Stunning that Amazon’s groundbreaking union vote is in Alabama
Updated Feb 14, 2021;
Today’s guest columnist is Eli Cohen.
When I first saw that Amazon’s biggest unionization effort to date was taking place here in Birmingham, I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
I grew up in Birmingham. Even as a child, I was politically involved, travelling to Montgomery to visit lawmakers at the capital, and later to learn the dark sides of our history at the Equal Justice Initiative.
I was no expert, but I thought I understood Alabama politics. I didn’t know everything, but I was confident Alabama was not going to be the site of Amazon’s first domestic union showdown. But as voting begins at the company’s Bessemer facility, that is exactly what’s happening.