Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, have voted in a historic poll to decide whether they want to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results are not expected until next week – but if they say yes, it will become Amazon’s first US union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amazon argues its wages and benefits are industry-beating and has gone into battle to persuade workers to vote no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most agree the outcome could have major implications for US labour laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
‘Fake’ Amazon workers defend company on Twitter
\nAmazon withdraws job adverts for union ‘spies’
\nWhat does peak season mean for employees?
\nPeter Romer-Friedman, principal of law firm Gupta Wessler PLLC, said: “The key question in America at the moment is are we going to have fair treatment of workers in the businesses that will dominate our future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“There will be ramifications for the real economy but also for tech firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the US, Amazon has 800 facilities staffed by 950,000 full- and part-time workers – and it should be said many do not feel the need to join a union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for those who do, this is not primarily a wages issue – in fact, Amazon pays workers an average of $15 (\u00a311) a hour, plus benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But most agree conditions in its warehouses can be hard – the job is very demanding and lots of workers complain of back pain or other physical niggles as a result of working long hours, often standing in the same position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others talk about the mental-health toll of repeated tasks or feeling like they are a cog in a very big machine that does not always listen to their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And there are a lot of things workers feel they do not have control of, such as shift patterns, time off, sick leave and being fired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the most controversial features is time off task (TOT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When a worker is clocked in, Amazon’s computer system calculates which hours of a shift are on or off task, based on whether or not an item is scanned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And some say they feel dehumanised by technology watching their every move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do workers really have to urinate in bottles?
\nAmazon issued an extraordinary tweet last week, in response to US congressman Mark Pocan repeating an oft-heard complaint workers sometimes urinated in bottles because they did not feel they had time to visit the toilet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Paying workers $15 an hour doesn’t make you a ‘progressive workplace’ when you union-bust and make workers urinate in water bottles,” he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
\nView original tweet on Twitter
\nAmazon News replied: “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If that were true, nobody would work for us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amazon’s tweet was shared thousands of times, with most people saying it reflected badly on the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The claim can be traced back to James Bloodworth, who worked undercover at a UK warehouse while researching his book on low-paid British workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And he responded to the Amazon News tweet by tweeting: “I was the person who found the pee in the bottle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A series of allegations levelled at Amazon over its attempts to disrupt the union include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It altered a traffic-light system outside the warehouse, to give union officials less time to leaflet workers
\nIt unsuccessfully tried to appeal against a National Labour Relations Board ruling allowing workers to vote by mail
\nIt bombarded workers with texts, posters and signs encouraging them to vote no
\nIt ran anti-union ads on its streaming platform, Twitch, which were later removed
\nAt the time, RWDSU president Stuart Appelbaum said: “Amazon is leaving no stone unturned, including ads on Twitch – in its efforts to deceive and intimidate their employees into voting against the union.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In September, the company briefly advertised for two intelligence analysts whose work duties would include keeping an eye on union activity – but after becoming national news, the advert was removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does Amazon say?
\nAmazon told BBC News: “RWDUS membership has fallen 25% during Stuart Appelbaum’s tenure – but that is no justification for Mr Appelbaum to misrepresent the facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Our employees know the truth – starting wages of $15 or more, health care from day one, and a safe and inclusive workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We encouraged all of our employees to vote – and their voices will be heard in the days ahead.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How else has it responded?
\nIn recent days, Amazon has stepped up its public-relations drive – but with fairly mixed results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of its security engineers had even thought the Amazon News account had been hacked, as its tweets seemed “unnecessarily antagonistic”, The Intercept reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As well as the tweet about urinating in bottles, it also fired back aggressively at Democratic Party politicians, including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Saunders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it has also been accused of using fake Twitter accounts to put a positive spin on working at the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amazon itself admitted one of these accounts was not that of an actual worker, without saying whether the company had created it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Has Covid played a part?
\nThe company’s net sales in 2020 increased by 38% – and it hired more than 500,000 additional staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But behind the scenes there has been huge pressure on warehouse staff to keep supplying the goods so many people in lockdown were ordering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chris Smalls, one of a handful of employees to raise questions in the early days of the pandemic about how safe conditions in warehouses were, was sacked, with Amazon saying he had broken social-distancing rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in February, New York state’s attorney general sued Amazon, claiming it failed to adequately protect its warehouse workers from Covid risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Union membership in the US is unusually low – just 6.3% of the private-sector workforce, according to the labour department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In comparison, Amazon workers in Japan, the UK, Germany, Italy , France and Poland are all unionised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Germany a recent four-day strike was called over pay and conditions, while in Italy Amazon workers held a 24-hour strike over what they described as exhausting work rates and “management by algorithm”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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