Union Efforts for Amazon Workers are Strong, Sign onto the Heat Map to Show Your Support
BY JORDAN BOYLE, MASS JWJ SUMMER 2022 INTERN
Amazon is one of the largest corporations in the world, amassing billions of dollars in profit, all while their workers remain underpaid and overworked. Every 12 seconds, Jeff Bezos makes what a full-time Amazon warehouse employee makes in one year.
Massachusetts Jobs with Justice stands firm in the belief that Amazon’s mistreatment of their workers is not only an employment issue, but also a race, gender, class, and immigration status issue. In 2020, 31% of Amazon’s lowest-paid workers were Black, 26.4% were Latino, and nearly 50% were women. Amazon is also one of the top three companies whose employees rely on food stamps and Medicaid. Just last year, reports surfaced that many Amazon workers have to urinate in bottles and defecate in bags, because leaving to use the bathroom risks their termination for lack of productivity.
Such gross exploitation has sparked calls to action by Amazon workers demanding unions and better working conditions. Massachusetts Jobs with Justice stands with these workers. Amazon has certainly made clear that they are afraid of the power that comes with unionized labor forces. Countless employees have been fired for attempting to discuss their unfair treatment and unionize. Amazon has even offered pro-union workers $2,000 to quit and replaced those workers with ones who would vote against a union. They have even gone as far as infiltrating the workers with employees who monitor workers and ensure they do not discuss their working conditions or unionizing.
Amazon’s blatant exploitation must come to an end, and thanks to efforts all around the country, the cracks are beginning to form. On April 1, 2022, the Amazon workers of the JFK8 Fulfillment Center voted to form the first Amazon union in history. The Amazon Labor Union is demanding better pay, better benefits, and better working conditions. The first Amazon union was formed against all odds. In addition to the unionbusting tactics already mentioned, Amazon held 25 mandatory anti-union meetings every day for the Staten Island warehouse employees, in the 6 weeks leading up to the union vote.
For the sake of public approval, Amazon has historically tried to paint themselves as a benevolent company for its workers. Below the surface, Amazon’s treatment of its lower wage workers is closer to that of a sweatshop. Even recently, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Amazon tried to sway public opinion by announcing a $4,000 travel stipend for employees who need to leave the state to receive an abortion. The company conveniently forgot to mention that the stipend excludes its 115,000 drivers and Medicaid recipients. Amazon delivery drivers are some of the company's poorest workers, but because many of them are contractors, they are ineligible. Also ineligible are Amazon’s 2.9 million gig workers and its thousands of warehouse workers who work less than 20 hours per week.
We can no longer be persuaded by the so-called “perks” that Amazon flaunts for its employees. It is time to listen to the firsthand accounts of Amazon employees and their egregious experiences working for the greedy, capitalistic cog that is Amazon. Massachusetts Jobs with Justice has worked tirelessly to push back against anti-union organizations and unionbusting tactics, while supporting poor, marginalized workers in their fight for better working conditions.
Please join the movement and sign onto the Jobs with Justice and Unemployed Workers United “heat map” that shows the density of support for Amazon workers’ unionizing efforts all across the United States. Every day, current and former Amazon employees and supporters alike are adding their name to this map to show just how big this movement is. Will you join us? As we saw in Staten Island, no matter how much Amazon tries to resist unionizing efforts, they cannot stifle our flame.
Temperatures are rising, let’s make Amazon feel the heat.
