December 8, 2021 • 30 mins
In this episode we delve into the illegal and Orwellian methods used by Amazon to try and stop its warehouse workers unionizing.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon
customer because you guys paid progress. You guys paid problems.
This is Megacorp, an investigative podcast exposing some of the
world's most unethical corporations. This series is about Amazon. I'm
(00:22):
Jake Hanrahan, journalists and documentary filmmaker. Megacorp is produced by
H eleven for cool Zone Media. As we heard in
the previous episode, Amazon workers are under a lot of pressure.
(00:46):
That overworked, they're constantly monitored, and they don't have job security.
To combat this, Amazon workers across the world have begun
to organize. Many of them want a union. If they
were unionized, it would give the workers more power to
negotiate better working conditions, job security, and increased wages. Now,
(01:09):
if you're unfamiliar with what a union is, I don't
blame you. These days, workers unions are far less common
than they used to be, although they do seem to
be making a sort of comeback in recent years. Anyway,
let me explain briefly what they are. Ensure. Unions are
groups of workers that come together in a bid to
(01:31):
get a better deal at their place of work. They're
not against working, they're not being lazy. They just want
a fairer time at their jobs. Where unions are active,
the workers have somewhere outside of the company they're employed
by to help sort out any issues and to build
a better work community. Members usually elect union representatives that
(01:52):
they can go to to solve problems, or alternatively, people
volunteered to be the rep Often, unions give the people
at the bottom of the workplace some leverage over those
at the top. If you listen to the previous episode,
you can probably imagine why Amazon workers have been pushing
(02:13):
to unionize in many different places. It will also probably
be no surprise that Amazon is trying desperately to stop
the unions. When a company actively tries to disrupt union organizing,
it's often referred to as union busting. This is something
Amazon knows all about. Eighteen and internal anti union Amazon
(02:36):
video was leaked onto the internet. The video is essentially
a training guide on how to stop workers unionizing. The
video was sent to managers at the company Whole Foods,
amidst the initial stages of worker organization around June. Whole
Foods was brought up by Amazon in seventeen for urteen
(03:00):
point seven billion dollars. The anti union video is forty
five minutes long, and it's split up into six different parts.
The whole thing is animated. It's quite surreal. It's pretty odd.
It takes place in a two D Amazon warehouse, where
the narrator says, the purpose of the video is quote
(03:23):
specifically designed to give you the tools that you need
for success when it comes to labor organizing end quote.
Now I don't mean to sound shreal or exaggerated here,
but there really is something a little bit or well
Ian in the way this video portrays itself. It's essentially
a guide that Amazon has created to help recognize when
(03:45):
workers unions are beginning to form in a workplace, but
not so they can help them, so they can stop them.
Yet the language used in the video acts as if
it's somehow an ally of the workers. When they say
they're helping give companies the tools they need for success
when it comes to label organizing, what they mean by
success is success in basically crushing unions. Now, let's have
(04:13):
a listen to some of the internal anti union Amazon video. Welcome.
We're excited to have you with this training specifically designed
to give you the tools that you need for success
when it comes to labor organizing. During this course will
cover several important topics such as our position on unions,
associate rights, signs of employee disengagement, and how do identify,
(04:36):
escalate and address associate concerns. We are not anti union,
but we are not neutral either. We will boldly defend
our direct relationship with associates as best for the associate,
the business, and our shareholders. Right. Notice what they just
said that they're not anti union, but they're not neutral either.
Obviously not as they wouldn't be making these training video.
(04:58):
So they're saying they're not t union and they're not
neutral in a video about training employees to try and
suss out and stop unionizing in the workplace. Again, not
to sound all dramatic, but this is literally double speak.
It's the way politicians talk when they're defending the indefensible
in the media. This is bullshit. They're trying to soften
(05:21):
the blow of what is clearly an anti union training video,
and frankly, to say otherwise is a bit of an insult,
but that's the way they framed it. Anyway, Let's listen on.
We do not believe unions are in the best interest
of our customers are shareholders are most importantly our associates.
Our business model is built upon speed, innovation and customer obsession.
(05:43):
Customer obsession things that are generally not associated with the unions.
When we lose sight of those critical focus areas, we
jeopardize everyone's job security. Okay, so they've just said that
that everyone's job security at Amazon is in jeopardy when
speed in a ation and customer obsession are lost site
(06:03):
of Now, the way this too d Amazon presentation reels
that off, it's quite easy to miss the point. That
sentence seems fairly innocuous the way they read it. However,
in my opinion here, the subtext of that sentence is this,
if a union gains power within the workplace and they
(06:24):
prioritize anything other than speed, innovation and customer obsession, people
might get fired. They don't want unions focusing on anything
else like workers safety, improved conditions, and better wages. That
would take time away from efficiency. And if that happens,
(06:45):
people are going to get fired. Now, I could be
very wrong. Like I said, that's just my opinion of
the subtext there, but I'm not sure how else to
take it. Remember, as well, this was an internal video
at Amazon not meant to see the light of day
in the public. I think that gives you more context
(07:07):
to what's being said here. Also, anyway, let's hear more.
We don't bad mouth unions in general, but we will
speak openly with associates about unions, including any specific concerns
about particular unions involved in organizing, and we share our
preference for a direct working relationship frequently and boldly, even
when no organizing activity has occurred. You will learn about
(07:28):
the warning signs most commonly associated with early union organizing,
as well as other warning signs that could indicate associate disengagement,
vulnerability to organizing, or early organizing activity. While employees have
the right to organize, we have a right and responsibility
to share our position that a direct working relationship is
better for the customer, the company, and the associate. In
(07:50):
order to be able to do that effectively, it is
critical that we recognize the early warning signs of potential
organizing and escalate concerns promptly, warning signs earlier new organizing,
vulnerability to organize. In the way Amazon is talking about this,
it sounds like they think unions are some kind of disease.
