Alex N. Press; Ashlynn Chand; translation/ Gong Siliang
Editor's note: On April 1, local time, Amazon employees in Staten Island, New York, voted to form a union, marking the first time that Amazon employees successfully organized a union in the United States. In the face of the Amazon, which wields enormous power and resources, the victory of the workers is admirable. In an article titled "Amazon Warehouse Workers Open a Shocking New Chapter," Jacobin author Alex N. Press said that after this victory, amazon unions face the next daunting challenge: winning their first contract; this requires Amazon unions to unite more workers and win the support of other unions. In the article "How Amazon Beat Unions in Alberta," Jacobin journalist Ashlynn Chand went undercover at Amazon's warehouse for nearly five months, witnessing firsthand the challenges faced by the truckers' union and pointing to the union's failure to unite more employees in the movement. The formation of the union was a memorable victory for the workers' movement, but Amazon's actions have made it clear that the company will stop the unions from taking further action at all costs. This article was originally published in The Jacobins, with slight cuts from the Chinese translation.
Amazon warehouse workers have opened a shocking new chapter
文/Alex N. Press
Few things like this have happened in the history of the frustrating labor movement in the post-Reagan era, and warehouse workers at Amazon in the United States won the company's approval of unions for the first time in history. Under the supervision of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in the logistics center JFK8 on Staten Island, a total of 8325 voters voted, of which 2654 were in favor of joining the Amazon Union (ALU), 2131 were against. Given the union's lead, 67 votes questioned by interested parties and 11 voided ballots will not be decisive.
On April 1, 2022, in New York, USA, Christian Smalls, founder of amazon union, held a voting result sheet.
Incredibly, the vote count began on the same day as the second election in Bethemer, Alabama, where the work of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Alliance (RWDSU) made significant progress. Currently, 875 votes in favor of union formation and 993 votes against union formation in Alabama voted, but 416 votes were questioned by the parties involved. For now, the outcome is difficult to predict, and the final outcome will depend on the ruling of the National Labor Relations Commission on these votes in the coming weeks.
Stuart Applebaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Alliance, stressed in a statement yesterday: "Every ballot must be counted. Amazon's employees have gone through an unnecessary, long and fierce struggle to form unions for their workplaces, and Amazon is doing everything it can to spread misinformation and deceive employees. ”
The obstacles faced by workers in New York and Alabama are extremely daunting. In addition to Amazon's unusually high turnover rate, which poses a threat to building an ongoing shop floor organization, documents released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Labor show that Amazon spent $4.3 million on hiring union-breaking consultants, a staggering amount for any company. Typically, it would take years for even giant companies to reach such an agreement with america's characteristic anti-union experts and make such a large expense. Many of the consultants who preside over captive audience meetings (meetings organized during employees' working hours to educate employees against unions) or plan Amazon's war against unions are paid $3,200 a day.
On Staten Island, workers say union breakers are frequent. They wrote scripts that captured audience meetings and shaped anti-union messages that were posted in warehouse restrooms and hallways and sent to workers via emails, Instagram ads, phone calls, text messages, and videos on screens inside the facility. The Amazon unions made clear workers' demands: a minimum wage of $30 an hour, increased paid leave and vacation, access to paid daytime breaks, allowing union representatives to attend all disciplinary meetings, and more support for childcare.
While it is certainly easier to organize a union movement in New York than in Alabama, its leaders are in danger of being arrested, with the NYPD arresting Amazon union president Christian Smalls and workers Brett Daniels and Jason Anthony on Feb. 23, which police said Amazon reported to police on charges of trespass. Judging by today's vote, these efforts have backfired and even made Amazon look more depressing and hypocritical to employees than ever before.
There is another reason why the JFK8 Center's efforts are notable. Amazon unions are independent and not affiliated with any existing unions. The founder of the union, Smols, is also unique. He first joined the labor organization early in the pandemic, when he helped organize a protest outside the Kennedy airport to protest inadequate health and safety measures taken by Amazon as the coronavirus ravaged New York City. In response, the company fired him, leaking recordings showing that Amazon executives had tried to discredit him, with Amazon general counsel David Zapolsky describing Smolas as "less intelligent or less verbal" at a meeting with Jeff Bezos.
