While about 5,800 workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama vote on unionization, Amazon has been trying to win hearts and minds with a big quantity of clumsy anti-union advertising in their warehouse bathrooms, on their phones and now on Amazon Twitch’s proprietary streaming service. Earlier this week, More Perfect Union tweeted the Amazon brand-paletted spots, presenting workers talking about management and parroting Amazon claims that unions just want your money.
In a fun twist, Twitch removed the ads and said they should never have run in the first place.
“Twitch does not allow political advertising, and these ads should never have been allowed on our service,” a Twitch spokesman told Gizmodo via email. “We removed these ads and are evaluating our review processes to ensure that similar content is not shown in the future. We are grateful to our community for bringing this to our attention. ”
As Kotaku reported, several Twitch Streamers tweeted that they would stop allowing ads on their channels until anti-union ads were removed. They also told Kotaku that they were sending the message that Twitch would oppose streamers in their own efforts to unionize.
The ads, reported to More Perfect Union by an Alabama resident, show workers extolling the Amazon workplace.
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“We, from the Birmingham team, have great leadership,” said one worker. “We really don’t need anyone coming and telling us what they want to give us because we basically have everything we need here.”
Other workers, who started organizing a union campaign a few months after the warehouse opened in April 2020, characterize the workplace as a panopticon where they are forced to work to their physical limits. ONEn organizer told the Guardian that Amazon dismissed people “without reason”. They have also reported that Amazon has been aggressively trying to stop workers organization and motherboard Published leaked documents showing that the company hired Pinkerton agents to monitor employees. Amazon told Gizmodo vaguely hires third-party companies, but “suggesting that Amazon or the third-party companies we work with is doing something nefarious is irresponsible and incorrect.”
Another worker shown in an ad claims that unions “just take your money and do nothing for you”. This echoes that of Amazon misleading suggestion that forming a union means that everyone will be forced to pay fees. Alabama is a state with a right to work, which means that even union workers will have no obligation to join.
“Amazon feels it has to go to extremes like this to clarify its workers about the poor working conditions at its Bessemer warehouse,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) in a shared statement. with Gizmodo. (The RWDSU will represent Bessemer workers if the vote is successful.) “Amazon is not leaving a stone unturned – including advertisements on Twitch – in its efforts to deceive and intimidate its employees into voting against the union.”
The election, which is in progress, will end on March 29, and the NLRB will begin counting votes on the 30th.
Amazon was not immediately available for comment.