🔍
The World's Richest Man Is Fighting Amazon Workers Unionizing - YouTube
Channel: AJ+
[0]
Jeff Bezos made $11.5 million
[3]
every hour of the pandemic,
[5]
and yet — he shared almost none of it
[7]
with warehouse workers.
[9]
It ain't fair to us,
[11]
working like we working
[12]
and got him in his position he in.
[15]
And he don't care about us and want to pay us.
[17]
Now, Amazon workers in Alabama
[19]
are voting to form the first union
[21]
in the company’s U.S. history.
[23]
I want people to understand that
[25]
the packages that you get —
[26]
it’s on our backs.
[28]
This is a distinctly Black-led struggle
[30]
for labor rights
[31]
inspired in part by the movement for Black lives.
[37]
Workers here describe conditions
[38]
as something out of a dystopian nightmare.
[45]
And while the gap between Bezos’ wealth
[46]
and his employees' earnings
[47]
has reached obscene levels,
[49]
not everyone
[50]
is behind the union push.
[52]
If performing at a certain level
[54]
is too much physically
[56]
or too much mentally for somebody,
[58]
then maybe this isn't the place for them.
[60]
If these workers succeed,
[61]
it could mark a turning point in the history
[64]
of organized labor in the U.S.
[65]
and send shockwaves
[67]
through warehouses across the country.
[74]
We’re in Bessemer, Alabama,
[75]
to follow this epic battle for organized labor.
[83]
Amazon reaped mind-boggling profits
[85]
during the pandemic,
[86]
and Jeff Bezos’ personal wealth
[88]
grew by about $70 billion.
[90]
So, even if he gave
[91]
every U.S. Amazon employee
[93]
a one-time $100,000 bonus,
[95]
he’d still be nearly as rich
[97]
as he was before the crisis.
[99]
Instead, he stripped workers
[101]
like Jennifer Bates
[102]
of the $2-an-hour hazard bonus
[104]
they received near the start of the pandemic.
[107]
You see the shoes here.
[109]
I’ve gone through 'em all.
[110]
None of them work,
[111]
doing all that walking at Amazon.
[114]
As Jennifer gets ready
[115]
for a 10-hour shift at Amazon,
[117]
she worries about the toll it will take on her body.
[120]
I hope my legs don’t start hurting,
[122]
you know.
[123]
So that’s really what’s going through my mind.
[125]
Jennifer says the physical requirements
[127]
of the job are grueling and unsustainable.
[130]
She’s been to the doctor for tests
[131]
because her legs and ankles are swelling.
[133]
Your body is taking a hit.
[136]
Once you get off [work],
[137]
it’s so excruciating walking out.
[140]
Some workers told AJ+
[142]
they have to walk for miles
[143]
during a shift and can't sit down
[144]
except during official breaks.
[146]
For Jennifer,
[147]
it’s become so difficult
[148]
that she wonders how she'll make it
[150]
through the day.
[151]
I have 10 hours.
[153]
And what goes on in my mind is,
[155]
I try to convince myself
[158]
that everything's going to be OK today.
[161]
And Jennifer says she’s not alone.
[163]
It’s amazing because as I sit in my car,
[166]
I literally see people walking and limping.
[169]
Now, Jennifer and other workers
[171]
are taking on
[172]
one of the most powerful companies
[174]
on the planet
[174]
with a vote later this month
[176]
on whether to unionize.
[177]
And they’ve faced an avalanche
[179]
of union busting in response.
[180]
Workers say they’ve been spammed
[181]
by anti-union text messages and emails
[184]
and are subjected to “Vote No” messaging
[186]
along the walls
[187]
and even bathrooms of the warehouse.
[189]
Jefferson County even changed traffic signals
[191]
outside the warehouse at Amazon’s request.
[194]
The union says it was to
[194]
undermine canvassing efforts.
[197]
It’s been so bad
[198]
that members of Congress sent a letter
[200]
to Jeff Bezos
[201]
imploring him to
[202]
“stop these strong-arm tactics immediately.”
[205]
Amazon is afraid of the power of the people —
[207]
that now we’ll have a voice
[210]
and we’ll be able to stand up.
[211]
What they’re afraid of now is
[212]
that when the union comes in,
[213]
now we’re being forced to make you sit down
[215]
and talk to us.
[216]
Amazon rejected our request
[218]
to film inside the warehouse,
[219]
but we pieced together clips from social media
[221]
and personal accounts
[222]
to give you an idea of what life inside
[224]
is actually like.
[225]
It looks something like this:
[226]
Your job is a picker at the warehouse.
[228]
You have to pull products from shelves
[230]
powered by robots.
[231]
These are called pods.
[232]
A computer tracks how fast you work.
[234]
It’s called “making rate.”
[235]
Want to stretch or take a few sips of water?
[237]
That’s going to eat up precious time.
[239]
Need to get on a stepladder to reach a product?
[241]
That’s also going to cost you.
[243]
You get a warning.
[246]
For Darryl, a picker at Amazon’s warehouse,
[248]
it’s that frantic push
[249]
to be robotically efficient
[251]
that chips away at his personal dignity.
