While the historic union election on Amazon in Alabama is heating up, Amazon is using every trick to stop the union.
In violation of Amazon’s social detachment policy, Amazon forced workers to participate in anti-union meetings and sent workers constant text messages daily, implying that a union could lead to the closure of the warehouse. Amazon even managed to get local authorities to cut down on traffic lights outside the factory so that union organizers couldn’t distribute pro-union literature so that organizers couldn’t easily distribute pro-union literature to workers passing by in their cars.
Now, Amazon is doing something that labor watchers have never seen before in a union election; they are offering $ 2,000 “resignation bonus” to give up.
Last night, workers across the factory received emails offering bonuses if they simply quit. The emails offer workers, who have worked for 2 peak seasons, at least $ 2,000 to resign. If workers have been there for at least 3 peak seasons, they are offering them $ 3,000.
Some Amazon workers, who don’t like their job at the warehouse, may find bonuses a tempting bridge to quit their job and look for something better. Workers are even being told that if they give up now, they will be able to resume their jobs after the union election.
However, if workers quit now, they will not be entitled to vote in the ongoing union election. In the meantime, many labor observers hope that Amazon will seek to hire substitutes who will vote solidly against the unions.
“This should be illegal, as you can pay someone to quit,” says Jennifer Bates, a 48-year-old worker at Black Amazon. “They are going to the end, they are pulling all the obstacles.”
According to federal labor law, bonuses can be considered a bribe and can lead to the rejection of the union election. Employers are strictly prohibited from improving the material conditions of workers before the elections and “dismissal bonuses” may be a reason for the union to ask the National Council for Labor Relations (NLRB) to order a new union election if RWDSU misses this shift .
“The NLRB routinely encounters ‘benefit concessions’ violations to induce employees not to vote for a union during the” critical period “between the time the electoral petition is filed and the election is held,” said the law professor. University of Wyoming laborer Mike Duff, former attorney of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
However, the bonuses can backfire on Amazon. Some union supporters used the bonus offer to argue that Amazon could easily pay workers more if the company wanted to.
“If you know they need it, why not give it to them as a bonus,” adds Bates.
Union organizers are nervous, but despite intimidation and anti-union tactics, they are not intimidated in their struggle to unionize.
“I think there is a wall in front of me now. And it’s because I can’t see what’s on the other side, ”said Bates of the union election scheduled to end on March 30. “And I think that many times in life, it’s when you really have to take a step. Because just because you don’t see what’s on the other side doesn’t mean it’s not a victory ”.
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