I don't know. It's quite odd listening to it like this. Now.
(08:12):
I get Amazon is a private company. They have the
right to dislike and even hate unions if they want to.
But as you can see, this training video shows that
their private face doesn't tally up with their public face.
Shock horror. Who's surprised? Now? Amazon presents this happy, people,
friendly corporation typeface, but this just isn't that. This next bit, though,
(08:37):
I think, is really quite dark. If you see warning
signs of potential organizing, notify you're building hr M and
GM site leader immediately. Hr M s and g M
site leaders should notify their assigned e R managers or
e ER principle immediately. The most obvious signs would include
use of words associated with unions, are union movements like
(09:01):
living wage or steward petitions, or other concerted activity, such
as an associate purporting to speak on behalf of his
or her coworkers when raising concerns. Union graffiti, union t shirts, hats, jackets,
or other clothing union flyers and union visitors in or
near the parking lot. Some signs are less obvious than
(09:22):
finding the actual union flyer, but they can still indicate
associate disengagement, which is itself a warning sign for potential organizing.
Examples include associates who normally aren't connected to each other
suddenly hanging out together, associates who are close suddenly stopped
speaking to each other, groups of associate scatter when approached
by management, increased associate negativity, anger or confrontation, unusual complaints
(09:45):
or change in passion or detail around complaints, unusual interest
and policies, benefits, employee lists or other company information, or
any other associate behavior that is out of character. For example,
an associate who normally leaves promptly begins hanging out in
the brake room for an or after work each day.
In order to recognize warning signs, it is critical that
you know what an associates normal behavior looks like. Often
(10:07):
it is the change in behavior that is the warning
sign more than the actual behavior itself. Now, if that
doesn't sound authoritarian, I don't know what does. Their training
and encouraging workers to literally spy on each other. They
suggest monitoring their behavior, their clothes, and even what words
they use to try and work out if they're involved
(10:29):
in union organizing or not, and they say they're not
anti union. At the end there it goes as far
as to suggest that manages second guess the motivations of
the workers by watching to see if anything changes in
their behavior, even if they have not said anything regarding unionizing.
In order to recognize warning signs, it is critical that
(10:51):
you know what an associates normal behavior looks like. Often
it is the change in behavior that is the warning
sign more than the actual behavior itself. That and say
that workers must inform on each other if they spot
any of this behavior. It all sounds a little bit
too much like the Stasi to me. And remember, this
is just a company, This is not a government, this
(11:12):
is not a police force. Seems a little bit over
the top. Something else are noticed, Only just at the
end there is that in the video of this Amazon presentation.
You know, I said it was to the animated the
guy that is giving all this information to the viewer,
which would be the members of the team that Amazon
is trying to train too effectively union bust. The character
(11:36):
is actually a worker on the warehouse floor in the
Amazon warehouse. Maybe that was intentional, maybe not, I don't know.
It seems pretty fucked up to me. He's even wearing
a little high of his jacket. There are conveyor belts everywhere.
It's an Amazon worker telling the managers how to stop
him from organizing madness. To get a better understanding of
(12:02):
where the Amazon unions are at right now, and also
to hear about the Amazon union busting tactics, I spoke
to journalists Dave Jamieson. He is a labor reporter for
her Post. Back in the day, there was a labor
reporter on pretty much every newspaper, every outlet. Nowadays it's
more rare to see them, but it's a very important job,
(12:23):
especially within journalism. It helps shine a light on bad
practices as the ones we've just heard of in regards
to Amazon. Let's see what you have to say. Let's
let's kind of um begin with the union, the unionizing
efforts that Amazon workers have been involved in. Okay, so um.
In the US, Amazon does not have unionized workers. Amazon
(12:49):
deals with with unions overseas in some places, um like
like in Europe. But in the US they've managed to
keep unions out as a lot of kind. But he's
managed to do these days are our unionization rate in
the US is just six percent in the private sector,
A lot of American workers these days could work their
(13:09):
whole careers and and never be in a in a
in a union. We used to have much higher union density,
like after World War Two, it was up into the
thirty some odd percent um. It's much lower now and
that's in part because the employers have gotten you know,
more aggressive, I think over the years in terms of
trying to beat back union drives. And so it was
(13:32):
kind of no mystery that you know, Amazon wanted to
keep unions out like any any kind of big growing
employer in the US. So it came as a as
a bit of a surprise when when this union, the
retail wholesale and Department store union, filed for a union
election at a warehouse down in Alabama, in this town
(13:54):
called Bessemer, right outside of Birmingham. Because there had never
been a a union election at a a major Amazon
facility like this with the unit that we call wall
to wall, were like everybody inside there, pretty much outside
of management, would be in the union if the union one.
And so this was like a really big deal, uh,
(14:17):
not just for labor, but it had big advocations for Amazon.
They want to keep unions from getting any toe hold
inside their facilities. Right in the US, unions would have
to unionize these facilities one by one, So it would
still be a few thousand workers out of nearly a
million in the US that would be covered by a union.
But the fear for a company like Amazon is that
(14:39):
this is gonna spread, right that if if if a
union can break into one facility, that they're gonna start
popping up and winning elections at other facilities. So this
became like really closely watched in the US, and it
was kind of an unusual campaign because it was it
was during the pandemic, so um, it was going to
be a kind of long now and voting process where
(15:02):
where both the union and and the company we're going
to be making their cases to workers. And so even
though we knew that that Amazon did did not want unions,
that they were going to try to keep unions out,
this was kind of the first time really that Amazon
was forced to kind of get its hands dirty in public, uh,
(15:23):
while they tried to fight off a union drive. Right right,
maybe you can give us some idea of the union
busting efforts to Amazon has going to When you look
at what Amazon did, I view it as simply a
scaled up version of what your typical American employer will do.
