Amazon Workers Are Rejecting Joining a Union by a Decisive Margin

[GURPS]

The final tally isn’t in yet, but as of late Thursday night, Amazon workers in Bessemer, Ala., are voting by a 2-1 margin against joining a union.

More than 3,200 votes were sent in and with about half the ballots counted, 1,100 warehouse workers had rejected the union while 463 voted in favor of it. The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, which is organizing the Amazon workers in Bessemer, claim that there was a 55 percent turnout of workers. Amazon employs more than 950,000 workers in the United States.

NBC San Diego:

Labor experts and union leaders believe, however, that Bessemer could still inspire other Amazon workers to try to unionize at the company’s hundreds of facilities across the country. And it could spread beyond the company, spurring action at Walmart, the nation’s largest employer, and other big retailers.
Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the retail union, struck a grim tone in a statement Thursday night as the initial results rolled in, signaling that the union will put up a legal fight if the vote doesn’t go its way.

Amazon Workers Are Rejecting Joining a Union by a Decisive Margin

pjmedia.com

 

[stgislander]

That's surprising. Bezos is so entrenched with the progbots, I'd have thought he'd would have brought the union in anyways.

 

[vraiblonde]

Amazon workers are stupid to not want a union. And I do not say that lightly because I believe many times unions cause more harm than good.

But Amazon is a modern day robber baron with no qualms against actual literal slave labor, so there's no reason to believe they'll treat their employees right unless they're forced to.

See, that's the thing with these Marxist Democrats: they want Mom and Pop to have all these onerous restrictions and regulations and blah blah blah, but they don't want to do it in their own fiefdoms.

 

[vraiblonde]

That's surprising. Bezos is so entrenched with the progbots, I'd have thought he'd would have brought the union in anyways.

Bezos also pontificates about rich people not paying their fair share and $15 minimum wage, then takes every tax break available to him and pays his workers as little as he possibly can. Many Amazon facilities don't even pay their workers overtime, and force them to work long hours without breaks. If I can find the news stories I'll post them but you can do a search and find the information I found.

He, like all Democrats, is a raging blathering hypocrite.

 

[Gilligan]

But Amazon is a modern day robber baron with no qualms against actual literal slave labor, so there's no reason to believe they'll treat their employees right unless they're forced to.

?? If Amazon is indeed "treating its employees badly", why then did the employees vote overwhelmingly against a union?

 

[vraiblonde]

?? If Amazon is indeed "treating its employees badly", why then did the employees vote overwhelmingly against a union?

I'm curious about that myself. My first thought was election fraud, because nothing these aholes do surprises me anymore.

 

[vraiblonde]

Take your pick:

amazon poor work environment at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

 

[Gilligan]

I'm curious about that myself. My first thought was election fraud, because nothing these aholes do surprises me anymore.

I think other union attempts to organzie businesses have failed for similar reasons; a cold-eyed rational business owner isn't going to rely on poorly treated employees except in cases where its just a "sweat shop" full of unskilled and easily replaced labor. . Bad management practice.

 

[Gilligan]

Take your pick:

amazon poor work environment at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

I see the word "alleged" in practically every sentence, and a bunch of anecdotal personal stories. I'll stick with the results of the election as being the tell.

 

[Monello]

Not the outcome I had envisioned.

 

[vraiblonde]

I think other union attempts to organzie businesses have failed for similar reasons; a cold-eyed rational business owner isn't going to rely on poorly treated employees except in cases where its just a "sweat shop" full of unskilled and easily replaced labor. . Bad management practice.

Amazon warehouses are staffed by seasonal unskilled and easily replaced labor.

They also have a workamping program where they'll put RVers or van dwellers up at a campground - sometimes 20 miles away from the facility - and pay them minimum wage to do hard physical labor for up to 15 hours a day with few or no breaks. This is well documented in many sources that have to say "alleged" so Amazon doesn't sic their battalion of lawyers on them.

Normally I too am against unions in general, but when a company like Amazon treats its employees so poorly they deserve some protection.

Although if they did unionize it would turn out like every other labor union and the bosses would take money from the workers, getting rich and powerful without doing a damn thing to protect them. So there's that.....

But now you've got me thinking.....

I've changed my mind. Amazon shouldn't unionize, this way only really stupid dregs of society who can't get anything better will work there. Then the quality goes way down, and hopefully people will stop gobbling up Amazon crap and start shopping local. Which won't happen because humans by and large are ignorant asses who do what the TV tells them to. I still can't get over the overlords convincing people to actually pay to turn over their DNA.

I default to "that's not fair and you can't do that! " but the reality is that most people are dumbshits and do deserve to be exploited.