The description infuriated Smalls, who has always noted that at Amazon, even low-level management positions don't hire black employees (he himself has been denied promotion opportunities for years), evidence of deep-seated racism at the company. As he told me over the summer, this led him to try to "let them fend for themselves."
This is a man who was fired in a very personal, highly public way, and he used his resentment because of what his employer had done to him to fight back. Given today's victory, Smouls explains how he went from being a non-radical to a militant, a man who was determined to organize at JFK8, and his story deserves to be cited in detail:
It's funny because I keep saying that Amazon is ready for me. Even though I'm not a manager, I've been doing managerial work for the past four and a half years. My leadership principles at Amazon have made it easier for me to transition into the sport I'm working on.
I'm using a lot of the principles I've learned at Amazon to deal with them. One of my favorites is "Having backbone, having responsibility". They hate that I use this phrase all the time. But that's probably why I never got a promotion. I have backbones, I stand up for what I think is right, and I promise to see change. Another principle is "see it, admit it, fix it," which was probably one of my original principles: I saw the problem, I acknowledged it, and now I'm trying to fix it.
Ironically, when they planned to smear me, they wanted me to be the face of union work, something they said themselves. So, in a sense, I'm trying to get them to suffer. I have nothing else to do. I'm still unemployed and I can't find a job anywhere. It's my full-time job, and this time, I'm on a different team.
In the spring of 2021, Smolas began organizing his former colleagues to set up a base at a bus stop outside JFK8, a necessary route for many warehouse workers to get to and from the factory. Soon, other JFK8 employees joined the ranks, such as Derrick Palmer, who previously worked for Smalls at JFK8 and has been with Amazon for six years now. They organized picnics, distributed promotional materials, spread their message on social media apps like TikTok, and set up an organizing committee within the facility.
Amazon continues to campaign against unions, but the Amazon unions have also continued to work. According to Labor Notes, the 25-member organizing committee refuted management's message and sat in the warehouse lounge discussing workers' concerns. Now, they have won the first Amazon alliance in the United States. While they need to celebrate this historic victory, the union faces another election that begins on April 25 at the LDJ5 center, an Amazon sorting center on Staten Island that employs about 1,500 workers.
Amazon union practices go against much common sense in the labor movement. Amazon unions have few paid employees, they collect far fewer union cards when they apply for elections than the labor community suggests, they have only one lawyer to fight Amazon's army of legal experts, and they have no experience negotiating contracts. However, the Amazon union insists that these characteristics are instead an advantage given the employer's so-called "third-party" approach to the struggle. "Unionization" refers to the boss's portrayal of the union as an external entity, rather than an organization made up entirely of workers themselves. Although this is textbook propaganda, and workers often refute it, pointing out that unions are driven by workers in the workshop; they explain that whatever the existing unions may have, it is up to the workers to vote on or reject contracts, to elect negotiating committees and workshop stewards. But the independent nature of amazon unions allowed JFK8 workers to completely avoid the boss's arguments.
Footage of the National Labor Relations Council's first day of counting votes in Brooklyn highlights that the struggle between the independent union and one of the world's most powerful corporations is like David's battle with Goliath. In one photo, amazon union leaders stand outside the National Labor Relations Board building, arm in arm. In another article, Smols stood alone, saying that Amazon's lawyers were in the purge room and "I liked watching them drink water like crazy and cramped."
After this historic victory, the Amazon union faces the next challenge: winning the first contract. In a statement released today by Amazon, the company said it was "disappointed by the outcome of the Staten Island election because we believe that 'building a direct relationship with the company' is the best thing to do for our employees." The statement concluded: "We are evaluating our options, including opposing the misconduct and ill-caused impact of the National Labor Relations Board that we and other agencies, including the National Retail Federation and the American Chamber of Commerce, saw in this election." ”
In the United States, it is the norm for employers to procrastinate at the negotiating table. Some studies have shown that less than half of negotiators can reach their first contract within a year of forming a union. Amazon is at the forefront of anti-unionism and employer authoritarianism, so it has a good chance of engaging in such resistance. That is why it waged war on these fledgling union work. Amazon knows as well as workers that once employees in one place are organized, it becomes a precedent that inspires workers elsewhere. After all, just look at Starbucks.