Amazon basically has bottomless resources, so they could throw tons
of money at it. But what they did basically what
(15:45):
any um, um you know, depocketed company was going to do,
which is you fight kind of this this two pronged
war one with with your lawyers right where you you
bring in um, the best lawyers you can get, management
side attorneys who are going to do whatever they can
at the National Labor Relations Board to um slow this
(16:07):
process down, UH, to throw up hurdles in front of
the union. And that's that's what what Amazon did. They
hired Morgan Lewis. It's you know, the top or one
of the top management side firms when you're dealing with
the union. And the guy they had leading their litigation
is his name is Harry Johnson. He used to be
a Republican member of the National Labor Relations Board, which
(16:29):
is like our Supreme Court um for for dealing with
labor issues. So they really, you know, they got lawyers
from from the top of the game. And UM, you know,
as you're doing that, UM, you know, you also as
a company, you often want to run this sort of
ground game inside your workplace where you're trying to so
(16:50):
doubt about the union um uh, and and and sort
of do everything you can legal or sometimes not legal,
to encourage a no vote. And so what Amazon did
is they went out and hired union avoidance consultants who
came in and and companies have to disclose this stuff
to the government when they do it, and we know
(17:10):
a little bit about UM, what Amazon went out and did.
It's gonna be a while before we know more, just
because of the disclosure process. But they hired a whole
bunch of consultants who came in to hold what we
call captive audience meetings. This is where UM workers are
are corralled into a room and a consultant or management
or both get up there and give a speech about,
(17:34):
you know, basically, why the union sucks, why you don't
want a union. UM. There's certain lines they can't go over. UM.
They can't interrogate you about your your union sympathies. They
can't threaten your job if you vote for a union,
But they can get really close to that line, and
through careful language, they can kind of sow those doubts
(17:54):
UM while while still kind of staying on the right
side of the line. And so that's why you bring
consultants into do that. And so Amazon had these meetings
going on in the Best sumber warehouse every day for
weeks in the in the run up to the vote.
I talked to workers who were in there, um, you know,
multiple times. Uh, and it's it's it's a weird experience.
I mean, I've talked to a lot of workers over
(18:16):
the years who've gone through this, not just at Amazon
but elsewhere, and it's it's very strange. You know, you
have this this guy from the outside who comes in
is kind of acting like he's your pal, like he's
just there to answer questions and kind of clarify the process.
They always kind of put off the air of being neutral,
of just wanting to provide you with information, But when
(18:37):
you look at what they actually say, it's it's always um,
you know, within with an anti union angle to it. Um.
And this can be really effective in a lot of ways.
It's sort of For one, it can help the the
the employer know where certain workers stand. Right. So this
is a was a big facility of nearly six thousand
workers in the proposed bargaining unit. So if the union
(19:00):
one that would be nearly six thousand people in that union. UM,
that is really large. We in the US, we like
rarely see union elections on that scale anymore, you know,
in part because of UM uh you know, the industrialization
and and and a lot of bargaining units have just
gotten smaller. So this was like a really big facility.
(19:21):
So Amazon was holding tons of these meetings and they'd
have people off to the side, and you know, I
talked to workers who didn't know who who these people were.
Maybe they were managers, they didn't recognize them, Maybe they
were in from other facilities. And Amazon did bring in
a lot of people from corporate during the campaign to
be around the warehouse that were managers from other facilities
in UM and it was just kind of a strange environment. UM.
(19:43):
Sometimes workers would push back. I talked to a few
who kind of got got sick of of you know,
what they felt was was ridiculous propaganda, and so they
would they would uh, you know, push back UM, you know,
challenge the presenter and and talk about the goods unions,
good unions could do UM. And I talked to one
(20:03):
guy who who did that, and then he when he
once he was back out on the floor. He had
some union avoidance consultant coming over to talk to him,
and he just said it was weird. Man. He was like,
he was like, I don't want to talk to you.
Uh So it creates a very strange environment, but it
can be really effective, especially in a place like Amazon.
And this is really key to understanding any union campaign
(20:26):
and an Amazon facility is the turnover there, right, sky
high turnover UM. New York Times had a number that
they say they got internally that was over a yeah,
staff turnover, right, worker turnover, and that's consistent with UM,
with other numbers that have been done by outside analyses
suggesting over a hundred percent. What that means is um,
(20:49):
over the course of a year, the number of workers
who quit or get fired is greater than the average
number of positions in that facility. Right. It doesn't mean
that literally every worker leaves, but it means that they
that if they have five thousand positions in there, then
more than five thousand or more people passed through that
warehouse in a year. That is a very high turnover
(21:09):
rate for the industry. And you know one reason, Frankly,
I think it's part of of Amazon's early d n
A was that, like, we didn't want this attachment to workers,
like these places they run on algorithm, right, so the
workers are like our plug and play right um. And
and Bezos felt like, you know, workers just if they're
(21:31):
just kind of there in a job for years, they
get complacent. So this idea of like burning through workers
is kind of part of part of like like the
Amazon theory, um. But it also is like a huge
benefit when you're a company fighting an organizing drive, because
you constantly have people passing through the door, um, and
they don't have time to kind of uh, you know,
(21:53):
develop sympathies with the union, and in this case, a
lot of them never even heard the union's case. Right.
