WASHINGTON — Days after warehouse staff on Staten Island defied Amazon and efficiently shaped a labor union, President Biden on Wednesday threw his assist behind the employees and championed their trigger.
In remarks to a nationwide convention of unionized commerce staff, Mr. Biden spoke on to one of many world’s strongest firms and defended the fitting of staff to unionize. “The selection to hitch a union belongs to staff alone,” he mentioned throughout remarks on the nationwide convention of North America’s Constructing Trades Unions. “By the best way, Amazon, right here we come. Watch.”
Jen Psaki, the White Home press secretary, mentioned the president was merely expressing his longstanding assist for collective bargaining and unions.
“What he was not doing is sending a message that he or the U.S. authorities can be straight concerned in any of those efforts or take any direct motion,” Ms. Psaki mentioned.
Nonetheless, the remarks had been probably the most specific about Amazon from Mr. Biden, who has referred to as himself the “most pro-union president” ever and has lengthy hinted that he disapproves of the corporate’s efforts to dissuade its staff from unionizing. Final yr, Mr. Biden expressed his assist for staff attempting to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Alabama. However at the moment, the president didn’t name out the corporate by identify.
A Landmark Win for Unionization at Amazon
Staff at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island delivered one of many greatest victories for organized labor in a era.
“Let me be actually clear: It’s lower than me to determine whether or not anybody ought to be a part of a union,” he mentioned on the time in a direct-to-camera tackle posted on the White Home Twitter web page, after a pressure campaign by pro-union teams pushed him to weigh in on the drive. “However let me be much more clear: It’s lower than an employer to determine that both.” Staff there narrowly voted against forming a union. Amazon has additionally mentioned that staff have a proper to determine to unionize, however the Nationwide Labor Relations Board has filed numerous circumstances saying the corporate has improperly interfered with their proper to take action. Amazon denies that.
The success of the unionization drive on the Staten Island warehouse — the one Amazon success middle in New York Metropolis — caught many without warning. Workers forged 2,654 votes to be represented by Amazon Labor Union and a couple of,131 towards, based on the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, giving the union a win by greater than 10 share factors.
The victory comes at a dangerous second for the labor motion. Regardless of rising public approval for labor unions, excessive demand for staff and pockets of profitable labor exercise, the portion of U.S. staff in unions dropped final yr to 10.3 p.c, the bottom price in many years.
Critics — together with some labor officers — say that conventional unions have did not commit sufficient assets into organizing campaigns and that they’ve typically guess on the fallacious fights.
Amazon is predicted to aggressively contest the union’s win. An unsigned assertion on its company weblog mentioned, “We’re dissatisfied with the end result of the election in Staten Island as a result of we imagine having a direct relationship with the corporate is finest for our staff.”
Amazon went on a hiring spree through the pandemic, which gave staff a rising sense of energy whereas fueling worries about office security. It now has 1.6 million staff globally however has been stricken by excessive turnover. A New York Occasions investigation final yr on the Staten Island warehouse, referred to as JFK8, revealed what number of of its issues — together with inadvertent firings and sky-high attrition — had been emblematic of Amazon’s employment mannequin extra broadly.
The Nationwide Labor Relations Board has been pursuing circumstances in administrative and federal court docket the place it says Amazon violated employee’s organizing rights. Amazon’s important response to the union win was that it believes the company has misplaced its objectivity and was actively supporting the union, slightly than being a impartial arbiter.
However the company mentioned its actions towards Amazon had been in keeping with its Congressional mandate to implement labor rights.
Katie Rogers reported from Washington, and Karen Weise from Seattle. Noam Scheiber contributed reporting from Chicago.