Given amazon union triumphs, the broader union movement will need to recalibrate assumptions about organizing Amazon workers and provide support to workers as they turn to fight for their first contract. The distance and tension between Amazon unions and other unions is real, and they're not going to disappear overnight. But extending amazon union triumphs to the company's hundreds of factories in the United States will also require the full cooperation of the labor movement. The company employs more than 1 million people nationwide (not counting the many drivers and other workers hired indirectly through third parties), and that number will only increase as Amazon is currently the second-largest private employer in the United States and has a growing share of the economy.
Amazon is an empire whose vast business has had an impact on workers in countless industries. Amazon has many branches: At Whole Foods, Amazon is actively monitoring potential organizational activity. There, trade union organizations are already in their early stages. While at Amazon Fresh, employees at a Store in Seattle have already begun organizing; some of Amazon's white-collar workers, some of whom have been laid off for building an organization, have a lot of problems in the workplace, even though their working conditions are significantly better than those at the JFK8 center. In addition, Amazon's courier employees are paid much less than their unionized counterparts (such as UPS), whose presence undermines industry standards.
These organizational work at Amazon Warehouses is important to all of us because we exist in the surveillance and control system pioneered by Amazon. The victory at JFK8 was just the first step. But most people say: Workers can't get to this point, that such a movement will get nothing, that Amazon is too big, that it can't be dealt with unless the labor movement is stronger than it is now. These considerations are not unfounded, but they are not entirely correct. As long as amazon exists, workers must organize. There was no way around it, and now the workers had taken on the task; it was time to learn from them, and now the priority was for them to succeed.
How Amazon beat unions in Alberta
Text:Ashlynn Chand
On September 14, 2021, a week after the Teamsters Local 362 launched a union vote on Amazon's YEG1 delivery center in Albertanisku, employees at the warehouse received the following messages through the company's emergency messaging system, which is commonly used to send and receive emergency information about the COVID-19 pandemic:
Did you know that union negotiations are a process of gain and loss? While these negotiations are in good faith, they cannot guarantee any outcome. Unions may give up what you value in order to get what certain colleagues or the union itself wants.
I worked at YEG1 for a few months until the union movement failed. There, I saw first-hand the exhausting pace of work and mandatory management. But it also saw how attractive the job was for the working class, where low wages and harsh work conditions were commonplace.
The conditions under which workers are forced to confront their bosses have never been ideal: Truck drivers' attempts to get Amazon to form unions are no exception. Union organizers are battling a company that made record profits and sales during the pandemic, and Amazon amassed billions of dollars in just a few months. When the average person saw their household savings shrink, the logistics company's profits soared by 220 percent.
Amazon reported a profit of $8.1 billion in 2021, compared to $2.5 billion in 2020. The company's COVID-19-driven growth means it needs more workers to meet production demand. In Canada, new logistics hubs have sprung up across the country. On September 13, 2021, Amazon announced that it will add 15,000 part-time and full-time employees to its current 25,000 employees.
The grueling working conditions due to unrealistic quotas were once the standards set by Amazon around the world. A survey by Atlantic and Reveal for the Center of Investigative Reporting found that Amazon has more than twice the rate of serious injuries in the United States as the national average for the warehousing industry. A report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) exposed the company's retaliatory tactics against workers trying to promote the union movement; an article in globe and mail noted that employees often complained of not having time to use restrooms and were forced to work in conditions lacking appropriate social distancing measures during the pandemic.
For four decades, wages for most Canadian and American wage earners have continued to decline or stagnate, which has undoubtedly reduced worker morale and expectations. However, in a company known for its relentless pursuit of profit maximization, there is even the possibility of forming a union, which is a testament to the change in the tide. At the YEG1 center, the truckers' union failed to withstand the torrent of austerity, but there is hope of starting the fight again if we can learn from our defeats.
Employees at a warehouse on Staten Island, Amazon, New York, USA, March 25, 2022, will vote in an election to decide whether to form a union. Amazon is preparing for a tough labor struggle.
