Why Amazon Workers Need a Union
By 
I’ve talked a few times now about the drive to unionize the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. Why do these workers need a union? Here’s why:
Workers cited rates for picking items for delivery as high as 400 per hour or 2,500 per day. The rates have increased as Amazon’s peak holiday season has begun, even as coronavirus cases have constantly been reported among workers at the warehouse. “It’s kind of impossible to hit rates, we just do the best that we can. If we don’t meet rates, we get threatened to get demoted to the position where we started … They threaten you or you can get fired,” said an Amazon employee at BHM1 who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
“It’s been frustrating. Every day there’s a new rule or something different we have to do,” they said. “People have been threatened with getting fired if they find out they’re involved with the union.”
A former Amazon employee at BHM1 noted that workers are forced to sign nondisclosure agreements before getting hired, which restricts them from sharing information on Amazon’s operations publicly. An Amazon spokesperson acknowledged the NDAs are part of hiring paperwork.
“The agreements we sign for employment bind us to not tell too much,” said the former employee. “Even when I quit, I got an email reminding me of our agreement.”
The Bessemer warehouse first opened on March 29, 2020, one of several Amazon has needed to scale up their operations. The coronavirus pandemic has driven increased demand for online retailers such as Amazon, which has seen record profits. Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has seen his wealth increase since the pandemic hit from $113 billion to $184 billion, as of December 7.
“They work you to death,” said Sara Marie Thrasher, who worked as a “stower,” an employee who stocks items in warehouses before they’re ordered by customers, at Amazon BHM1 in October and November 2020, before she claimed she was fired via email without warning. “It’s crowded. Sometimes you can’t even find a station. We would get reprimanded if our stowing time was above 20 seconds or higher, with rates needing to be done in 8 seconds per item.”
Thrasher explained that bathroom breaks were available, but that taking one would negatively impact your stowing rate, and if there were no stowing stations available, she would be placed in different departments without any training.
In other words, Amazon facilities are actually sweatshops.
Organizing Amazon is probably even more important than organizing Walmart for the future of the labor movement. Bezos’ gazbillions is going to make that hard, as will the entire system governing collective bargaining captured by corporations. But this is the future of American work and it looks increasingly like China or Vietnam.