You have the the union told me that they were
under the assumption that they were losing sixty union cards
every week to turn over. And what they mean is
that sixty workers who signaled they would support the union
election we're going to leave naturally every week, either either
(22:15):
quitting or getting fired, and so you gotta find new
new support to replace that. So you're constantly treading water
as people come in the door, trying to organize them
and make your case to them. As a union. You know,
an Amazon of course knows that. And so people during
this this um you know, mail and election, there were
there were uh people you know coming in ahead of
(22:38):
the election, UM who never heard from a union organizer,
and in their first week on the job, they're going
into these anti union meetings basically hearing uh, you know,
how crumby the union is, and and and what a
bad idea would be to vote for the union. And
so Amazon had this large scale sophisted campaign going on,
in part down on the ground level in the air house,
(23:00):
with these consultants in their consultants who were coached by
managers and supervisors on on how to act around the
workers and how to um you know, essentially uh you know,
turn out no votes. While at the same time they
had they had lawyers at the highest level that we're
trying to um throw up barriers, um, you know, inflate
(23:21):
the bargaining unit, make the union union, the proposed bargaining
unit as large as possible so that the union would
have to be organizing all these all these other workers, UM,
and just slow things down legally so that um inside
the warehouse, the company has the time to get their
anti union campaign up and running. So yeah, this was
(23:41):
like a pretty uh sophisticated campaign, I think, and probably
a very expensive one. It's gonna be a little while
before we know how much Amazon spent on the consultants. Well,
we'll learn that sometime next year. A lot of people
I have talked to think, um, you know, it's probably
almost certainly in the millions. Um, possibly possibly eight figures,
(24:02):
but we'll never know, you know, what they spent on
on the lawyers, because that's not subject to disclosure. So
this was like and you know, defeat the union at
all costs. Yeah, it's it's very aggressive. Um. I was
reading the thing I think it was to Die actually
or yesterday, where a court had basically said in the
US that union workers were allowed to kind of push
(24:22):
that union voting ahead again because the court ruled the
Amazon had basically unfairly kind of influenced the decision. Um,
did you see about that? That's right? Yeah, So this
this was news the pro clast night. Basically, the National
Labor Relations Board, a regional director there um ruled that
(24:44):
that Amazon broke the law during the election, that they
you know, basically tainted the democratic process, and that the
workers are entitled to do over vote. Um, I think
it's likely that second vote will happen because the the
Labor Board now has a democratic majority that's more favorable
to workers. So I think my sense is that this
(25:06):
this ruling will will be upheld and that another another
vote will will come. But it's really an illustration of
why why companies like Amazon really pushed the limits, so
to unpack sort of what Amazon did here, um to
to kind of spoil the election. This was, like I said,
this happened during the pandemic. This vote, and so the
(25:28):
Labor Board wanted to do a mail in ballot right
where normally, in normal times you're gonna have this election
over two or three days at the big warehouse where
there's a little polling place and workers can go in
when they have a minute and fill out their ballot
and drop it in the box. Here, it was all
gonna be done by mail. Amazon didn't like that, and
(25:49):
I think the reason is because Amazon wanted this election
to be conducted on their home turf. Right, there's a
lot of advantages to doing this at the work site.
Right when the workers gonna have to go in and vote,
they're gonna walk by all their managers, they're gonna be
around all the propaganda. And there was propaganda all over
the warehouse. Um you know, all this sort of like
subtle anti union stuff and and um you know even
(26:12):
when when you went to the bathroom, uh you were
you were seeing these these um posters and flyers about
you know, do you really want to be paying dudes? Um. So,
you know, Amazon wanted to have have that that that
vote on the on the home field. Um, they didn't
get it. So what they did they basically, um, you know,
(26:35):
arranged to have the the US Postal Service install a
mailbox on on the warehouse site, right in the parking lot.
And they um surrounded this thing with their with their
you know Amazon propaganda. You know, come here, have your
voice heard. Um. The labor board had had specifically said
(26:56):
they did not want, you know, ballot drop boxes on
site for the election. So Amazon went out on its own.
And there's there's we know that they um, you know,
converse with the US Postal Service to have this arranged.
Um in mind you there's already you know, business arrangements
between Amazon and the US Postal Service. Um. So so
(27:18):
this was um upset the union quite a bit and
everything we've seen so far of the union's claims that
this post postal box tainted the process has been upheld
so far, you know by labor officials. So there was
a fear that by having this there um that that
there was there was fears that the that the postal
(27:40):
box was being surveiled. Right this is right outside Amazon's door.
And what the Labor board official yesterday had to say
about this was that was that she had specifically said
she did not want ballot drop boxes there and that
what Amazon did here was essentially hijacked the process. Amazon's
defense has been, well, we just wanted to kind of
boost turnout, sure everyone everyone uh you know, had their
(28:02):
voices heard, just make it easier to vote. And they said, well,
look that's not your job that that's our job is
to administer the election. And so I was a little
surprised that Amazon went so far as to do this,
this this ballot box routine. Um I I but again
this goes back to wanting to win this this election
at all costs, and certainly on on the first go round,
(28:23):
I think Amazon wanted to not only win, but but
to run up the numbers. And they did, you know,
they essentially, you know, defeated the union. It was around
a two to one margin, although some challenge ballots were
never open. But you know, Amazon, really they wanted to
crush this. They wanted to run up the numbers and
and make it look futile to try to do this.
And so what we're seeing now is that it's looking
(28:45):
like they broke the law to do it. They broke
the law to do it. So Amazon so eager to
union bust that they literally broke the law to try
and stop one forming. But remember, like they said in
the internal training video, they're not anti union union. Now
the courts have ruled that the union Dave Jamison mentioned
(29:07):
there are going to be given another chance at voting
to properly unize Amazon. It's safe to say this is
definitely not going anywhere, despite Amazon putting literally millions of
dollars into trying to stop this. So let's see what happens.
Will keep you updated here at Megacorp. Mega Corp. Is
(29:30):
made by my production company H eleven for Cool Zone Media.
It's written, researched, and produced by myself, Jake Hanrahan. It
was also produced by Sophie Lichtman. Music is by some
black graphics by Adam Doyle and sound engineering by splicing block.
(29:52):
If you want to get in touch, follow me on
social media at Jake Underscore Hanrahan. That's h A n
I A h A n m
I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon
customer because you guys paid progress. You guys paid problems.