On May 6, 2020, I applied for a job as a seasonal warehouse assistant at THEG1 Logistics Center. The application process is very simple, just submit a resume and answer a few psychological survey questions. Two weeks later, I was scheduled for an "interview." An HR assistant checked my papers, took a picture of me, and then asked if I was available. New job applicants must work the night shift (7:15 p.m. to 5:45 a.m.) and choose between Sunday to Wednesday or Wednesday to Saturday options. I chose Wednesday to Saturday.
Management suggested that mechanical training for lifting heavy loads was optional. When I refused to be trained, I was told that if I didn't indicate that I was willing to be trained, I wouldn't be hired. As with many things at Amazon, mechanical training is an option I can't refuse.
My first shift was on June 2nd. The first five hours of training are videos about health and safety. When we started the work drill, we received further guidance on Amazon's health and safety protocols. However, the whole event is routine. As one ambassador later told me (the ambassador was Amazon's on-site staff advisor and morale booster), pre-shift drills were unnecessary: "I just skipped them quickly, though we encouraged you to do the exercises." ”
Amazon's new employees are called "white badges." They are considered seasonal or temporary employees and are entitled to limited benefits. On the face of it, after ninety days of service, employees are eligible to apply for their blue badge, which marks permanent employment and additional benefits. In reality, the qualification to earn the blue badge is more special. The badge is awarded based on Amazon's production needs. This arbitrariness is an inducement to new employees' productivity: if they show diligence, they may be eligible to apply for the Blue Badge in advance.
The blue badge gives employees access to benefits such as education savings plans, personal leave, and monthly bonuses for high productivity. It used to include paid sick leave, but now a colleague tells me that the company no longer offers paid sick leave. After two years on the job, Blue Badge is also entitled to two shares of Amazon stock. Only the Blue Badge can apply for day shifts, but whether an application is accepted depends on productivity. During the peak season, all workers are required to work 60 hours, or 6 days a week.
Lyra, a forty-three-year-old Filipino woman who needs to work hours to obtain permanent residency in Canada, began working at Amazon in October 2020. "You're going to be tired, but at the same time you're going to make a lot of money," Lyra told me, "it's a win-lose situation." You're glad you've made a lot of money, but you're also sad that you're tired. I don't know how to balance this problem. ”
All white badges are eager to upgrade to blue badges in order to receive benefits and full-time job security. Jon, a twenty-five-year-old international student from Kenya, worked as a warehouse assistant from June to September. When his efforts did not come in return for the blue badge, he resigned. When he talks about Amazon's warehouse operations, he says: "There is a certain kind of exploitation at work, but in a way exploitation is a cannonball wrapped in sugar coating. They use computers to evaluate work, but you have to think about how people work. ”
The belly of the beast
On June 25, Alberta experienced eight consecutive days of historic heatwaves, with temperatures reaching a maximum of 30 degrees Celsius. At the time, I was entering my fourth week at YEG1.
For safety reasons, Amazon requires employees to wear clothes that cover their arms. Due to the hot weather, long-sleeved clothes make work very uncomfortable. While at work, I suddenly found myself a penalized person in the warehouse's automated disciplinary procedures.
Amazon's warehouse workers work under the company's points system, which has only sticks but no carrots. The scores obtained are not points at all, but points are deducted. Employees will not be deducted points if they clock in within 5 minutes of the start of the shift. Late arrivals are given a 0.5 point. If an employee's score reaches 5, they will receive a warning. A score of 6 means dismissal. Early in my job, I was warned that I should scan my first item within five minutes of punching in.
By the time I entered the facility at 7:17 p.m., my time was already tight. However, I was stopped at the COVID-19 temperature check and told to wait a few minutes. Due to the hot weather, employees were asked to physically cool down to ensure accurate measurements.
After being delayed, my first item was scanned 13 minutes late. It wasn't long before the process instructor came to my workstation and made me notice the computer they used to track the packaging. He said he very much wanted me to qualify for all the benefits of the blue badge. But he worries that both I and the regional manager will get into trouble because of being late: being 5 minutes late is one thing, but being 13 minutes late is unacceptable. He explained that because I had already received a warning for being late, if that happened again, I would get a warning that could lead to dismissal.
