Amazon . com Inc. warehouse workers in Alabama are voting on whether to unionize this month. Whatever the result, the e-commerce giant faces pressure from staff world-wide to make changes to its working conditions.
So far those actions stop short of a formal unionization push, but they involve hundreds of employees and show how work conditions at Amazon warehouses are increasingly in the spotlight. President Biden and other high-profile figures have weighed in on the Bessemer, Ala., vote among warehouse employees. Thousands of votes have already been submitted in the mail-in election, which concludes March 29.
None of Amazon’s 800,000 U.S. employees are unionized. A vote to form a union in Alabama would give workers more power to negotiate with the company on matters such as pay and benefits.
Elsewhere, hourly Amazon employees are gathering petition signatures, discussing potential strikes and consulting with unions about possible demands. The groups are seeking to alter company policies on the rate at which they must prepare packages, break time and shift schedules, all factors that can make Amazon a physically demanding place to work, workers say, and key issues amid Amazon’s expansion and aim to speed up delivery times.
“It would be a victory for us, and it would bring momentum for others,” Jennifer Bates, a worker-organizer in Bessemer, said in an interview. “It would be a fire starter.”
