Alberta
Alberta Amazon Plants Apply for Union Certification
- Peggy Morton -
Locals 362 and 987 of Teamsters Canada have filed for certification to
represent workers at Amazon's "fulfillment centres" in Nisku (Edmonton)
and Calgary, both located near the city airports. Teamsters Local 362
filed for the Nisku warehouse on September 14 and Local 987 applied for
certification for the Calgary warehouse on October 19. Teamsters
launched the organizing campaign at the June 2021 Convention of the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Dozens of local unions are
engaged in organizing in both Canada and the U.S.
The applications for union certification at both
Alberta locations are
now before the Alberta Labour Relations Board
(ALRB). The applications
are at the consideration stage in which the ALRB
meets with the union
and the employer to determine if the
application has been properly made, and if so,
sets a date for a
Board-supervised representation vote.
Workers’ Forum
congratulates Locals 362 and 987 for their achievement in being the
first to file applications for union certification for Amazon
warehouses, or "fulfillment centres" as Amazon calls them.
State Support for Amazon's Union-Busting
Tactics
Anti-worker legislation introduced by the
United Conservative Party
(UCP) government in 2020 requires a
board-supervised vote even when a
majority of workers have signed union cards. It
gives the Alberta
Labour Relations Board six months, with
provisions for extensions, to
verify cards, hold a vote and make a final
determination. This
provides employers potentially months to spread
false information and
to threaten, intimidate, and bully workers and
single out organizers.
Workers in Calgary have reported that the
employer has held small
meetings to say they knew who had signed union
cards.
A representative of Teamsters Local 362 told Workers'
Forum that they remain very vigilant in
the face of Amazon's virulent anti-union
history.
The
union has filed unfair labour practices complaints concerning Amazon's
actions at both the Calgary and Nisku warehouses. Amazon has been
repeatedly found guilty of unfair labour practices in both Canada and
the U.S. but is allowed to carry on with impunity. Governments
criminalize workers and their collectives and impose enormous fines and
other unjust penalties for their actions in defence of their rights and
dignity, all carried out at lightning speed. But when the oligopolies
violate labour law, labour boards and courts operate at a snail's pace,
if at all. Governments justify these attacks on workers’ rights
on the grounds that private interests like Amazon are the creators of
wealth whose claims have to be met and the workers are a cost to be
kept in check.
Amazon's actions at its Bessemer, Alabama
facility where a
unionization vote was not successful are a good
example. The U.S.
National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) found
that Amazon interfered
with the unionization vote; it had a mailbox
installed to collect
ballots and distributed paraphernalia
encouraging employees to vote
against
organizing. An NLRB regional director's decision
on whether to order a
new vote is expected soon.
The NLRB reported that Amazon installed
security cameras overlooking
the mailbox, creating the impression that
employees were under
surveillance. A tent erected around the mailbox
adorned with a company
campaign slogan, while not enough on its own to
invalidate the vote,
amounted to electioneering that tainted the
election, the NLRB
found. Amazon distributed "vote no" pins and
other anti-organizing
paraphernalia to employees in the presence of
managers and supervisors,
and held mandatory meetings to try to influence
the vote, sent text
messages to workers and even displayed campaign
literature in bathroom
stalls. Pending a decision on a re-vote, Amazon
has also launched
a new aggressive anti-union campaign in
Bessemer, which includes
officials walking the warehouse floor asking workers
how they feel about a
union.
Amazon Workers Speak Out
Amazon workers, former and active, are speaking
out in their own
name to expose their brutal working conditions,
as well as Amazon's
union-busting tactics, and to defend their
rights and dignity. Amazon
is notorious for outrageous work quotas,
constant monitoring of every
move a worker makes, its high rate of serious
workplace injuries
and its negligence in protecting workers from
COVID-19.
 Former
Amazon workers from the Greater Toronto Area
(GTA) have spoken out
about how the company retaliated against workers
trying to organize a
union for drivers. Amazon uses sub-contractors
to deliver packages, an
arrangement that it has used to stop the workers
from organizing by
ending the contract with a company where the
workers have unionized.
"When
the company realized I had started to talk to the other drivers about
having a union, they started an anti-union campaign," a worker told the
Fifth Estate. "The company called an all-hands-on-deck meeting." The
company owner said that Amazon would cut off the company and give the
work to another company, the worker said. The worker was fired, and
even though the Ontario Labour Board ordered him reinstated, on his
return to work he was left sitting in the parking lot while his Amazon
badge remained deactivated.
Another worker explained that after 75 per cent
of the workers at
his company voted for a union, the company
declared bankruptcy after
Amazon gave the work to another company.
Workers have spoken out about the large and
repeated outbreaks of
COVID-19 at warehouses. Amazon was finally
forced to close its
Brampton, Ontario, Heritage Road facility by
public health authorities
after at least 600 workers were infected by
COVID-19. The warehouse was
in outbreak from October 2020 to March 2021.
Amazon fought
the order. Amazon's Nisku warehouse was in
outbreak status for a total
of five and a half months during the first year
of the pandemic, with
at least 100 cases, but was allowed to remain
open the entire time.
Amazon's actions clearly show that the oligarchs
who control such
empires consider workers to be disposable, and
how governments
facilitate their reckless disregard for the
well-being of their workers.
Another trick in union-busting is to make vague
announcements about
future improvements to wages and working
conditions. The day before the
application for union certification was filed
for the Nisku warehouse,
Amazon announced that it would raise the
starting hourly rate for its
"frontline" workers from around $17 to "up to"
$21.65. But
workers spoke out to say that they might end up
with an actual pay cut
because the bonus program, based on attendance
and sales numbers for
each facility, had been eliminated. What "up to"
means is anyone's
guess, and Amazon's suggestions that hiring more
staff would reduce
workloads is meaningless in the face of its
sky-high staff
turnover.
While
working conditions at Amazon's "fulfillment centres," and for workers
who deliver Amazon packages further deteriorated during the pandemic,
Amazon had record revenues and profit in 2020, with annual revenue up
38 per cent to U.S.$386 billion, a yearly increase of over U.S.$100
billion. Net profit for Amazon was up 84 per cent for the year as
compared to 2019 and the personal wealth of its founder and CEO, Jeff
Bezos, reached U.S.$206.9 billion, Forbes reported. These are blatant
examples that show that this huge deployment of productive forces
cannot be left in private hands that have control of the state and its
institutions.
Workers' Forum calls on everyone to
stand with the Amazon
workers for the success of their efforts to
organize and to uphold
their right to decide wages and working
conditions acceptable to them.
This article was published in
November 17, 2021 - No. 108
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO081082.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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