I'm not the only one who finds it incredibly difficult to work in a hot warehouse. Employees suffering from migraines and nausea quickly ran out of limited unpaid voluntary leave (VTO). Because Amazon employees have lower expectations, unpaid time off may be seen by management as a charitable gift, a situation that is more common in North America. Workers who want to take uncompensated leave are eligible to apply only if the production quota is very low.
Those of us who did not apply for unpaid voluntary leave did our best to overcome the pain. The management did not provide proper ventilation, but gave the workers free Gatorade, which, as you can imagine, could not cool us down at all. Throughout that entire week, the only ventilation in the warehouse was a large fan from the ceiling, and its cold air did little. A week later, small fans were introduced at each station to alleviate the heat in the workplace.
pain
Barry Eidlin, an assistant professor in the department of sociology at McGill University, said that contrary to popular belief, Amazon hasn't actually changed the nature of work. Instead, Amazon's business model exists only because employee expectations have changed. Edlin noted that Amazon proudly boasts that it starts at $17.75 in an attempt to attract a large number of low-wage workers who have been forced to rely on the minimum wage for decades to make ends meet.
"In a broader labor market context, they're actually lowering workers' wages by making warehouse jobs look more like working at Walmart," Edlin said, "and as a result, high-wage warehouse jobs are becoming more like low-wage retail jobs." ”
Packing is physically demanding, and pain often strikes. My ambassador and other colleagues warn new employees that their feet will feel very sore when they start working. Pain and exhaustion are rituals they need to go through. On this point, half-truths and half-false jokes often appear: "Amazon is killing us" and "I will have scoliosis" are common expressions among workers. Eventually, the foot pain gave way to persistent back pain.
After being retrieved by the picker, the item is sent to the packer for scanning, packing, tape and shipping labeling. After passing through these links, the items are taken to the transport terminal and placed on a truck. If there is a problem at any point, the item will be shelved and the "problem solver" will have to come and solve the problem. All items must be shipped on time, so speed and accuracy are paramount.
After a few weeks at the company, I was told I hadn't completed my quota. This surprised me because no one ever told me I needed to complete quotas. In the first two weeks of work, newly recruited employees do not need to meet quotas. By the third week, the quota was implemented, but the requirement was not properly communicated to employees. Even if it is a simple question, employees have to work hard to get an answer. As a result, there is a general frustration with management. "Amazon doesn't care" became a mantra in the warehouse.
I quickly learned that the average worker packs 60 to 80 medium or large items per hour, or 90 small items. Items marked "Shipped in Own Container" (SIOC) do not need to be loaded into the box, but still need to be scanned and labeled for shipment. These items tend to be bulky and heavy.
The longer an employee stays in the company, the higher the expectations for productivity. The fastest packers in our class can pack 300 items in an hour, depending on the size of the items. Other fast packers can complete 100 to 200 items per hour. When production is slow, fast packers are moved to reduce speed and quantity, and when production speeds up, these packers are critical to ensuring that items are shipped on time. Workers with special packaging skills often have to take on the extra labor of handling priority packages. But Amazon's job isn't to determine the workload through piecemeal, and having the skills needed to meet the surge in production demand doesn't come with additional rewards.
Hard work
On my second day on the job, I went to AmCare, Amazon's on-site medical unit. My feet hurt so badly that I wanted some ice. I asked the medical staff there if there were many employees seeking treatment. I was told that there are usually new employees who seek help because of soreness, and a small number of ordinary employees who come to the doctor for a work injury in the shoulder, back, or ankle.
Whenever an employee is injured, medical staff must report the injury within 24 hours. If they don't, they're reprimanded. The district manager investigates by looking at recently scanned items to see if the size of the package handled is commensurate with the severity of the injury. According to Intercept, an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that AmCare workers were under tremendous pressure from companies that "(Amazon) cover up injuries and medical issues at the expense of employees' health." From what I've seen, minor injuries often occur, but many workers don't think it's worth going to AmCare or give up treatment because they don't know what they have.
