As of early Thursday evening, Amazon was winning the vote by approximately a 2-1 margin. There were still thousands of votes left to count, and the counting process could extend into Friday or later. There were also hundreds of contested ballots, most of which were challenged by Amazon.
With thousands of votes to count, those hundreds of contested ballots might be why Amazon is currently ahead.
âI think the problem with this box is that it creates all sorts of possibilities for intimidation,â he said. âPeople feel that they are being expected to use this mailbox and they also understand Amazonâs ability to survey everything they do. Also they may feel compelled to show supervisors that theyâre mailing at the facility. People are not sure whether or not Amazon will know how they voted because they know every other thing that goes on at their facility.â
It really, really is. This might have given some much-needed life to the labor movement as a whole. Plus, itâs just always upsetting to watch people insistently fighting against their own well-being.
Youâd think the pandemic would have taught people a few things about how theyâre valued by their employers. Iâm eternally grateful that I have had union representation through this mess.
Having dealt with a couple unions I will say that many peoples opinions about unions come from the attitudes and personalities of those who represent said unions. The union I mainly dealt with had very friendly and helpful local representatives, while the guys from the head office could often come across like someone from the Sopranos.
Yup, been there several times, Birmingham wouldnât make my top 20 cities to live in, but it is not awful, and Huntsville is actually not bad at all. Although, Iâm sure it is pretty miserable in the summer, without AC.
I am in the UAW working at a Ford plant. In the several contracts we have seen the International in bed with the company. So much so that in the last few years multiple higher ups have been arrested and jailed. Including the president and other regional personal. The Government was thinking about invoking the RICO act at one point we heard. All the deception and thievery has many people rethinking the union. Not so much the locals but international that seemed to have free reign doing anything they wanted without us being able to vote on anything. I can definetly see why people would be afraid to vote in a union even if in the long run it would better them
My dad was a teachers union rep before he had kids. He told me how he went round and round with one principle, and had a lot of support from the staff.
And then a few years later, in came a new principle, that wasnât a dirt bag, and he had a lot less complaints, and a lot less support from the staff. So he had a lot less to do.
Iâm willing to be generous and say theyâre not necessarily stupid, theyâre just targets and victims of decades of misinformation and fearmongering about labor by the entire combined forces of capital.
I mean getting a bunch of blue collar workers in Alabama to form a union was always gonna be a long shot. It has been hammered into their brains since Reagan that unions are bad.
I donât know if theyâre stupid nor do I know what the union was really offering them but dat alike this:
This kind of says what weâre doing is not working for most people. Some people see the answer to that is a union. Others are pushing minimum wages universally.
The idea that union tend to lead to higher wages isnât based on nothing though.
But I canât say I am surprised a big push in Alabama failed. Itâs not the most ideal location for that kind of push, but you know, keep trying to improve things is a good motivation.
You canât really criticize people for voting against the union without knowing:
What are the chances theyâd all lose their job if the Union vote passed? Walmart and others have shut down places that unionized.
What is the pay Amazon is paying compared to jobs these guys could get elsewhere in the same town?
From what Iâve read this isnât even in a âbigâ city of Alabama. Itâs a rural poor area where $15 an hour that Amazon pays is extremely well compared to other opportunities in the same area.
With both of those itâs not that crazy that smart workers voted against it, because their other options for decent pay may not be good. Even with a good union things could still end up worse for them in the short or long term. Itâs not as black and white as everyone is making it out to be.
We can always use uncertainty as a reason for people to cast apparently counterproductive votes. We donât seem to have any trouble saying that e.g. the people who voted for Trump were mostly wrong â that he was actually bad for them, predictably so â so I donât know why we canât say the same about these people.
