The labor movement took a beating last week, but donât hold your breath waiting for the media to say so. Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., rejected union representation by a more than two-to-one margin in a secret ballot vote.
NBC News reported that “the drive attracted global attention,” which is putting it mildly. The campaign “seized attention from the White House, members of Congress, entertainers and professional athletes,” according to AL.com.
What all these folks had in common â other than having to google Bessemer to find out where it was â was their support for unionization. And what âdroveâ and âseizedâ attention was that the national press had the same inclination. In a nation where 93.7 percent of salaried private sector workers donât belong to a union, many journalists canât even grasp the idea that maybe, just maybe, they donât want one.