Kelly, a 45-year-old white woman injured in a traffic accident, has been working at a "work center" ever since, a term used to indicate that an employer hired an employee with some kind of disability. Kelly was then injured again in the warehouse. The process of obtaining workers' compensation and appropriate accommodation is difficult because it requires employees to have a comprehensive understanding of health care and labor law, she said.
"I think Amazon was able to escape the penalty of so many people not filing a claim against workers' compensation board (and they should do it when workers are harmed)" because people don't know their rights," Kelly said. I was born and raised here, and when I was injured, I didn't know how the Workers' Compensation Commission worked. ”
Amber, a fifty-nine-year-old white immigrant, injured his knee while working in the winter of 2021. The Workers' Compensation Board took up her case and she has been on leave ever since. When she works in the warehouse, she feels forced to do more work than other colleagues because she is not the "darling" of management. "I've been told that I'm not fast enough," Amber told me via text, "and I go around asking people who work at the same speed as me or slower than I do." They never received such a warning. ”
My regional managers often say "health and safety first, productivity and quality second". However, when production quotas call for an increase in the speed of work, this worker-first slogan is cast aside. Workstations are overcrowded, process assistants dig through cages for priority delivery, colleagues pack items twice as large as they do, and incorrect handling techniques are everywhere.
On April 1, 2022, in New York, USA, Amazon Union founder Christian Smalls celebrated and spoke with Amazon workers. On the same day, Amazon employees in Staten Island, New York, voted on whether to set up an Amazon union. If the union is eventually formed, it marks that Amazon will become the first American company in history to successfully form a union.
"Sometimes I feel bad, but I choose to fight back"
"First half" is Amazon's term for shifts from Sunday to Wednesday; "second half" refers to all Wednesday to Saturday shifts. The confluence of multiple shifts makes Wednesday the busiest day of the week. Due to the frequent shortage of employees, those who are willing to work overtime are often asked to work overtime and work faster. When this happens, there is often no warning: employees are asked to process more quotas per hour. Typically about 60 to 80 tasks per hour rise to 90 to 110. Workers Lyra said: "For the second half of the shift, if we were asked to pack ten hours per shift and there was no rotation, we had no choice because we never had enough staff. ”
Over time, people realized that Amazon often rearranges employees who can't meet their quotas. Their alternative duties are called indirect tasks and are not monitored by the company's surveillance technology. I'm often asked to be a "water spider" — a slang term my colleagues use to refer to workers who "make the packing site look like it's full of packers." In order to maintain the speed of production, packers are asked not to leave their posts. Water spiders are responsible for resupplying them.
While my productivity was decent and I was praised and supported by my managers, there were many days when work-related pain and frustration almost brought me to tears. I came home with tingling in my fingers and often woke up with burning pain in my back. When I share my feelings with my colleagues, they admit that they are also often overwhelmed by the endless stress of work.
Employee anxiety and frustration are common, but workers often rebel. I don't know what happened in the other centers of Amazon, but nisku's warehouse was full of gunpowder. Many of my colleagues would scold me for not standing up against management and encouraged me to speak up.
"Sometimes I feel bad, but I fight back," Lyra said, "and I don't care if they hate me, I never care if they call me slut, I never care if they call me anything." But I'm going to say what I think. When I'm angry, I tell them. ”
Of course, Amazon is constantly changing and innovating. In my short four months there, many managers, colleagues, and policies have been subverted or abandoned. No one can guarantee that a new policy or management team will be there for a long time. What surprised me most, however, was not this ever-changing situation, but Amazon's positive work environment. This is not a false positive attitude imposed by managers with clichés and work language, but the fact that many workers, even though they are tired, angry, miserable, and often complain publicly, still claim to like their work.
One employee told me in an email: "I personally enjoy my time here, as long as you can complete the daily tasks, other than that the company does not have much other expectations of you." ”
This good working attitude is inseparable from the mutual support of the workshop. Amazon employees often create their own close-knit community, and assistants are always happy to help anyone in need. Whenever I couldn't lift or move anything, other packers would help me. Once, due to my insect phobia, I couldn't pack a bag of bugs, and another colleague helped me with the packing.
