When studying the factors that led to the failure of US workers at Amazon to unionise, writes Malik Miah, we should learn from one of the greatest organising periods in the United States: the 1930s.
Apr 13, 2021
The lopsided vote against a union at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, was a major disappointment to organized labor, which regards the fight with Amazon as central to labor’s survival. Yet the defeat doesn’t mark the end of the campaign against Amazon so much as a shift in strategy.
In interviews, labor leaders said they would step up their informal efforts to highlight and resist the company’s business and labor practices rather than seek elections at individual job sites, as in Bessemer. The approach includes everything from walkouts and protests to public relations campaigns that draw attention to Amazon’s leverage over its customers and competitors.
Union Loss May Bring New Phase of Campaign Against Amazon
After an election defeat in Alabama, many in labor are shifting strategies, wary of the challenges and expense of winning votes site by site.
Union canvassers outside of the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., last month.Credit.Bob Miller for The New York Times
April 9, 2021
The lopsided vote against a union at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., was a major disappointment to organized labor, which regards the fight with Amazon as central to labor’s survival. Yet the defeat doesn’t mark the end of the campaign against Amazon so much as a shift in strategy.
IOWA CITY The Iowa City Council suspended its Truth and Reconciliation Commission for four weeks and plans on a joint meeting with the group once vacancies are filled.
Following two hours of public comment and another hour of council discussion, the council around midnight Wednesday voted 5-2 to suspend the commission until April 15.
During the suspension, the council will seek to replace three members who resigned from the commission. Some council members argued four weeks was not enough time while others responded to demands from the public that clear benchmarks be set for the commission’s return.
“This grieves me to my core that I, as a Black sitting mayor, have come before this council and asked for a suspension,” Mayor Bruce Teague said. “I am totally committed to the charge of the TRC.”