Biden expresses support for Amazon union vote in Alabama

Without specifically naming Amazon, President Joe Biden on Sunday expressed his support for a closely watched union vote at one of the retail giant’s Alabama warehouses, calling it “vitally important.”

“Today and over the next few days and weeks, workers in Alabama and across America are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace,” Biden said in a video shared on his Twitter page. “This is vitally important – a vitally important choice, as America grapples with the deadly pandemic, the economic crisis and the race calculus – what it reveals are the deep disparities that still exist in our country. “

Amazon representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, nearly 6,000 workers at an Amazon site in Bessemer, Alabama, began voting by mail on their membership in the Retail, Wholesale and Department Stores Union, launching the first major organizing effort at the company since 2014. Last November, Workers at the Alabama facility informed the NLRB of their intention to hold a vote on whether to be represented by the RWDSU.

The ballots were sent to the employees on February 8 and must be received by the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board no later than March 29. The count will begin the next day.

The organizing effort in Alabama has emerged as a long union battle at Amazon, with the company hiring the same law firm it used to help with negotiations during a failed union campaign in Delaware in 2014. Amazon has also made its stance on the union campaign clear. to workers at the Bessemer plant, by holding mandatory meetings, setting up a website urging workers to “do it at no cost” and, according to a recent report by Vice, distributing leaflets asking workers to “vote NO “on the historic election.

Additionally, Amazon had sought to postpone union elections and pushed for an in-person election, which the NLRB denied.

In the video, Biden said it was “up to the workers, period” to decide whether they wanted to join a union. He also discouraged employers from interfering in union elections.

“There should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda,” Biden said. “No supervisor should confront employees about their union preferences.

“You know, every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union … no employer can accept that right away. So make your voice heard,” he added.

During the election campaign, Biden vowed to be “the most pro-union president”. He has also made worker empowerment a key tenet of his work program.

In a statement, union president Stuart Applebaum thanked Biden for showing his support for the union campaign.

“As President Biden points out, the best way for workers to protect themselves and their families is to organize in unions,” Applebaum said in a statement. “And that’s why so many working women and men are fighting for a union at the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama.”