"I love working at Amazon because I can meet new people," another employee told me. "In my opinion, Amazon can't do anything properly without employees."
As Kelly said to me, "Ultimately, you'll learn more from your colleagues than you would from management." ”
The motivation to organize trade unions
In early July, the Canadian Truck drivers association started their first organized event at the YEG1 Logistics Center. Amazon launched an anti-union campaign that same week.
Edlin argues that in the eyes of employers such as Amazon, the cost of anti-union action is insignificant compared to the downward distribution of money and power that can come with forming a union:
What employers really value is unchecked power in the workplace and the ability to direct things in a way they see fit, and they are willing to pay the financial price for it. Therefore, in order to sabotage unions and prevent long-term costs, it is worthwhile to invest in destroying union expenses in the front end; when things come to a critical juncture, it is all about control.
In the week since the union movement was announced, I met for the first time with many employee relations workers (business experts sent to thwart union efforts). He asked me if I had spoken to people in the union. He went on to tell me that it was my right to talk to union representatives and ask them questions. He told me that workers have every right to want to talk about unions, and that no one is punished for talking to them. Then he wrote down my name and then asked me if I had any questions I wanted the management to resolve. It was clear that the arrival of the Canadian Truckers Union had brought management's care to new heights as he also asked what changes I would like to see in the workplace.
I asked my ambassador if employee relations workers are common at Amazon. She replied that it was the first time she had seen them, or even heard of their presence. In the weeks that followed, employee relations personnel became an inevitable presence in the workplace. At the same time, the arrival of the truckers' union has changed the tone of workplace discussions.
Some workers automatically support unions, while others are hesitant or ignorant of the formation of unions. The battle between Amazon and truck drivers over workers has been slow and didn't really start to heat up until September. Still, subtle changes have taken place. Television screens began displaying information about unions, claiming that "unions are a business." Information about the "special benefits" amazon gives to employees has become ubiquitous.
In the rest area, there are information sheets at each table that answer hypothetical union questions. Each cubicle in the restroom was hung with a sign written in multiple languages, pointing out that the effects of unionization were all negative. The slogans denounced union dues as expensive fees and warned that workers' benefits could be cut.
Employees had mixed opinions on the matter. On that subject. Supporters and opponents appeared among the staff. One colleague said unionization depends on unions: some are good, some are not. Another employee declared that she was concerned about job safety, not pay. Many of my colleagues explain that they take a wait-and-see approach to this issue. Unions may mean some protection, that's for sure; but they worry about how much of their wages will be spent paying union dues. Some fast packers aren't compensated for their efficiency, fearing that unions will benefit "lazy" colleagues more than they do.
In another workplace example in the Nisku warehouse, my ambassador advised operations managers: "If you don't want Amazon to join the union, then you need to make a change in the pay issue because that's what people see." ”
"We're not here to get your $30. We're here to help improve the workplace and see if we can negotiate higher wage growth," Chance Hrycun, vice president of the truckers' union for district 362, said in an interview after I left Amazon. We just show them what other people can get. "The language is a bit too bland, which is undoubtedly one of the reasons why the union has not succeeded."
"Are you going to vote?"
In early August, I called the truck drivers' union and identified myself as an unsuspecting employee. On the phone, one organizer told me that the union had collected about 200 signatures and said they were about to get the signatures of 40 percent of their employees, which is the number needed to hold the election. However, as Edlin points out, experienced union organizers realize that the goal of the union movement should be to get the signatures of 70 percent of workers.
Lyra told me she had also called the truck drivers' union but hadn't received a call back. She also couldn't find any organizers at the scene. As a result, she ended up discussing her concerns with a manager. She explained that she wanted to sign the union card but was hesitant about union dues. The manager told her in a calm tone that there were many pros and cons to consider and that the final decision was in her hands. Needless to say, the experience didn't convince her of the benefits of joining a union. If she had access to an organizer, she might be able to address her concerns more thoroughly.