This is Megacorp, an investigative podcast exposing some of the
world's most unethical corporations. This series is about Amazon. I'm
(00:22):
Jake Hanrahan, journalists and documentary filmmaker. Megacorp is produced by
H eleven for cool Zone Media. As we heard in
the previous episode, Amazon workers are under a lot of pressure.
(00:46):
That overworked, they're constantly monitored, and they don't have job security.
To combat this, Amazon workers across the world have begun
to organize. Many of them want a union. If they
were unionized, it would give the workers more power to
negotiate better working conditions, job security, and increased wages. Now,
(01:09):
if you're unfamiliar with what a union is, I don't
blame you. These days, workers unions are far less common
than they used to be, although they do seem to
be making a sort of comeback in recent years. Anyway,
let me explain briefly what they are. Ensure. Unions are
groups of workers that come together in a bid to
(01:31):
get a better deal at their place of work. They're
not against working, they're not being lazy. They just want
a fairer time at their jobs. Where unions are active,
the workers have somewhere outside of the company they're employed
by to help sort out any issues and to build
a better work community. Members usually elect union representatives that
(01:52):
they can go to to solve problems, or alternatively, people
volunteered to be the rep Often, unions give the people
at the bottom of the workplace some leverage over those
at the top. If you listen to the previous episode,
you can probably imagine why Amazon workers have been pushing
(02:13):
to unionize in many different places. It will also probably
be no surprise that Amazon is trying desperately to stop
the unions. When a company actively tries to disrupt union organizing,
it's often referred to as union busting. This is something
Amazon knows all about. Eighteen and internal anti union Amazon
(02:36):
video was leaked onto the internet. The video is essentially
a training guide on how to stop workers unionizing. The
video was sent to managers at the company Whole Foods,
amidst the initial stages of worker organization around June. Whole
Foods was brought up by Amazon in seventeen for urteen
(03:00):
point seven billion dollars. The anti union video is forty
five minutes long, and it's split up into six different parts.
The whole thing is animated. It's quite surreal. It's pretty odd.
It takes place in a two D Amazon warehouse, where
the narrator says, the purpose of the video is quote
(03:23):
specifically designed to give you the tools that you need
for success when it comes to labor organizing end quote.
Now I don't mean to sound shreal or exaggerated here,
but there really is something a little bit or well
Ian in the way this video portrays itself. It's essentially
a guide that Amazon has created to help recognize when
(03:45):
workers unions are beginning to form in a workplace, but
not so they can help them, so they can stop them.
Yet the language used in the video acts as if
it's somehow an ally of the workers. When they say
they're helping give companies the tools they need for success
when it comes to label organizing, what they mean by
success is success in basically crushing unions. Now, let's have
(04:13):
a listen to some of the internal anti union Amazon video. Welcome.
We're excited to have you with this training specifically designed
to give you the tools that you need for success
when it comes to labor organizing. During this course will
cover several important topics such as our position on unions,
associate rights, signs of employee disengagement, and how do identify,
(04:36):
escalate and address associate concerns. We are not anti union,
but we are not neutral either. We will boldly defend
our direct relationship with associates as best for the associate,
the business, and our shareholders. Right. Notice what they just
said that they're not anti union, but they're not neutral either.
Obviously not as they wouldn't be making these training video.
(04:58):
So they're saying they're not t union and they're not
neutral in a video about training employees to try and
suss out and stop unionizing in the workplace. Again, not
to sound all dramatic, but this is literally double speak.
It's the way politicians talk when they're defending the indefensible
in the media. This is bullshit. They're trying to soften
(05:21):
the blow of what is clearly an anti union training video,
and frankly, to say otherwise is a bit of an insult,
but that's the way they framed it. Anyway, Let's listen on.
We do not believe unions are in the best interest
of our customers are shareholders are most importantly our associates.
Our business model is built upon speed, innovation and customer obsession.
(05:43):
Customer obsession things that are generally not associated with the unions.
When we lose sight of those critical focus areas, we
jeopardize everyone's job security. Okay, so they've just said that
that everyone's job security at Amazon is in jeopardy when
speed in a ation and customer obsession are lost site
(06:03):
of Now, the way this too d Amazon presentation reels
that off, it's quite easy to miss the point. That
sentence seems fairly innocuous the way they read it. However,
in my opinion here, the subtext of that sentence is this,
if a union gains power within the workplace and they
(06:24):
prioritize anything other than speed, innovation and customer obsession, people
might get fired. They don't want unions focusing on anything
else like workers safety, improved conditions, and better wages. That
would take time away from efficiency. And if that happens,
(06:45):
people are going to get fired. Now, I could be
very wrong. Like I said, that's just my opinion of
the subtext there, but I'm not sure how else to
take it. Remember, as well, this was an internal video
at Amazon not meant to see the light of day
in the public. I think that gives you more context
(07:07):
to what's being said here. Also, anyway, let's hear more.
We don't bad mouth unions in general, but we will
speak openly with associates about unions, including any specific concerns
about particular unions involved in organizing, and we share our
preference for a direct working relationship frequently and boldly, even
when no organizing activity has occurred. You will learn about
(07:28):
the warning signs most commonly associated with early union organizing,
as well as other warning signs that could indicate associate disengagement,
vulnerability to organizing, or early organizing activity. While employees have
the right to organize, we have a right and responsibility
to share our position that a direct working relationship is
better for the customer, the company, and the associate. In
(07:50):
order to be able to do that effectively, it is
critical that we recognize the early warning signs of potential
organizing and escalate concerns promptly, warning signs earlier new organizing,
vulnerability to organize. In the way Amazon is talking about this,
it sounds like they think unions are some kind of disease.
I don't know. It's quite odd listening to it like this. Now.
(08:12):
I get Amazon is a private company. They have the
right to dislike and even hate unions if they want to.
But as you can see, this training video shows that
their private face doesn't tally up with their public face.
