BREAKING: More Perfect Union has obtained emails showing that Amazon privately pressured USPS to install an illegal ballot dropbox during the union election in Bessemer, AL.
The emails directly contradict public statements by USPS about the box's origins.
There's more.
The emails were obtained through a FOIA request by @RWDSU.
Many of the exchanges have been almost entirely redacted & any mentions of Amazon officials has been removed.
But here are some key findings that we have been able to glean from the FOIA.
First, we learn that beginning Jan 8—one month before the union vote begins—Amazon repeatedly calls USPS’s “strategic account manager” to say they want to install their own box.
USPS team deliberates Amazon's request and says a “private box may not be utilized.”
USPS then decides to install one for them.
“Amazon HQ would like to be kept in the loop,” a USPS official informs the entire national and local team.
We don’t know for sure, but in a series of redacted emails, it appears that for over the next week, Amazon and USPS haggle over the acquisition of a box, what kind of box can be installed, and how quickly it can be done.
On Feb 3rd, a USPS official sends an email stating that it is dedicating time and effort to physically altering a collection box that would meet Amazon’s needs.
USPS says it is hollowing out a box that would allow for bulk mail ballot collection.
Amazon demands USPS install the box by Feb 7, one day before the union vote was to begin.
USPS says it is working with Amazon to place that box in a convenient location on the Bessemer campus.
As we documented with @GrimKim, Amazon had the ballot dropbox installed in violation of explicit guidance from the federal government.
The box is installed the evening of Feb 9th, late at night, under cover of darkness.
The mailbox was critical for Amazon’s strategy because it wanted to pressure employees to bring ballots to work that they'd received at home in the mail.
By doing this, they could then pressure and monitor employees to submit “no” votes.
The mailbox is now gone. It was removed shortly after the election.
A source passed along this photo of where the box once stood.
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