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.
by Tyler Durden
By Mark Solomon of FreightWaves,
There is no love lost between Jeff Bezos and Fred Smith, given the unpleasant break- up of their companies’ shipping marriage in 2019.
Yet in decisively thwarting efforts to organize 5,800 workers at Amazon.com s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse, Bezos took a page right from the FedEx founder’s anti-union playbook.
Other than about 5,000 unionized pilots that came over after FedEx acquired the old Flying Tiger Line cargo airline in 1988, and a smattering of workers at its FedEx Freight LTL unit, FedEx has remained non-union for its 50-year history. Smith and Co. have beaten back multiple organizing efforts by persuading FedEx workers that wages, benefits, working conditions and an open-door relationship makes third-party bargaining units irrelevant.
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