Shock horror. Who's surprised? Now? Amazon presents this happy, people,
friendly corporation typeface, but this just isn't that. This next bit, though,
(08:37):
I think, is really quite dark. If you see warning
signs of potential organizing, notify you're building hr M and
GM site leader immediately. Hr M s and g M
site leaders should notify their assigned e R managers or
e ER principle immediately. The most obvious signs would include
use of words associated with unions, are union movements like
(09:01):
living wage or steward petitions, or other concerted activity, such
as an associate purporting to speak on behalf of his
or her coworkers when raising concerns. Union graffiti, union t shirts, hats, jackets,
or other clothing union flyers and union visitors in or
near the parking lot. Some signs are less obvious than
(09:22):
finding the actual union flyer, but they can still indicate
associate disengagement, which is itself a warning sign for potential organizing.
Examples include associates who normally aren't connected to each other
suddenly hanging out together, associates who are close suddenly stopped
speaking to each other, groups of associate scatter when approached
by management, increased associate negativity, anger or confrontation, unusual complaints
(09:45):
or change in passion or detail around complaints, unusual interest
and policies, benefits, employee lists or other company information, or
any other associate behavior that is out of character. For example,
an associate who normally leaves promptly begins hanging out in
the brake room for an or after work each day.
In order to recognize warning signs, it is critical that
you know what an associates normal behavior looks like. Often
(10:07):
it is the change in behavior that is the warning
sign more than the actual behavior itself. Now, if that
doesn't sound authoritarian, I don't know what does. Their training
and encouraging workers to literally spy on each other. They
suggest monitoring their behavior, their clothes, and even what words
they use to try and work out if they're involved
(10:29):
in union organizing or not, and they say they're not
anti union. At the end there it goes as far
as to suggest that manages second guess the motivations of
the workers by watching to see if anything changes in
their behavior, even if they have not said anything regarding unionizing.
In order to recognize warning signs, it is critical that
(10:51):
you know what an associates normal behavior looks like. Often
it is the change in behavior that is the warning
sign more than the actual behavior itself. That and say
that workers must inform on each other if they spot
any of this behavior. It all sounds a little bit
too much like the Stasi to me. And remember, this
is just a company, This is not a government, this
(11:12):
is not a police force. Seems a little bit over
the top. Something else are noticed, Only just at the
end there is that in the video of this Amazon presentation.
You know, I said it was to the animated the
guy that is giving all this information to the viewer,
which would be the members of the team that Amazon
is trying to train too effectively union bust. The character
(11:36):
is actually a worker on the warehouse floor in the
Amazon warehouse. Maybe that was intentional, maybe not, I don't know.
It seems pretty fucked up to me. He's even wearing
a little high of his jacket. There are conveyor belts everywhere.
It's an Amazon worker telling the managers how to stop
him from organizing madness. To get a better understanding of
(12:02):
where the Amazon unions are at right now, and also
to hear about the Amazon union busting tactics, I spoke
to journalists Dave Jamieson. He is a labor reporter for
her Post. Back in the day, there was a labor
reporter on pretty much every newspaper, every outlet. Nowadays it's
more rare to see them, but it's a very important job,
(12:23):
especially within journalism. It helps shine a light on bad
practices as the ones we've just heard of in regards
to Amazon. Let's see what you have to say. Let's
let's kind of um begin with the union, the unionizing
efforts that Amazon workers have been involved in. Okay, so um.
In the US, Amazon does not have unionized workers. Amazon
(12:49):
deals with with unions overseas in some places, um like
like in Europe. But in the US they've managed to
keep unions out as a lot of kind. But he's
managed to do these days are our unionization rate in
the US is just six percent in the private sector,
A lot of American workers these days could work their
(13:09):
whole careers and and never be in a in a
in a union. We used to have much higher union density,
like after World War Two, it was up into the
thirty some odd percent um. It's much lower now and
that's in part because the employers have gotten you know,
more aggressive, I think over the years in terms of
trying to beat back union drives. And so it was
(13:32):
kind of no mystery that you know, Amazon wanted to
keep unions out like any any kind of big growing
employer in the US. So it came as a as
a bit of a surprise when when this union, the
retail wholesale and Department store union, filed for a union
election at a warehouse down in Alabama, in this town
(13:54):
called Bessemer, right outside of Birmingham. Because there had never
been a a union election at a a major Amazon
facility like this with the unit that we call wall
to wall, were like everybody inside there, pretty much outside
of management, would be in the union if the union one.
And so this was like a really big deal, uh,
(14:17):
not just for labor, but it had big advocations for Amazon.
They want to keep unions from getting any toe hold
inside their facilities. Right in the US, unions would have
to unionize these facilities one by one, So it would
still be a few thousand workers out of nearly a
million in the US that would be covered by a union.
But the fear for a company like Amazon is that
(14:39):
this is gonna spread, right that if if if a
union can break into one facility, that they're gonna start
popping up and winning elections at other facilities. So this
became like really closely watched in the US, and it
was kind of an unusual campaign because it was it
was during the pandemic, so um, it was going to
be a kind of long now and voting process where
(15:02):
where both the union and and the company we're going
to be making their cases to workers. And so even
though we knew that that Amazon did did not want unions,
that they were going to try to keep unions out,
this was kind of the first time really that Amazon
was forced to kind of get its hands dirty in public, uh,
(15:23):
while they tried to fight off a union drive. Right right,
maybe you can give us some idea of the union
busting efforts to Amazon has going to When you look
at what Amazon did, I view it as simply a
scaled up version of what your typical American employer will do.
