, breaking many of the traditional organizing rules and relying on workers‘ momentum.
The vote could start a cascading effect on other Amazon warehouses, labor experts say, encouraging others to consider unionizing. That could transform the way the e-commerce giant conducts business and prioritizes the treatment of workers….
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The win at the e-commerce giant is a major turning point for U.S. labor, which has seen a handful of key wins for unionization since the beginning of the pandemic. America has entered a period of unusually tight labor markets that many economists believe have given workers newfound power to demand higher wages and conditions from their employers….
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Despite the win on Friday and vocal support from some workers, unionizing Amazon nationwide will be a huge challenge. The company has spent years fending off efforts to organize its workers, and its depth of resources to fight votes and offer pay that sometimes edges out competitors makes it a formidable opponent to unions.
Overall, union membership rates declined in 2021, the first year of Biden’s presidency, falling to its 2019 rate. (That was partly because nonunion workers were the most likely to lose their jobs during the pandemic in 2020, and then recover them in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
Beloved, breathe.
@aisha1908
Amazon spent $4,200,000 to block this union. Four million two hundred thousand dollars.
Ken Klippenstein
@kenklippenstein
Jim Cramer melting down over Amazon union victory: “The unions will be in charge of time that you need to work, and that would be dreadful”
The Wall Street Journal
@WSJ
Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy received compensation valued at $212.7 million in 2021, his first year as head of the tech and e-commerce giant. The majority of his compensation for his first year was in stock awards.