Is American Labor about to stage a comeback during a time when the American economy is ‘said’ to be ‘Good’ but really isn’t for most ?
The piece linked below talks about drives for union’s by labor unions and other efforts driven by workers themselves separate from established labor….
The success at Amazon comes on the heels of worker-driven initiatives in a variety of other industries. In 2018, rank-and-file public-school teachers in states like West Virginia and Arizona used social media to plan a series of walkouts, setting in motion one of the largest labor actions in recent decades and forcing union leaders to embrace their tactics.
White-collar tech workers have organized protests at Google and Netflix over issues like sexual harassment and prejudice toward transgender people. At colleges like Grinnell and Dartmouth, workers have recently formed unions that are unaffiliated with existing labor groups.
And at Starbucks, where workers have voted to unionize 10 corporate-owned stores and filed for elections in roughly 150 more over the past six months, the campaign has largely expanded through worker-to-worker interactions over email, text and Zoom, even as it is being overseen by Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.
Nonunion Starbucks employees typically receive advice from their newly unionized counterparts, then meet with co-workers in their stores, distribute union cards, decide whether and when to file for an election and respond to media inquiries — responsibilities that professional union staff members often carry out in traditional campaigns.
“I can give my opinions — experience means something, but living it means more,” said Richard Bensinger, an organizer for Workers United, referring to the difference between organizing as an outsider and working at a company….
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At Amazon, the strategy was akin to sending a conventional army into battle against guerrillas: Organizers said the talking points had fallen flat once co-workers realized that the union consisted of fellow employees rather than outsiders.
“When a worker comes up to me, they look at me, then see I have a badge on and say, ‘You work here?’ They ask it in the most surprising way,” said Angelika Maldonado, an Amazon employee on Staten Island who heads the union’s workers committee. “‘I’m like, ‘Yeah, I work here.’ It makes us relatable from the beginning.”…
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The problem for independent organizing efforts is that their momentum can be hard to sustain, even with such cutting-edge tools, or after securing a win through a strike or an election….
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For worker-led unions, such challenges may point to the need for a hybrid approach in which they retain control of their organizations but seek guidance and resources from more established unions — something that is already occurring to varying degrees…
Joe Biden chimes in….
Days after warehouse workers on Staten Island defied Amazon and successfully formed a labor union, President Biden on Wednesday threw his support behind the workers and championed their cause.
In remarks to a national conference of unionized trade workers, Mr. Biden spoke directly to one of the world’s most powerful companies and defended the right of employees to unionize. “The choice to join a union belongs to workers alone,” he said during remarks at the national conference of North America’s Building Trades Unions. “By the way, Amazon, here we come. Watch.”…
Update…
The movement to unionize Amazon suffered a defeat Tuesday as workers at a warehouse in Castleton-on-Hudson, N.Y., overwhelmingly voted against joining Amazon Labor Union.
Employees at the warehouse near Albany voted 406-206 against unionization — a setback for the small, independent union that secured a historic victory earlier this year when workers voted to unionize at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
The defeat is the second this year for the Amazon Labor Union and highlights the difficulties for unions trying to gain a foothold at Amazon, the nation’s second-largest employer. Amazon has strongly opposed union efforts at its facilities for decades, including at the Albany warehouse.
Amazon Labor Union did not immediately respond to a request for comment….
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