Biden Backs Union Vote By Amazon Workers, Tells Company Not To Interfere Or Intimidate - Forbes

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President Joe Biden expressed his support for Amazon workers in Alabama who are voting to unionize this month in a video message on Sunday night as workers at a Amazon warehouse near Birmingham began voting on unionisation last month amid strong pushback from the e-commerce giant.

Key Facts

In the video shared on Twitter, the President asserted that “the choice to join a union is up to the workers — full stop.”

Then in an apparent shot at Amazon’s anti-union efforts, Biden demanded that there should be no intimidation, coercion, threats, anti-union propaganda and said no supervisor “should confront an employee about their union preferences.”

Referring to the vote as a “vitally important choice” as the U.S. faces a pandemic, economic crisis and a reckoning on racial issues Biden spoke of his belief that America’s middle classes were built by workers with union protections.

Amazon has been trying to dissuade workers at the warehouse from voting in favor of a union by launching a website opposing the campaign and distributing pamphlets backing the “No” vote.

Crucial Quote

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which is backing the Amazon workers praised Biden’s video message. “Thank you, President Biden, for sending a clear message of support for the BAmazon Union workers in Alabama seeking to bring the first union to an Amazon warehouse with the RWDSU,” Stuart Appelbaum the president of the RWDSU said in a statement.

Key Background

Around 6,000 workers at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama are voting on unionization through postal ballot. Ballots were sent out to employees on Feb. 8 and the votes have to be received by March 29 with counting taking place the following day. This is the first time in the U.S. that an entire Amazon facility is getting a chance to vote on unionizing, something that has long been resisted by the company. The company has argued that its workers have no reason to unionize since it already pays above minimum wage and offers other benefits to its workers. Amazon has held mandatory meetings to discourage its workers from voting in favor of unionization. The company even sought to postpone the election, pushing for an in-person vote instead, but it was denied by the National Labor Relations Board.