And so. . . driving (in only a decade), from essentially zero -- to being the second richest man on the planet, all while employing a weighted average of well over 100,000 lower paid, long hours on shift. . . workers -- was never going to be a sustainable US business model. Especially so, in a tightening set of local US labor markets -- like the ones we see today. More, here:
. . .Amazon workers at a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island became the Seattle-based web giant’s first unionized US workers after winning a historic vote on Friday.
The vote came out to 2,654 votes in favor to 2,131 against unionization, according to National Labor Relations Board officials.
The Amazon Labor Union’s victory came despite the group not being affiliated with any larger union coalition such as the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which is supporting Amazon union efforts in Bessemer, Alabama.
Instead, the organizing group has remained entirely independent since it was formed last year. . . .
[To be clear, my graphic contains the union seal from RWDSU, the union that is still organizing Amazon workers, down in Alabama. These NY workers have yet to sign on with a major warehousers' union organization. But they likely. . . will.]
In fact, it may be too late, already -- to turn this tide, at Amazon. When public (charity!) television engineers and electricians (both unionized, for a half-century, in Chicago) go out, on strike [retiree benefits, mainly]; Starbucks baristas in several locations have voted to unionize, and in late March, Google Fiber contractors in Kansas City, Missouri, supported a union effort, becoming the first workers with bargaining rights under the Alphabet Workers Union. . . and now, Staten Island votes in a union, after Amazon narrowly escaped union votes, in a few southern states (pre-election 2020).
This should probably be seen as a sea-change. Unions are back, largely because management(s). . . didn't. . . listen -- for over a decade.
नमस्ते
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