 

[Gilligan]

I default to "that's not fair and you can't do that! " but the reality is that most people are dumbshits and do deserve to be exploited.

But...looking at past history, it seems that the tendency has always been for workers to vote to organize even if they are not that bad off in reality. A typical "well if the union can get me a raise and two more break periods, I'm in" kind of a mentality. That seems to not be the case here...for some reason.

 

[vraiblonde]

But...looking at past history, it seems that the tendency has always been for workers to vote to organize even if they are not that bad off in reality. A typical "well if the union can get me a raise and two more break periods, I'm in" kind of a mentality. That seems to not be the case here...for some reason.

Well, looking at past history, the tendency has always been for the guy with an enormous and enthusiastic following to get elected President over the guy who can't draw flies if you covered him in chit, and yet here we are......

So....yeah...elections.....

Or perhaps Amazon warehouse workers are so devoted to King Jeff and the Amazon realm that they will gladly work in poor conditions for little money and no breaks if it helps the cause. Who knows.

 

[LightRoasted]

If I may ...

Well ... Playing Devil's advocate. In Amazon's defense, no one is forcing people to fill out an employment application to work for Amazon. But what is really the poopyist result of any employment, even at slightly above minimum wage, is the Local, State, Federal, and FICA taxes taken out of that worker's paycheck. Never giving them a chance to keep up or catch up with their actual needs in life.

So what would happen if a Union was voted in? I would bet that after the mandatory "union dues", and most likely restricted/lower hours, (for the now unionized employee), for their "safety", every employee would actually loose ground, monetarily. Making their lives worse. Unlike the trade unions, (thought they have their own faults), that actually work to make a safer work environment and protect their workers.

 

[glhs837]

Wait til they make card check the law of the land. When three burly workers show up at your house and look around at all you have to lose with hungry eyes and ask you if you are going to vote union or not, and most importantly, they will know if you didnt......

 

[Clem72]

Amazon workers are stupid to not want a union. And I do not say that lightly because I believe many times unions cause more harm than good.

But Amazon is a modern day robber baron with no qualms against actual literal slave labor, so there's no reason to believe they'll treat their employees right unless they're forced to.

See, that's the thing with these Marxist Democrats: they want Mom and Pop to have all these onerous restrictions and regulations and blah blah blah, but they don't want to do it in their own fiefdoms.

I think I agree, for Amazon it makes sense for the employees (at least the warehouse and delivery workers) to unionize. Tesla employees on the other hand would have to be retarded to unionize.

 

[Bird Dog]

Unions....

 

[glhs837]

I think I agree, for Amazon it makes sense for the employees (at least the warehouse and delivery workers) to unionize. Tesla employees on the other hand would have to be retarded to unionize.

I suspect that the planned EV incentive will have labor "safety and training" requirements that will try and force unionization on Tesla.

 

[GURPS]

Why Amazon Workers Rejected Unionization



Is this another one of those What’s the Matter with Kansas? episodes in which workers “vote against their own interests”? Why would any worker not want to be represented by a labor union?

To answer that question, we might turn to Frank Giovinco, recently sentenced to four years in prison for managing the Genovese crime syndicate’s control of two labor unions in Brooklyn. If Giovinco is unavailable for comment, we might ask Charles Farris Jr., the former president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) affiliate in New Castle, Pa., who has been indicted on five felony counts of theft and five felony counts of “access device” fraud, which is what they call it when you steal money using an ATM card; Cathy Byers, the former treasurer of the AFT affiliate in Ronceverte, W. Va., convicted of wire fraud; James Young, the former president of the AFT’s Philadelphia affiliate, convicted of embezzling; Joseph Ashton, the former vice president of the United Auto Workers and former director of the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources in Detroit, convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money-laundering in connection with his receipt of kickbacks on a multi-million-dollar vendor contract; Angel Luis Garcia, the former financial secretary of the Amalgamated Transit Union local in Dover, N.J., convicted on embezzling charges; Michael Johnson, the former president and business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1658 (Pine Bluff, Ark.), convicted of embezzling; Tyrone Johnson, the former president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3374 (Baltimore), indicted on theft and embezzling charges; Brenda Wilson, the former president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3841 (Columbia, S.C.), indicted on a charge of making false statements to federal investigators; Sandra King, the former president of the Federation of Police and Security and former president of the Alliance of Independent Workers (both locals in Maryland), sentenced for embezzling; Aja Jasmin, the former president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 350C (Ontario, Calif.), charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in an embezzling scheme; or Michael Oldham, the former president of AFGE Local 1900 (Taunton, Mass.), indicted on 29 counts of wire fraud along with making false statements to investigators and tax charges.

 

[black dog]

How many here have actually worked and paid dues to a worthwhile union? Like any of the skilled trade unions?