Amazon basically has bottomless resources, so they could throw tons
of money at it. But what they did basically what
(15:45):
any um, um you know, depocketed company was going to do,
which is you fight kind of this this two pronged
war one with with your lawyers right where you you
bring in um, the best lawyers you can get, management
side attorneys who are going to do whatever they can
at the National Labor Relations Board to um slow this
(16:07):
process down, UH, to throw up hurdles in front of
the union. And that's that's what what Amazon did. They
hired Morgan Lewis. It's you know, the top or one
of the top management side firms when you're dealing with
the union. And the guy they had leading their litigation
is his name is Harry Johnson. He used to be
a Republican member of the National Labor Relations Board, which
(16:29):
is like our Supreme Court um for for dealing with
labor issues. So they really, you know, they got lawyers
from from the top of the game. And UM, you know,
as you're doing that, UM, you know, you also as
a company, you often want to run this sort of
ground game inside your workplace where you're trying to so
(16:50):
doubt about the union um uh, and and and sort
of do everything you can legal or sometimes not legal,
to encourage a no vote. And so what Amazon did
is they went out and hired union avoidance consultants who
came in and and companies have to disclose this stuff
to the government when they do it, and we know
(17:10):
a little bit about UM, what Amazon went out and did.
It's gonna be a while before we know more, just
because of the disclosure process. But they hired a whole
bunch of consultants who came in to hold what we
call captive audience meetings. This is where UM workers are
are corralled into a room and a consultant or management
or both get up there and give a speech about,
(17:34):
you know, basically, why the union sucks, why you don't
want a union. UM. There's certain lines they can't go over. UM.
They can't interrogate you about your your union sympathies. They
can't threaten your job if you vote for a union,
But they can get really close to that line, and
through careful language, they can kind of sow those doubts
(17:54):
UM while while still kind of staying on the right
side of the line. And so that's why you bring
consultants into do that. And so Amazon had these meetings
going on in the Best sumber warehouse every day for
weeks in the in the run up to the vote.
I talked to workers who were in there, um, you know,
multiple times. Uh, and it's it's it's a weird experience.
I mean, I've talked to a lot of workers over
(18:16):
the years who've gone through this, not just at Amazon
but elsewhere, and it's it's very strange. You know, you
have this this guy from the outside who comes in
is kind of acting like he's your pal, like he's
just there to answer questions and kind of clarify the process.
They always kind of put off the air of being neutral,
of just wanting to provide you with information, But when
(18:37):
you look at what they actually say, it's it's always um,
you know, within with an anti union angle to it. Um.
And this can be really effective in a lot of ways.
It's sort of For one, it can help the the
the employer know where certain workers stand. Right. So this
is a was a big facility of nearly six thousand
workers in the proposed bargaining unit. So if the union
(19:00):
one that would be nearly six thousand people in that union. UM,
that is really large. We in the US, we like
rarely see union elections on that scale anymore, you know,
in part because of UM uh you know, the industrialization
and and and a lot of bargaining units have just
gotten smaller. So this was like a really big facility.
(19:21):
So Amazon was holding tons of these meetings and they'd
have people off to the side, and you know, I
talked to workers who didn't know who who these people were.
Maybe they were managers, they didn't recognize them, Maybe they
were in from other facilities. And Amazon did bring in
a lot of people from corporate during the campaign to
be around the warehouse that were managers from other facilities
in UM and it was just kind of a strange environment. UM.
(19:43):
Sometimes workers would push back. I talked to a few
who kind of got got sick of of you know,
what they felt was was ridiculous propaganda, and so they
would they would uh, you know, push back UM, you know,
challenge the presenter and and talk about the goods unions,
good unions could do UM. And I talked to one
(20:03):
guy who who did that, and then he when he
once he was back out on the floor. He had
some union avoidance consultant coming over to talk to him,
and he just said it was weird. Man. He was like,
he was like, I don't want to talk to you.
Uh So it creates a very strange environment, but it
can be really effective, especially in a place like Amazon.
And this is really key to understanding any union campaign
(20:26):
and an Amazon facility is the turnover there, right, sky
high turnover UM. New York Times had a number that
they say they got internally that was over a yeah,
staff turnover, right, worker turnover, and that's consistent with UM,
with other numbers that have been done by outside analyses
suggesting over a hundred percent. What that means is um,
(20:49):
over the course of a year, the number of workers
who quit or get fired is greater than the average
number of positions in that facility. Right. It doesn't mean
that literally every worker leaves, but it means that they
that if they have five thousand positions in there, then
more than five thousand or more people passed through that
warehouse in a year. That is a very high turnover
(21:09):
rate for the industry. And you know one reason, Frankly,
I think it's part of of Amazon's early d n
A was that, like, we didn't want this attachment to workers,
like these places they run on algorithm, right, so the
workers are like our plug and play right um. And
and Bezos felt like, you know, workers just if they're
(21:31):
just kind of there in a job for years, they
get complacent. So this idea of like burning through workers
is kind of part of part of like like the
Amazon theory, um. But it also is like a huge
benefit when you're a company fighting an organizing drive, because
you constantly have people passing through the door, um, and
they don't have time to kind of uh, you know,
(21:53):
develop sympathies with the union, and in this case, a
lot of them never even heard the union's case. Right.
