new York It worked on the second attempt: the employees in the Amazon warehouse in New York’s Staten Island district voted on Friday with 2,654 yes to 2,131 no votes for the introduction of union representation. A similar attempt last year failed. In another vote in Alabama, the votes are still being counted. But it looks like the majority of employees have refused to form a union.
The pro-union victory in Staten Island is a historic turning point for Amazon. It is the first time that the large corporation has had to deal with organized employee representation in-house. Ever since it was founded in the 1990s, the online retailer has always managed to keep employee representatives out of the picture. But especially in times of labor shortages and increasing complaints about working conditions, the pressure had increased.
A long struggle preceded the vote in Staten Island. It all started with the foreman Christian Smalls. He was fired almost two years ago after organizing a protest for better protection against Covid-19 in his warehouse in New York at the height of the corona pandemic. For months since then he has been handing out leaflets outside his former workplace to form a union.
Amazon itself had plastered the warehouses with “Vote No” leaflets and invited employees to mandatory information events during working hours. The managers there had argued that Amazon pays more than minimum wage and offers social benefits that are acceptable by American standards – and that therefore no unions are necessary.
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A total of around 8,000 employees work at the warehouse in Staten Island. More than half took part in the election.
New self-confidence of American workers
The labor sociologist Ruth Milkman from the City University of New York is not surprised that the unions in New York have better chances than in structurally weak Alabama. “In Alabama, Amazon jobs pay better than other local jobs,” she explains. In Staten Island, on the other hand, Amazon has to compete with other New York employers for employees.
After a week-long protest, the former Amazon employee was successful.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Above all, the vote in Staten Island is a sign of a new self-confidence among workers in the USA. Six branches of the Starbucks coffee house chain in Buffalo have now also voted for the introduction of a union.
The labor shortage has given low-wage workers in the US a newfound confidence. In the second half of 2021, more than four million Americans quit their jobs every month — while companies hired an average of six million people a month. Friday’s jobs data showed US unemployment fell to 3.6 percent.
“The pandemic has changed the balance of power,” observes Michigan State University professor Michelle Kaminski, who specializes in labor unions. “Covid has shown how important workers are,” she says. Workers wanted to be treated with dignity, “and that’s not the case in many places.” Kaminski advises companies to listen carefully to their employees.
Amazon: Founder Jeff Bezos wants to be “the best place to work in the world”.
Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos has also recognized the problem: In his most recent letter to shareholders, he promised to take better care of employees: “We always wanted to be the most customer-centric company in the world,” writes Bezos in this. And now Amazon also wants to be “the best employer and safest place to work in the world”.
That’s why Amazon pays $3,000 in bonuses in some regions of the US when people sign employment contracts. Hourly wages have been raised to an average of $18 for entry. According to media reports, the company has also largely eliminated its so-called “pay to quit” program, which offered employees $5,000 after the holiday season to leave the company.
Labor law expert Kaminski advises employees to seize the opportunity. “There hasn’t been a better moment in the past 30 years,” she is convinced. And if you want your pay raises to last and not just be wiped out in the next downturn, Kaminski advises joining a union as soon as possible.
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