How much does Amazon hate unions?
The Amazon facility in Albany, N.Y., will be the next location to fight for a union.
NEW: Leaked video shows Amazon managers shouting at workers & warning them against signing union cards at an Albany, NY warehouse.
"Stay out of our way," one manager yelled, pounding a table. "I'm up to here with their bullshit."
Workers filed for a union election the next day. pic.twitter.com/qdpdgi1ywX
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) August 19, 2022
Meanwhile, Amazon workers in San Bernardino, Calif staged a wildcat strike recently.
Things are heating up.
According to a leaked memo, Amazon is developing a strategy to fight the growing union movement, and it's disgusting.
The document, from May 2021, offers rare insights into the anti-union strategies of one of the world’s most powerful companies. The memo laid out two crucial goals for Amazon: establish and deepen “relationships with key policymakers and community stakeholders” and improve “Amazon’s overall brand.” The company has faced heightened scrutiny and worker activism in recent years amid reports of harsh working conditions and higher-than-average injury rates, resulting in a series of unionization attempts from Bessemer, Alabama, to Staten Island, New York.
...And not just any local nonprofits and organizations: Amazon shrewdly planned to “intentionally seek partnerships with some organizations that work closely with our opposition.” Those included organizations dedicated to helping incarcerated people find stable work upon reentry into society, such as the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, Homeboy Industries, and Defy Ventures, all named in the memo.
...
It also strategized about creating hiring pipelines for underprivileged students and workers in lower-income communities in Southern California.The memo proposed that Amazon seek accords with school districts in Southern California, such as the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), to create a continuous pipeline of workers for Amazon jobs from local community colleges. As of 2020, around 80 percent of families with children in the LAUSD live at or below the poverty threshold, and only 81 percent of students graduate high school in four years compared to 88 percent for California students overall. The memo said a school district partnership would support “some of Southern California’s most vulnerable students” — and such an effort would also help meet the company’s hiring needs by connecting full-time community college students with jobs at Amazon. If successful, the company would then seek to strike similar partnerships with the San Diego Unified School District.
So their strategy is to change their workforce into people that simply can't afford to lose their job (ex-prisoners probably on parole), and impoverished students that can't afford to go on strike. All the while painting this in social justice terms.
However, if there is anyone that is in any way confused about Amazon's position on social justice, consider this story.
In a Monday feature, Bloomberg wrote in-depth about the prosecutor, Jennifer Abruzzo, leading the legal fight for Whole Foods workers' rights to don masks and other apparel showcasing their support for the BLM movement.
Higher-ups have been said to worry that doing so would cause political conflict with customers. However, an internal email revealed in the legal case that managers might also be concerned about how allowing it would be like "opening the door for union activity."
In related news, Starbucks asked the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) to temporarily suspend all union elections at it's stores. More than 220 stores have voted for union representation so far.
While that's a headline in itself, what has been largely ignored is the strikes that have gone along with the union drive.
Workers at Starbucks have held over 55 different strikes in at least 17 states in the US in recent months over the company’s aggressive opposition to a wave of unionization.According to an estimate by Starbucks Workers United, the strikes have cost Starbucks over $375,000 in lost revenue. The union created a $1m strike fund in June 2022 to support Starbucks workers through their strikes and several relief funds have been established for strikes and to support workers who have lost their jobs.
Comments
Could Trader Joe's be next?
link
@gjohnsit TJ should change their
Reg the Minneapolis store:
https://racketmn.com/trader-joes-union-minneapolis/
I welcome
the surge in union activity, not only nationwide but worldwide also.
It's the American way!
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
You know, I was JUST thinking...
...if Rosa Parks did her thing today, she'd be uploaded to venues like r/PublicFreakout and labelled "a Karen".
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
I worked for Home Depot
as an emergency gig for a short period of time after the crash, and their mandatory "employee orientation" at the time was essentially a two-hour antiunion video harangue. I remember thinking at the time that that ought to be illegal, but then- nothing is illegal any more, if you have the coin.
I did that for about 4 months until I could get another engineering gig, and have never looked back. And I've never shopped there again, either.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.