You have the the union told me that they were
under the assumption that they were losing sixty union cards
every week to turn over. And what they mean is
that sixty workers who signaled they would support the union
election we're going to leave naturally every week, either either
(22:15):
quitting or getting fired, and so you gotta find new
new support to replace that. So you're constantly treading water
as people come in the door, trying to organize them
and make your case to them. As a union. You know,
an Amazon of course knows that. And so people during
this this um you know, mail and election, there were
there were uh people you know coming in ahead of
(22:38):
the election, UM who never heard from a union organizer,
and in their first week on the job, they're going
into these anti union meetings basically hearing uh, you know,
how crumby the union is, and and and what a
bad idea would be to vote for the union. And
so Amazon had this large scale sophisted campaign going on,
in part down on the ground level in the air house,
(23:00):
with these consultants in their consultants who were coached by
managers and supervisors on on how to act around the
workers and how to um you know, essentially uh you know,
turn out no votes. While at the same time they
had they had lawyers at the highest level that we're
trying to um throw up barriers, um, you know, inflate
(23:21):
the bargaining unit, make the union union, the proposed bargaining
unit as large as possible so that the union would
have to be organizing all these all these other workers, UM,
and just slow things down legally so that um inside
the warehouse, the company has the time to get their
anti union campaign up and running. So yeah, this was
(23:41):
like a pretty uh sophisticated campaign, I think, and probably
a very expensive one. It's gonna be a little while
before we know how much Amazon spent on the consultants. Well,
we'll learn that sometime next year. A lot of people
I have talked to think, um, you know, it's probably
almost certainly in the millions. Um, possibly possibly eight figures,
(24:02):
but we'll never know, you know, what they spent on
on the lawyers, because that's not subject to disclosure. So
this was like and you know, defeat the union at
all costs. Yeah, it's it's very aggressive. Um. I was
reading the thing I think it was to Die actually
or yesterday, where a court had basically said in the
US that union workers were allowed to kind of push
(24:22):
that union voting ahead again because the court ruled the
Amazon had basically unfairly kind of influenced the decision. Um,
did you see about that? That's right? Yeah, So this
this was news the pro clast night. Basically, the National
Labor Relations Board, a regional director there um ruled that
(24:44):
that Amazon broke the law during the election, that they
you know, basically tainted the democratic process, and that the
workers are entitled to do over vote. Um, I think
it's likely that second vote will happen because the the
Labor Board now has a democratic majority that's more favorable
to workers. So I think my sense is that this
(25:06):
this ruling will will be upheld and that another another
vote will will come. But it's really an illustration of
why why companies like Amazon really pushed the limits, so
to unpack sort of what Amazon did here, um to
to kind of spoil the election. This was, like I said,
this happened during the pandemic. This vote, and so the
(25:28):
Labor Board wanted to do a mail in ballot right
where normally, in normal times you're gonna have this election
over two or three days at the big warehouse where
there's a little polling place and workers can go in
when they have a minute and fill out their ballot
and drop it in the box. Here, it was all
gonna be done by mail. Amazon didn't like that, and
(25:49):
I think the reason is because Amazon wanted this election
to be conducted on their home turf. Right, there's a
lot of advantages to doing this at the work site.
Right when the workers gonna have to go in and vote,
they're gonna walk by all their managers, they're gonna be
around all the propaganda. And there was propaganda all over
the warehouse. Um you know, all this sort of like
subtle anti union stuff and and um you know even
(26:12):
when when you went to the bathroom, uh you were
you were seeing these these um posters and flyers about
you know, do you really want to be paying dudes? Um. So,
you know, Amazon wanted to have have that that that
vote on the on the home field. Um, they didn't
get it. So what they did they basically, um, you know,
(26:35):
arranged to have the the US Postal Service install a
mailbox on on the warehouse site, right in the parking lot.
And they um surrounded this thing with their with their
you know Amazon propaganda. You know, come here, have your
voice heard. Um. The labor board had had specifically said
(26:56):
they did not want, you know, ballot drop boxes on
site for the election. So Amazon went out on its own.
And there's there's we know that they um, you know,
converse with the US Postal Service to have this arranged.
Um in mind you there's already you know, business arrangements
between Amazon and the US Postal Service. Um. So so
(27:18):
this was um upset the union quite a bit and
everything we've seen so far of the union's claims that
this post postal box tainted the process has been upheld
so far, you know by labor officials. So there was
a fear that by having this there um that that
there was there was fears that the that the postal
(27:40):
box was being surveiled. Right this is right outside Amazon's door.
And what the Labor board official yesterday had to say
about this was that was that she had specifically said
she did not want ballot drop boxes there and that
what Amazon did here was essentially hijacked the process. Amazon's
defense has been, well, we just wanted to kind of
boost turnout, sure everyone everyone uh you know, had their
(28:02):
voices heard, just make it easier to vote. And they said, well,
look that's not your job that that's our job is
to administer the election. And so I was a little
surprised that Amazon went so far as to do this,
this this ballot box routine. Um I I but again
this goes back to wanting to win this this election
at all costs, and certainly on on the first go round,
(28:23):
I think Amazon wanted to not only win, but but
to run up the numbers. And they did, you know,
they essentially, you know, defeated the union. It was around
a two to one margin, although some challenge ballots were
never open. But you know, Amazon, really they wanted to
crush this. They wanted to run up the numbers and
and make it look futile to try to do this.
And so what we're seeing now is that it's looking
(28:45):
like they broke the law to do it. They broke
the law to do it. So Amazon so eager to
union bust that they literally broke the law to try
and stop one forming. But remember, like they said in
the internal training video, they're not anti union union. Now
the courts have ruled that the union Dave Jamison mentioned
(29:07):
there are going to be given another chance at voting
to properly unize Amazon. It's safe to say this is
definitely not going anywhere, despite Amazon putting literally millions of
dollars into trying to stop this. So let's see what happens.
Will keep you updated here at Megacorp. Mega Corp. Is
(29:30):
made by my production company H eleven for Cool Zone Media.
It's written, researched, and produced by myself, Jake Hanrahan. It
was also produced by Sophie Lichtman. Music is by some
black graphics by Adam Doyle and sound engineering by splicing block.
(29:52):
If you want to get in touch, follow me on
social media at Jake Underscore Hanrahan. That's h A n
I A h A n m
Popular Podcasts
1. The Podium
The Podium: An NBC Olympic and Paralympic podcast. Join us for insider coverage during the intense competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the run-up to the Opening Ceremony, we’ll bring you deep into the stories and events that have you know and those you'll be hard-pressed to forget.
2. In The Village
In The Village will take you into the most exclusive areas of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to explore the daily life of athletes, complete with all the funny, mundane and unexpected things you learn off the field of play. Join Elizabeth Beisel as she sits down with Olympians each day in Paris.
3. iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2024 Olympics.