AMAZON HIRED KOCH-BACKED ANTI-UNION CONSULTANT TO FIGHT ALABAMA WAREHOUSE ORGANIZING The head of the Center for Independent Employees is paid $3,200 per day to thwart what could become Amazon’s first unionized facility in the U.S.

The Intercept ^ | https://theintercept.com/2021/02/10/amazon-alabama-union-busting-koch/ | Lee Fang

[RightGeek]

AMAZON IS BRINGING on a set of well-trained union suppression consultants in its high-profile fight to keep its massive warehouse workforce free of organized labor.

The Seattle-based conglomerate recently retained a consultant named Russell Brown to help thwart the union election that began recently at its fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, new disclosures show.

Brown was brought on by Amazon on January 25 for a contract to help persuade Amazon’s Alabama employees not to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, or RWDSU, a union that is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers, also known as the UFCW. He is paid $3,200 per day, plus expenses, for the work.

Brown is the head of RWP Labor, which touts itself as a specialty firm that assists companies in “maintaining a union free workplace.” The company features a team of consultants that includes a former International Brotherhood of Teamsters trainer who now assists corporations with defeating union campaigns. The firm brags that it has won many previous anti-union drives and specializes in training company leaders, persuading employees, and developing corporate social responsibility plans devised to prevent union interference.

...

The vote at the Bessemer warehouse could be pivotal. If a majority of votes cast of the 5,800 workers at the facility, located in the suburbs outside Birmingham, favor the union, they will form Amazon’s first unionized facility in the U.S.

Amazon has worked furiously to derail the effort. In recent weeks, the company has sent mass texts to workers warning them against voting to join the union, set up an anti-union website, and sponsored Facebook ads urging workers to vote “no.”

...

[RightGeek]

You may recall from earlier stories on FR that Amazon tried to prevent voting by mail because of the possibility of fraud. LMAO.

[Pollster1]

If they unionize, I imagine Amazon will close the facility. I will cheer when that happens. Unions are evil.

[RobertoinAL]

I’m hoping our AG Marshall will rid our state of this Amazon site. Amazon is anti-constitutional. Why should Alabama put up with this?

[srmanuel]

Anymore than the power of Amazon ?? Remember they kick Parler off their servers and shut them down

Ordinarily I would agree with you but in this I hope they stick it to Amazon

[.44 Special]

What happen next is that the consultant will co-opt local law enforcement. He will then hire a bunch of thugs and have them made into “special deputies” paid by Amazon. They will then be given supervisory jobs in the Amazon warehouse. Then the intimidation begins. It worked for big coal in Eastern Kentucky for over thirty years.

[liberalh8ter]

Bezos and Amazon have become the real-time example of liberal hypocrisy. If there is ever a civil uprising in America (the kind that Democrats fantasize about) I would not want to be Bezos.

[Daveinyork]

What goes around.....

[MCSETots]

$3,200 per day?

Talk about getting screwed by your employer!

I thought high-end attorney’s made more than that per hour. Hell, Bezos supposedly makes $320 million a day, or around $40 million an hour.

Must not be a union state . . .

[zeestephen]

It is fun to see Jeff Bezos get kicked in the rear end by his own employees, but this will not be consequential.

I worked for Amazon Fresh (home grocery delivery) in 2008 after I got laid off from my regular job in the Great Recession.

Even back then, our software systems and labor saving devices were industry leaders.

When the cost of blue collar labor exceeded a certain level - boom - Bezos replaced you with a machine or a couple lines of computer code!

[Vaduz]

AMAZON helping the little guy again he must be a democrat.

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

These people are BEYOND HYPOCRITES!!!

[BarbM]

What happen next is that the consultant will co-opt local law enforcement. He will then hire a bunch of thugs and have them made into “special deputies” paid by Amazon. They will then be given supervisory jobs in the Amazon warehouse. Then the intimidation begins...
________________________________-
I was an office worker and the warehouse workers looked into Unionizing. Soon we had goons working in the warehouse and coincidently home vandalism increased. Including windows of my car beaten in. odd.

[Amberdawn]

I read elsewhere that the town this facility is located in is over 70% black. I imagine that many of the workers there attempting to unionize will be also. Even though unions are a mess, I hope Bozos get’s his a*s kicked over this.

[RobertoinAL]

Yeah, Bessemer. The Birmingham area is bad.