"Amazon intensifies 'severe' effort to discourage first-ever US warehouse union"

By Michael Sainato,The Guardian,February 3, 2021

A push to unionize workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama is running into tough opposition as the retail giant, whose profits have boomed during the coronavirus pandemic despite concerns over worker safety, has launched an aggressive anti-union drive. If workers at the BHM1 warehouse in Bessemer, near Birmingham, succeed in their

5efforts they would form the first union at an Amazon warehouse in the US.

The warehouse opened in March 2020, during the beginning of the pandemic. By the end of 2020, the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union said over 2,000 workers at the warehouse signed union authorization cards ahead of the election workers filed for in November 2020. Ballots for the election are scheduled to be mailed out to about 5,800

10Amazon workers on 8 February, with vote-counting scheduled for 30 March 2021. Lawyers for Amazon are currently trying to appeal against the decision to allow the election to be carried out by mail, and have requested the election be delayed until their appeal is reviewed.

Ahead of the union election, Amazon has strongly encouraged workers to vote against the15union through texts, messaging, an anti-union website and several anti-union captive audience meetings with workers at the warehouse. In the texts, Amazon claims workerswill "be giving up your right to speak for yourself" by signing a union authorization card and emphasizing union dues, claiming "unions are a business," telling workers "don't let the union take your money for nothing" and prompting them to visit their anti-union20website DoItWithoutDues.com. Amazon has also sponsored ads on Facebook featuring

their anti-union website and telling workers to vote "no" in the union election.

"When it comes to this union busting, it's severe. We've never seen anything like it on this level," said Joshua Brewer, an organizer with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. [...] Brewer explained some of the reasons workers have cited as wanting to

25form a union, with the primary one being the lack of communication between workers and managers within the warehouse as disciplinary measures are often carried out by an app, making it difficult for workers to appeal write-ups, terminations or address grievances inthe workplace. [...]

In regards to the union drive, an Amazon spokeswoman, Heather Knox, said in an email,30"We respect our employees' right to join or not join a labor union but we don't believe this group represents the majority of our employees' views. Our employees choose towork at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available everywhere we hire, and we encourage anyone to compare our overall pay, benefits, and workplace

environment to any other company with similar jobs."1.Give some background information that could help understand the document.

2. What is the point of view of this document?

3. To what extent does this document illustrate the evolutions of American

businesses?