BREAKING: More Perfect Union has obtained new details about Amazon’s illegal actions to defeat the union.
The violations make it overwhelmingly likely that the NLRB will overturn the results and give workers a second election.
Details in the video and thread below.
We've learned that at least 20% of the election votes are believed to have come from the illegal ballot dropbox that Amazon installed at its warehouse.
These ballots arrived at the NLRB in large batches on February 12 and 17, according to sources with knowledge of the election.
As a result, a substantial portion of the total election votes are linked to Amazon’s unlawful actions that the National Labor Relations Board specifically directed the company not to take.
In an exclusive interview, @RWDSU attorney Richard Drouko also said the union obtained communications in which Amazon management "essentially threatened that there would be a layoff because of the union."
He described it as a "hallmark violation" of the Labor Relations Act.
Our report documents other ways that Amazon ran a coordinated attack on the worker-led union effort, including:
- managers photographing the badges of workers who were sympathetic to the union
- indicating to workers in writing that the election ended on March 1 (it ended 3/29)
Amazon may still have won the union vote if it played fair and square. But it did not.
Amazon engaged in a campaign of intimidation and coercion that violated the rules.
As a result, the NLRB is likely to disqualify this result and grant a new election.
We were honored to cover the @BAmazonUnion fight alongside @grimkim and others. We will be back on the ground for round 2.
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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.”
The Citizens United decision let corporations and billionaires spend unlimited money on elections—without disclosing it.
The #ForThePeopleAct gives us a chance to break their hold over our government.
“Raising money becomes the full-time job of just about everybody who runs for office. You become like a full-time telemarketer fundraiser.”
@JasonKander explains how For The People Act would give people from working class backgrounds a chance to run for office.
"When I served in Afghanistan, my job was to do anti-corruption and anti-espionage investigations. And then I came home and I got elected to the state legislature, and I was so disappointed to find out how many similarities there actually were."
UPDATE: The public portion of the Amazon union vote could begin today.
Win or lose, one thing is clear: Amazon ran an unrelenting union-busting campaign. Just as it has done elsewhere.
The NLRB found Amazon has illegally retaliated against dozens of workers for speaking out.
Since the pandemic began, 37 workers across 20 cities have filed complaints with the @NLRB accusing Amazon of interfering with their rights as workers.
The #ForThePeopleAct is an historic voting rights protection bill. But it is also an historic anti-corruption bill that would end dark money in politics.
@JasonKander explains how the bill gives working people power in our democracy.
When @JasonKander ran for Senate in 2016, anonymous big donors funded waves of attack ads against him.
“Dark money is one of the chief reasons why our democracy is in such disrepair at the moment," he says.
.@JaneMayerNYer reported the Koch network is afraid the #ForThePeopleAct polls well with Dems, Republicans and Independents.
Amazon warehouse workers expose the sexist working conditions they deal with every day.
Women are given impossibly short bathroom breaks, forced to choose between their families and jobs, and face routine sexual harassment.
They voted union YES to change that.
Workers face unpredictable schedules and are often forced to come into work last minute—leaving them scrambling to find childcare or risk being fired.
Linda Burns told us: “You have to choose between picking up your kids or picking up a package.”
Workers have two 30min breaks per 10hr shift. Break rooms and bathrooms are often a “football field” away. Outside of these breaks, workers are penalized for taking too much Time Off Task.
Today is the final day for warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, to vote on whether to form the first Amazon union in the United States.
More Perfect Union has been on the ground in Bessemer with labor reporter @GrimKim covering this historic campaign. youtube.com/playlist?list=…
We gave a platform to Amazon workers to tell their own stories and talk about their working conditions and why they wanted a union.
We covered Amazon’s extensive union busting campaign, and broke the news that Amazon even had county officials change traffic light patterns to stifle union organizing.