About a month or so after the union movement began, Amazon sent in a new employee relations guy who told us the company wanted to make sure employees knew what they would get if they signed on their union cards. I asked her bluntly if Amazon was for or against union organizations. She told us:
The reason we feel unions are at odds with our culture is that when something goes wrong, employees can always go straight to HR or their manager. When you start a union, you have to communicate through the union first, even to solve some small problems. We lost this direct communication, which undermined the relationship between employees and management.
In August and early September, a discontent seemed to spread through the warehouse: my colleagues felt overworked and undervalued. Edlin noted: "The pandemic has highlighted this indispensable work. This is less obvious in Canada, but in the United States there has been an increase in strikes; people realize that they no longer have to endure the insults they endure in their daily work, so they resign in desperation. ”
Lyra told me she had changed her mind about the union because she felt management didn't respect her and didn't listen to her. A young black employee named Jon heeded the advice of older black employees and signed union cards, almost all of them supporting unions.
My colleague Sarah signed up for a union card because she felt there was too much favoritism at work. She asked for easier work or was rotated to a different shift, but the results were the exact opposite of her request.
"When unions tried to get into Amazon, I noticed how the superiors tried to convince us not to sign," Sarah later wrote to me, "and management became more accommodating and friendly to us." That's what I noticed. I believe that maybe unions can do something for all of Amazon's employees, especially when it comes to job equality. ”
Some in management can clearly read the change in employee sentiment as Amazon prepares to bring in top management from other agencies to lash out at unions and praise the benefits of working at Amazon.
On September 14, the Truckers Union District 362 submitted a union vote application, believing they had obtained 40 percent of the signed cards needed to hold the election. A week later, Amazon sent out an urgent text message warning employees that "the union may give up what you value in order to get what certain colleagues or the union itself wants." ”
Shortly before I left the company, I had a discussion with a district manager, and the topic of discussion quickly turned to the truckers' union.
"I don't know what you think of unions," the manager asked.
"I would say I support the union."
"I don't know how long I'll be here."
"I'm thinking, no matter what, if you think so, it's better not to do it, because it will affect other people."
"There are some things you just don't know"
My last interaction with Amazon Employee Relations was a conversation with an operations manager named Brian. He highlights the issue of joining a union: "It's a risk, and if you want to take that risk, it's up to you, but the other thing to look at is that there are a lot of examples of unions not negotiating a better outcome for their members." ”
Brian went on to say that Amazon may reduce shift times to offset the potential losses caused by union organizations. He hinted that companies may no longer offer as many voluntary extra time (VET) or dental benefits.
On September 29, 2021, the Alberta Labour Relations Board informed Teamsters Canada that the number of union signature cards did not meet the requirement of 40 per cent of the total number of employees and therefore could not trigger the election.
Two months later, on November 24, the truck drivers' union found that Amazon had inflated the number of employees, including people who did not work at Amazon during the union's application.
At union events in Bethemer, Alabama, Amazon insisted on including seasonal temporary workers in elections and exaggerated the number of workers the union needed. While temporary workers should also be represented, Amazon is fully aware that because these workers are not long-term workers, they are often used as a means of opposing union formation.
"Amazon is a huge, global company with such strength and resources," Edlin said. The company needs to be controlled, not only through work authorization, but also through state regulation. ”
After the election was lost, I interviewed Bernie Haggarty, treasurer and chief officer of the Truckers Guild's District 362. "There are some things you just don't know, when we first entered Amazon, we didn't have any insider employee information," Hagerty told me, "and wherever we fall, we're going to keep going and trying to make it right." ”
I also visited several of my former colleagues. Sarah told me she might not vote again in the future: "I realized that maybe it doesn't matter if there is no union, because I have heard from other union workers that they will not do anything for us, maybe the union can only increase our wages." 」 ”
"Fundamentally, building unions will force Amazon to acknowledge the humanity of its employees because they actually have to negotiate with them," Edlin said. However, in order to achieve this goal, trade unions must strengthen communication with workers. ”
At the end of December 2021, the Canadian Truck Union withdrew its application. The union said it was planning to start new applications after the ninety-day waiting period required by law. The union is currently collecting signatures again at YEG1 and plans to re-apply later this year.
Editor-in-Charge: Han Shaohua
Proofreader: Ding Xiao