Last week, Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, were presented with the choice to unionize. 70% of the vote was against unionization. Here are the reasons why they said NO to the union.
They make more per hour than many jobs in the area and they have an opportunity to grow and get salary increases. The path is very clear, there is no ambiguity.
Many of them don’t mind or prefer to be monitored by an app rather than by a human being, just the same as some people prefer doing their banking via a phone app versus in person.
Amazon’s health insurance became active from the first day of work. In the United State, many people become loyal to their employer if the health insurance is good. The risk of losing that health insurance was too much for many employees to bear.
For many young people, $15/hour was the most they have ever earned. They felt a sense of loyalty to an employer who was paying them twice the minimum wage of $7.24 and they felt a sense of loyalty towards their employer. They felt that voting to unionize was a betrayal to their employer.
Many people saw the payment of union dues as a step backward. Earning less money without a guarantee of better benefits or the fear that Amazon would close the warehouse to avoid the union.
They believed the promise of Amazon, that they would work on improving working conditions.
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