In Alabama, the labor union that failed in its months-long battle to organize an Amazon warehouse in the city of Bessemer has filed 23 complaints against the online retailer with the National Labor Relations Board. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union says Amazon unlawfully interfered with union efforts by threatening to cut workers’ pay, benefits and time off work, while creating an “impression of surveillance” by installing private mailboxes at the warehouse so it could monitor workers’ votes. This is Bessemer Amazon worker Jennifer Bates.
Jennifer Bates: “There was illegal things taking place and fear tactics that was done to people who didn’t have any idea about what a union could do for them, young people who thought that they were going to lose their job because the company said, ’We’re going to shut down.’”