The Alabama Coalition for Community Benefits is pleased that Amazon workers in Bessemer will get another chance to choose whether to unionize. The Coalition–made of labor, community, civil rights, faith, and environmental justice groups–encourages Amazon workers to vote yes to unionize and continue to build the Southern worker movement.
The Coalition has continuously supported the unionization drive that began last winter when workers in Amazon’s Bessemer facility led one of the biggest union efforts in the company’s history. The union election is being rerun because a federal ruling found that Amazon’s misconduct tainted the outcome of the first election.
“Bessemer and Birmingham will benefit if Amazon workers vote to unionize because when workers’ quality of life improves, the communities they live in will thrive. A union will give these workers a voice and the power to improve their workplaces,” says Erica Iheme, Deputy Director of Jobs to Move America (JMA), a member of the Coalition, “Our Coalition has been calling on companies like bus manufacturer New Flyer to create good, safe workplaces free of racism and discrimination. We’re calling on Amazon to do the same.”
“We released a report last year that found that between 1993 and 2020, Alabama gave away $4 billion in tax incentives to corporations like Amazon to incentivize job creation. But the stories of these Amazon workers show that the jobs that Amazon has created aren’t safeand don’t make ends meet. We encourage Amazon workers to vote yes to unionize because they are paving the way for a workers’ movement in Alabama, in the South, and nationwide. Alabama ranks 49th best state to work, or alternatively: Alabama is the 2nd worst state to work. The Alabama Coalition and Amazon workers in Bessemer are working hard to change this,” says Patricia Todd, Southern Policy Manager at JMA.
Union election ballots went out to Amazon workers on February 4, 2022 and will be due back to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) before March 25, 2022. The Alabama Coalition will be showing their support for workers over the next several weeks through community rallies, letters of support, and more.
