Amazon faces biggest union push in its history

second Jennifer Bates walks away from her post at Amazon warehouse where she works, clock starts ticking. She has precisely 30 minutes to get to cafeteria and back for her lunch break. That means traversing a warehouse size of 14 football fields, which eats up precious time. She avoids bringing food from home because warming it up in microwave would cost her even more minutes. Instead she opts for $4 cold sandwiches from vending machine and hurries back to her post.

If she makes it, she's lucky. If she doesn't, Amazon could cut her pay, or worse, fire her.

It’s that kind of pressure that has led some Amazon workers to organize biggest unionization push at company since it was founded in 1995. And it’s happening in unlikeliest of places: Bessemer, Alabama, a state with laws that don’t favor unions.

stakes are high. If organizers succeed in Bessemer, it could set off a chain reaction across Amazon's operations nationwide, with thousands more workers rising up and demanding better working conditions. But y face an uphill battle against second-largest employer in country with a history of crushing unionizing efforts at its warehouses and its Whole Foods grocery stores.

Attempts by Amazon to delay vote in Bessemer have failed. So too have company's efforts to require in-person voting, which organizers argue would be unsafe during pandemic. Mail-in voting started this week and will go on until end of March. A majority of 6,000 employees have to vote “yes" in order to unionize.

Amazon, whose profits and revenues have skyrocketed during pandemic, has campaigned hard to convince workers that a union will only suck money from ir paycheck with little benefit. Spokeswoman Rachael Lighty says company already offers m what unions want: benefits, career growth and pay that starts at $15 an hour. She adds that organizers don't represent majority of Amazon employees' views.

Bates makes $15.30 an hour unpacking boxes of deodorant, clothing and countless or items that are eventually shipped to Amazon shoppers. job, which 48-year-old started in May, has her on her feet for most of her 10-hour shifts. Besides lunch, Bates says trips to bathroom are also closely monitored, as is getting a drink of water or fetching a fresh pair of work gloves. Amazon denies that, saying it offers two 30-minute breaks during each shift and extra time to use bathroom or get water.

Fed up, Bates and a group of workers reached out to Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union last summer. She hopes union, which also represents poultry plant workers in Alabama, will mandate more breaks, prevent Amazon from firing workers for mundane reasons and push for higher pay.

“y will be a voice when we don’t have one,” Bates says.

But according to Sylvia Allegretto, an ecomist and co-chair of Center on W and Employment Dynamics at University of California, Berkeley, “history tells us t to be optimistic.”

last time Amazon workers voted on wher y wanted to unionize was in 2014, and it was a much smaller group: 30 employees at a Amazon warehouse in Delaware who ultimately turned it down. Amazon currently employs nearly 1.3 million people worldwide.

Also working against unionizing effort is that it's happening in Republican-controlled Alabama, which generally isn’t friendly to organized labor. Alabama is one of 27 right-to-work states where workers don’t have to join unions when hired. In fact, state is home to only Mercedes-Benz plant in world that isn’t unionized.

That union push at Bessemer warehouse has even gotten this far is likely due to who organizers are, says Michael Innis-Jiménez, an associate professor at University of Alabama. Companies typically villainize union organizers as out-of-staters who don't kw what workers want. But retail union has an office in nearby Birmingham and many of organizers are Black, like workers in Bessemer warehouse. “I think that really helps a lot,” Innis-Jiménez said. “y’re t seen as outsiders.”

More than 70% of population of Bessemer is Black. retail union estimates that as many as 85% of workers are Black, much higher than 22% for overall warehouse workers nationwide, according to an Associated Press analysis of census data.

Stuart Appelbaum, president of Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, says union's success in Bessemer is partly due to pandemic, with workers feeling betrayed by employers that didn't do eugh to protect m from virus. And Black Lives Matter movement, which has inspired people to demand to be treated with respect and dignity. Appelbaum says union has heard from Amazon warehouse workers all over country.

“y want a voice in ir workplace, too," he says.

Representatives of Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union spend most days outside entrance of Bessemer warehouse holding signs and wearing neon vests, although a lot of unionization effort is being conducted online or by phone because of pandemic. At end of a recent workday, some Amazon employees leaving plant rolled down ir car windows and chatted with organizers; ors hurried past without ackwledgement.

Some workers from poultry plants have helped. Among m is Michael Foster, a union representative who works at a rth Alabama poultry plant but has been in town for more than a month helping with organizing push.

He says an Amazon employee tried to shoo m away, saying y better make sure y’re t on Amazon property.

“I let m kw that this is t my first rodeo,” says Foster, who has helped get two or poultry plants to unionize.

Inside warehouse, Bates says Amazon has been holding daily classes on why workers should vote against union. Lighty, Amazon spokeswoman, says sessions are a way for employees to get information and ask questions.

“If union vote passes, it will impact everyone at site and it’s important all associates understand what that means for m and ir day-to-day life working at Amazon," Lighty says.

Dawn Hoag says she'll vote against unionization. 43-year-old has worked at warehouse since April and says Amazon makes clear that its jobs are physically demanding. Plus, she says she can speak up for herself and doesn't need to pay a union to do it for her.

“That’s just what I believe," Hoag says. “I don’t see a need for it at all." Unions have been forming in unusual places recently. Last month, about 225 Google engineers formed a union, a rarity in high-paid tech industry. Google has fired outspoken workers, though company says it was for or reasons. At Amazon, things haven't ended well for outspoken workers eir.

Last year, Amazon fired warehouse worker Christian Smalls, who led a walkout at a New York warehouse, hoping to get company to better protect workers against coronavirus. Office workers who joined in and spoke about working conditions in warehouses during pandemic were also fired, though Amazon says y were fired for or reasons. An Amazon executive quit in protest last spring, saying he couldn’t stand by as whistleblowers were silenced.

Bates is aware of risks. “I kw it might happen,” she says about being fired. “But it’s worth it.”

Im: AP