Really bummed about the loss in Bessemer, but am equally bummed about the birdbrained takes on here trashing the workers down there. There are so many factors at play in the decision to vote yes, not least of which is that Amazon operates virtually lawlessly.
Amazon opens facilities in places a decade+ removed from the corporate offshoring that left their communities dotted with idle factories. As the only employer in these regions, they exert outsized influence on the livelihoods not just of their employees, but their communities.
People are inclined to protect what they have, however little it may be, rather than risk it for a future believed to be uncertain—a belief made stronger by Amazon's constant harassment, surveillance, and psychological warfare against its employees, extending to work restrooms.
They have a ROBUST union-busting operation. Quite literally the most effective scumbags on earth. Their tactics are so varied and pressure employees to vote no in ways both covert (putting an ostensibly "neutral" voting location at their facility) and overt (too many to list).
What Amazon did was "illegal," but it doesn't matter. U.S. labor law is an outlier among so-called "advanced economies" in that it's distinctly and *purposefully* anti-worker. The penalties Amazon will face, if any, for their union-busting, are statistically insignificant.
Of course, Amazon's goal of busting the union wasn't about money. They can afford it. It's not like they pay taxes. It is and always has been about power and control. And because they have so much power and control, it works.
The entire system is built BY and FOR employers. Employers who retain exponentially more control over your life than any elected official ever will. Employers who operate modern-day fiefdoms rife with human rights abuses and no meaningful way to stop them.
Except for a union, of course. But until we #PassThePROAct, a union — something a majority of Americans say they'd vote for, if given the chance — is regrettably out of reach for millions, in Bessemer or in Baton Rouge or in Boston or in Berkeley or in Butte.
You should be sad/angry/salty about the loss in Bessemer because a union could've meant a world of difference for the people working in Amazon's warehouses and for millions of others who identify with their struggles there. Nothing on earth hurts quite like losing an election.
But under no circumstances should you act like you know better than the people who risk their lives every single day in these unsafe, dehumanizing, and exploitative warehouses. Amazon could've ruined every single one of their lives without missing a delivery.
Rather than hating on warehouse workers you've never spoken to and would never speak to because they didn't vote yes, direct your big brain into something more productive, like phone banking to #PassThePROAct and level the playing field. actionnetwork.org/forms/proactph…
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