Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Submitted by Tyler Durden.
With around 110,000 workers globally, who Amazon claims are compensated above average for retail workers and have generous benefits, the news that 30 Amazon mechanics in Delaware are voting on unionization may strike fear into the heart of Jeff Bezos. With razor-thin margins, the "cult stock" could hardly cope with any broad-based action to raise wages (though we are sure that would be a buying opportunity no matter what):
- AFL-CIO: WORKERS' LIVES 'NOT GETTING BETTER' DESPITE RECOVERY
- AFL-CIO: SEEKS TO UNIONIZE AMAZON AND OTHER LARGE COS.
While local union officials claim not to have targeted the workers, the 'small' vote will take place today but there are hundreds of other workers in the Delaware factory.
Recall that Amazon has a lot of unionizable employees…
Local Officials claim not to have targeted Amazon…
It's not about money – apparently – but other things like vacation. As Re/Code notes:
A group of up to 30 Amazon employees at one of the company’s Delaware warehouses will have the opportunity to vote today in an election that could establish the first-ever labor union representation at a U.S. Amazon facility.
The group, which consists of equipment technicians and mechanics, will be voting on whether they want to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. A simple majority — or half of those who vote plus one — is needed to establish the first-ever union shop inside an Amazon facility in the U.S., according to IAMAW spokesman John Carr.
Carr said the voting workers, who make up just a small fraction of the more than 1500 employees at the facility, are not most concerned with the wages they are paid. Rather, they’d like help negotiating for things such as vacation and promotion policies, seniority rules, as well as the possible creation of a safety committee, Carr said.
Bezos better hope so – or this will get ugly.
Not much room in those margins for a 'raise'… and sure enough, the company is already doing the Amazon equivalent of "Promise zones"
In the weeks leading up to the vote, the workers have been pulled into what unions call “captive audience meetings,” during which their superiors at Amazon attempt to persuade workers against unionization, according to Carr.
The union vote is just the latest in a series of events that have shined a negative light on Amazon’s growing network of what it calls fulfillment centers. The company has been engaged in an ongoing battle with some of its German workers who have organized strikes and protests over the past year over wages and was also the subject of an unflattering BBC documentary about worker conditions.
It would be ironic if unionization is the straw that also breaks the camel's back of the second, New Normal gilded age.
