It's unclear, though, how much can be gained through words alone. Amazon must come to the table and negotiate a fair contract with workers NOW," Sanders tweeted in January, after labor officials ordered Amazon to begin collective bargaining.Īnd in opening remarks to Schultz's hearing, he called out Starbucks for waging "the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country." A public shaming, but will it lead to progress? Bernie Sanders is turning to public shaming of those in power. Senator Bernie Sanders during a rally outside an Amazon facility on Staten Island, New York City, on April 24, 2022. (Companies have also filed unfair labor practice charges against unions, but far fewer.)Īmazon Labor Union leader Chris Smalls speaks next to U.S. Unions have fought back, filing hundreds of unfair labor practice charges over anti-union activities, citing things like companies closing stores, cutting hours, threatening and firing organizers, and failing to bargain in good faith. If that review doesn't go in its favor, Amazon can still take its case to federal court for another round. Meanwhile, collective bargaining at the Amazon warehouse on Staten Island has yet to begin, due to a parade of objections and appeals filed by Amazon over the past year.įollowing a lengthy Zoom hearing last summer to consider the company's objections to the election, federal labor officials found the complaints meritless and in January ordered the company to begin negotiations with the union.īut Amazon has since formally requested a review of that decision. 17, 2022, in Brooklyn, protesting the company's anti-union activities. Starbucks workers strike outside a Starbucks coffee shop on Nov. And the longer it takes to organize a union, the more likely it is that workers will give up. One way to thwart a union: delay, delay, delayĪ big part of the problem, Milkman says, is that under current labor law, companies can slow down every stage of the organizing process. "Those of us who have been watching this stuff for many decades have actually been pleasantly surprised by the success that has occurred, but it's too modest in scope and too fiercely resisted by employers" to move the needle, says Ruth Milkman, a labor sociologist at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. The recent groundswell of public support is far from enough to spark a union comeback. The bottom line is that labor law itself is tilted in favor of employers, say researchers who study labor movements, often making corporate hostility toward unions too hard to overcome. Never mind that 71% of Americans approve of unions, the highest in nearly six decades and up from 48% in 2009, a Gallup poll conducted last summer found. Just 10% of American workers belonged to a union in 2022, the lowest in Labor Department records going back to 1983, when the rate was 20%.
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