Amazonas. Warehouse workers with Inc. in Alabama are voting whether to unionize this month. Whatever the outcome, the e-commerce giant faces pressure from employees around the world to make changes in their working conditions.
So far, these actions have not reached a formal unionist impulse, but each involves hundreds of employees and shows how working conditions in Amazon’s warehouses are increasingly highlighted. President Biden and other leading figures weighed in the vote in Bessemer, Alabama, among warehouse workers. Senator Bernie Sanders, a frequent critic of Amazon, is scheduled to travel to Alabama on Friday to meet with Amazon workers, a spokesman said. Thousands of votes have already been cast in the election by mail, which ends on March 29.
None of Amazon’s 800,000 employees in the U.S. are unionized. A vote to form a union in Alabama would give workers more power to negotiate with the company on issues such as wages and benefits.
Elsewhere, hourly Amazon employees are gathering petition signatures, discussing possible strikes and consulting unions about possible demands. The groups are trying to change the company’s policies on the rate at which packages should be prepared, as well as shift intervals and times – all factors that can make Amazon a physically demanding place to work, workers say. These issues came to the fore for many employees amid Amazon’s expansion and pressure to accelerate delivery times.
“It would be a victory for us and it would bring momentum to others,” said Jennifer Bates, a workers’ organizer in Bessemer, in an interview. “It would be a fire start.”