Boycott requests in support of Amazon workers who hold a union vote in Alabama are not supported by the union involved, a spokesman said on Sunday.
“RWDSU has no affiliation with this,” said Chelsea Connor, director of communications for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, “we didn’t even ask for it.”
The so-called boycott is a poster-style image of the face of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. He calls for a boycott from March 7 to 13 “in solidarity with union workers”. The slogans include “a week without prime”, “Don’t shop”, “Don’t watch the main TV” and “Don’t cross the picket line”.
The call appears to have been launched on March 3 by a blog associated with the UCOMM Media Group pro-union. The blog post that raised the call did not claim any direct relationship with the parties involved in Bessemer’s vote.
If the vote succeeds, it will be the first time that Amazon workers have formed a union in a warehouse in the United States. With the high stakes, the vote generated intense interest inside and outside the company.
In the past few days, a delegation of five Democratic representatives in Congress visited the site to express support for the union effort, and Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville criticized a show of support from President Joe Biden.
Ballots in the ongoing vote will be counted on March 30.