Countdown to Amazon’s Historic Bessemer Power Struggle

The countdown has begun, literally, for Amazon’s 825,000-square-foot, $325 million fulfillment center in Bessemer, Ala., where some 5,800 workers have cast their votes for or against unionization, one year after the facility’s opening day. While voting ended yesterday, much like the recent U.S. presidential elections, the tallying of ballots and outcome is expected to take time.

“Counting [of ballots] begins in about 20 minutes. I’ll know more after, but [not for] a week or more,” Chelsea Connor, director of communications for RWDSU (Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union) told WGB in an email March 30.

In recent months, the power struggle between workers and the Bessemer facility and Amazon has received global attention—from foreign countries to celebrities to politicians and the Oval Office. In February, actress and producer Tina Fey; “Roma” writer and director Alfonso Cuarón; and Damon Lindelof, producer and writer of “Lost,” were among the more than 1,760 union members of the Writers Guild of America to sign a petition supporting Amazon warehouse workers voting to form a union in Bessemer.

Following numerous reports detailing frustrated workers at the site as well as what’s been interpreted as anti-union messaging from Amazon, President Joe Biden made an unprecedented address via YouTube on Feb. 28 to declare his administration’s support of workers’ rights to organize, though the address, which referenced the workers in Alabama, did not mention “Amazon” specifically.

More recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders, rap artist Michael “Killer Mike” Render and actor Danny Glover met with workers from the Amazon BHM1 facility to support their drive for representation by the RWDSU at an event open to press on March 26.

In late March, workers in Italy and Germany also went on strike at Amazon facilities in their own countries. “These strikes, just like the workers’ push to form a union in Alabama, center on working conditions, fair treatment, respect and better pay as the company amasses billions during the global pandemic,” said the RWDSU. 

Tensions between Amazon, its warehouse workers, and those who support the worker’s unionization have reached a fever pitch on social media, including Twitter, where Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon worldwide consumer, tweeted: “So if you want to hear about $15 an hour and health care, Senator Sanders will be speaking downtown. But if you would like to make at least $15 an hour and have good health care, Amazon is hiring.”

The tweet prompted RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum to issue a statement in response that read in part:

“How arrogant and tone deaf can Amazon be? Do they really believe that the wage they pay—which is below what workers in nearby unionized warehouses receive and below Alabama’s median wage—gives them the right to mistreat and dehumanize their employees, put their workers’ health and safety in jeopardy, require them to maintain an unbearable pace, which even Amazon itself admits that a quarter of their workforce won’t be able to meet, and to deny working men and women the dignity and respect they deserve.”

In a release announcing the strike in Germany and increasingly, it seems, global nature of the Amazon/worker strife, Appelbaum said, “It’s not just workers in Alabama, it’s workers everywhere who are saying to Jeff Bezos that enough is enough. No matter what language they speak, Amazon workers around the globe will not stand for the working conditions they’ve been forced to endure for too long.”

An Amazon spokesperson reached out to WGB to share a different point of view. “RWDSU membership has fallen 25% during Stuart Appelbaum’s tenure, but that’s no justification for Mr. Appelbaum to misrepresent the facts,” said the Amazon spokesperson. “Our employees know the truth—starting wages of $15 or more, health care from day one, and a safe and inclusive workplace. We encouraged all of our employees to vote, and their voices will be heard in the days ahead.”

Grocery Is Watching

While the facility in Bessemer fulfills orders for Amazon.com, the grocery industry is certainly keeping a close eye on the outcome in Alabama. To gain perspective on what a vote to unionize in Bessemer could mean for Amazon’s grocery division and the grocery industry at large, WGB contacted Lynne Vincent, an industrial and labor relations expert and assistant professor of management at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management.

“We may see other distribution centers unionize or attempt to unionize, which could affect Amazon’s grocery division. However, Amazon seems to be prepared to fight unionization attempts, and the organization is using the same playbook as other companies that have fought unionization attempts successfully,” she says. “For the grocery industry at large, we may see an increase in unionization attempts.”

But for Vincent and others, the situation in Bessemer is about much more than wages and bathroom breaks. “This vote may be the most important union vote in decades. However, regardless of the outcome of the vote, the discussion surrounding the vote has the ability to change the labor landscape of the U.S. This vote is part of the necessary discussion around racial and economic disparities in our nation. The conversations around racial and economic discrimination in our nation cannot be separated. This union vote demonstrates that,” Vincent asserts.

The professor sees the high-profile support Amazon’s Bessemer workers have received from celebrities and politicians as “incredibly important” in terms of balancing the power between the Seattle-based e-tailing Goliath and its warehouse workers.

“It is incredibly important that people with power either as individuals based on their public image or their role in society and organizations with power are using their voices and power to support unions,” she says. “When an individual or group has less power than their negotiating partner and is trying to cause change, building a coalition of support can give them more power.

“If a president or other powerful individuals and entities give some of his or her power to support workers, that is valuable. It amplifies the voice of the workers and lends legitimacy to their cause,” continues Vincent, who finds one of the more notable aspects of the Amazon labor situation in Bessemer is the breadth of support the workers have received from a diverse group of people including NFL players, Hollywood heavyweights and political powerhouses.

“The pandemic has highlighted the need for our nation to confront the systemic racial and economic discrimination built into our structures,” she says. “That discussion was happening before the pandemic, and low-wage workers and workers of color were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. They bore higher costs and the risks as essential workers yet received less praise and protections than other essential workers.   

 “No matter what the outcome of the vote is, this conversation is not over,” said Vincent.