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10 May, 7 tweets, 3 min read
Amazon has an important method for busting unions at their warehouses: they fire workers who organize their co-workers.

It is a nationwide pattern—see the thread.

But the script is being flipped. Fired workers like Chris Smalls are now leading the next wave of organizing. 🧵
Gerald Bryson was also fired from the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island in April 2020. They said the reason for his termination was “vulgar language.”

"It was just retribution for me organizing and protesting," he said. "I'm disgusted. I feel violated."
cnet.com/news/fired-ama…
Amazon was threatening and firing warehouse workers in Staten Island even before the pandemic started.

Rashid Long was fired in February 2019 after protesting having an Amazon HQ in New York and advocating for better working conditions.
washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
The National Labor Relations Board has ruled Amazon unlawfully terminated workers in several publicly known cases.

Courtney Bowden was unlawfully fired in March 2020 from an Amazon warehouse for talking to coworkers about pay and other workplace issues.
buzzfeednews.com/article/caroli…
Two Amazon user experience designers, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, were fired for their activism on behalf of warehouse workers in 2020.

The NLRB determined Amazon acted illegally when they fired Emily and Maren.
cbsnews.com/news/amazon-wo…
The workers Amazon fires are often Black people, women and/or immigrants.

Minnesota Amazon warehouse worker Bashir Mohamed is a Somali immigrant who was fired in April 2020 after organizing for better working conditions and better safety protocols.
cnn.com/2020/04/22/tec…
Companies like @Amazon can get away with firing workers because the consequences are so limited.

We need to pass the PRO Act—so workers have the right to free and fair union elections, and companies can’t get away with firing workers for organizing.
pro-act.dsausa.org

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More from @MorePerfectUS

More Perfect Union Profile picture
11 May
NEW: During the union election, Amazon representatives called workers at home to see if they had turned in ballots and if they needed any "help" filling it out.

At the NLRB hearing, Amazon worker Jennifer Bates shared how Amazon reacted to learning she was pro-union:
Warehouse employee Jennifer Bates worked as an "ambassador" at Amazon's Alabama warehouse, training and fostering a positive culture with new employees.

She went public with her union support in an interview last January.
By February, after going public about being pro-union, Amazon scrapped Bates's job without cause and placed her on the factory line, isolated from others.

Bates said they changed her role inexplicably despite knowing that she had health issues that made line work challenging.
Read 8 tweets
More Perfect Union Profile picture
10 May
BREAKING: Amazon workers revealed new evidence of Amazon's illegal union-busting—including managers passing out coupons for 15 extra minutes of break time—at an NLRB hearing today.

Here's what Darryl Richardson, an Amazon warehouse worker in Alabama, told the NLRB:
Amazon sent workers the message that they would lose benefits & "their voice" under a union.

Workers got texts saying: "Protect what you have" and "Don't give up your voice."

In a meeting, workers were told, "You won't have a voice if the union comes in," Richardson said.
Per federal labor law, employers are forbidden from threatening employees "with adverse consequences, such as...loss of benefits, or more onerous working conditions, if they support a union, engage in union activity, or select a union to represent them."

nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rig… Image
Read 7 tweets
More Perfect Union Profile picture
29 Apr
President Biden announced plans to raise taxes on billionaires and big corporations:

⬆️ Corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%
⬆️ Capital gains tax on millionaires
⬆️ IRS enforcement of wealthy tax cheats
📉End offshore tax havens for big businesses
The taxes on the wealthy & corporations could generate up to $3.5T to invest in:

-Rebuild U.S. infrastructure
-19 million new jobs
-Preschool for all 3 & 4 year olds
-Free community college for all
-Paid medical & family leave for all
-Affordable child care for all
First, Biden’s plan would repeal half of Trump’s corporate tax cut and increase taxes on big corporations from 21% to 28%.

Companies like Amazon, Boeing, Pfizer, Netflix pay close to nothing in federal taxes. This increase would take us into line with other countries.
Read 6 tweets
More Perfect Union Profile picture
29 Apr
President Biden just called for Congress to act this year to lower out-of-control prescription drug prices by forcing Big Pharma to negotiate with Medicare.

Moreover, he called for using the cost savings to expand Medicare coverage & benefits.
The U.S. pays the highest prices of any other country for prescription drugs.

Medicare price negotiation would save $456B over 10 years, per the CBO.

Those savings could be used to lower the Medicare age limit and expand Medicare benefits to include dental, vision & hearing.
Lowering Medicare's age limit from 65 would be life-saving for millions.

A recent Stanford study found that many cancers diagnoses spike in America at age 65. Why?

"Many people are delaying their care for financial reasons until they get health insurance through Medicare."
Read 5 tweets
More Perfect Union Profile picture
28 Apr
1. COVID-19 is engulfing India. 360,000+ new cases were reported in the last day, a record-shattering high.

On May 5, @POTUS can help end this horror by sharing our vaccine know-how with the world.

Time is running out. This is a crisis.

2. The crisis has consumed the nation. India's government says 200,000 people have died, but it's likely far worse.

People are dying on hospital steps without oxygen tanks. COVID drugs are selling for 10x their value on the black market.
thedailybeast.com/black-market-h…
3. India's crematoriums are at a breaking point. They've been forced to build makeshift funeral pyres on spare patches of land.

"We start at sunrise and cremations continue past midnight," a priest told @AFP next to smoldering piles of ash.

Read 8 tweets
More Perfect Union Profile picture
28 Apr
This week, nearly 2000 nurses in New England's largest hospital will wrap up their first union election in over two decades.

The hospital has been around since 1874. It has zero unionized workers.

Executives are trying to keep it that way.
Maine Medical's nurses have been on the frontlines of the pandemic since day one and want a voice at work.

They're burnt out, underpaid, and don't have enough PPE. Plus, they say the hospital's staffing algorithm also leads to poorer patient care. pressherald.com/2021/03/23/mai…
MaineHealth, which runs the hospital, hired expensive consultants to trap nurses in mandatory anti-union meetings.

These consultants are some of the most notorious union-busters in the country. They've worked for everyone—including Donald Trump. medium.com/@MatthewTHunt/…
Read 6 tweets

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