[253]
He works 10- to 12-hour shifts
[255]
and worries about taking too long
[257]
for a bathroom break.
[266]
Warehouse workers get two
[267]
30-minute breaks per shift.
[268]
But outside of that,
[269]
workers are being monitored
[270]
any time they’re not performing their job.
[273]
It’s called TOT, or Time Off Task.
[275]
Picture this:
[276]
You’ve been standing for four hours.
[278]
It’s time for a mandatory break.
[280]
You have 30 minutes to walk an area
[282]
the size of 14 football fields
[283]
to get to the break room.
[284]
There’s no time to heat up food.
[285]
Something from the vending machine
[286]
will have to do.
[288]
You finish up,
[288]
head to the bathroom
[289]
and make it back to your station
[290]
10 minutes late.
[291]
You get a text message.
[292]
You’ve racked up TOT.
[294]
Report to HR.
[299]
You’re going to fire me
[301]
for going to the bathroom
[303]
if I got too much TOT time?
[305]
Come on, now!
[308]
This life!
[310]
Going to the bathroom.
[311]
Mother nature called!
[313]
Amazon has said its workers
[314]
don’t need to unionize —
[315]
talking up its competitive benefits
[317]
and starting pay of $15.30 an hour.
[319]
That’s more than double the state’s
[321]
minimum wage of $7.25.
[323]
Darryl says it’s not a livable wage
[325]
and that they deserve more
[326]
for what they’re contributing to the company.
[328]
If I was to see [Jeff Bezos] right now,
[329]
what I would ask him?
[330]
You just do what we do for a month.
[333]
'Cause I want to see how long would he last.
[336]
It ain't fair to us,
[338]
working like we working.
[339]
And got him in his position he in,
[342]
and he don't care about us and want to pay us.
[345]
[Radio]
- Next week, Amazon will face
[347]
its first unionization vote in the country
[349]
in seven years in Bessemer, Alabama.
[351]
At its heart,
[352]
this is a fight for fair labor
[354]
that's taken root in a place
[355]
that epitomizes the struggle for racial justice.
[358]
My great-grandparents lived here
[359]
years ago in Bessemer
[362]
And if you drive around, you can see
[364]
that it's a struggling area.
[367]
This is a union effort being led
[368]
by an overwhelmingly Black workforce
[370]
in a town where a quarter of the people
[372]
live in poverty.
[374]
It’s not the fact that you’re coming here
[376]
to bring economic growth.
[377]
But you’re coming here to get cheap labor
[380]
because they’re easily to accept
[383]
the smaller pay
[384]
and don’t think that they deserve
[388]
to get compensated for their hard work.
[390]
Labor organizing has a really deep
[392]
history in Alabama,
[393]
and the Bessemer area
[394]
was once a center for unionization.
[397]
In the 1930s, Black and white workers
[399]
joined together to push for progressive labor laws
[401]
against their employer, U.S. Steel.
[404]
The Amazon warehouse that Darryl and Jennifer
[405]
are pushing to unionize?
[407]
It sits on land once owned
[409]
by that steel company.
[411]
And it was this kind of radical
[412]
interracial union work
[413]
that would lay the foundation
[415]
for the civil rights movement in Birmingham.
[417]
One of the really distinctive things
[418]
about this campaign
[419]
is that it’s being led by the
[421]
Amazon workers themselves
[422]
and workers from nearby poultry plants.
[429]
On the day we visited, Randy Hadley —
[430]
president of the union
[432]
that’s helping Jennifer and Darryl —
[433]
stood outside for hours
[434]
to encourage people to vote.
[436]
Amazon’s not hiring these people so they can say,
[439]
“Hey, you have a great future.”
[441]
Now they’ll lie and tell them that.
[442]
Amazon, they work these people so hard.
[445]
They treat them like a machine.
[447]
So when that machine breaks down,
[449]
they just throw them out
[450]
and get another machine.
[451]
One analysis found
[452]
the turnover rate at Amazon among
[454]
frontline workers was between
[456]
double and triple the industry average.
[469]
We requested an interview
[470]
with an Amazon spokesperson for this story.
[471]
They did not make one available to us.
[474]
Hi.
- Hey, Miss Angie.
[475]
- How's it going?
[476]
Instead we spoke with Dawn Hoag,
[477]
a processing assistant,
[479]
who defended the company’s work conditions.
[481]
Being forced to stand for long hours,
[484]
not enough time for bathroom breaks,
[486]
being pushed to the limit,
[488]
to perform a certain number of actions per minute.
[491]
I mean, do you see any validity
[493]
in these concerns from your co-workers?
[495]
It's not for everybody.
[497]
So, if performing at a certain level
[501]
is too much physically
[503]
or too much mentally for somebody,
[505]
then maybe this isn't the place for them.
[507]
Dawn started at Amazon as a packer,
[509]
but her current position does not require
[511]
that she make rate.
[512]
So it doesn't really sound like you can sympathize
[514]
with a lot of the concerns that people have
[517]
for why they're choosing to unionize
[519]
or want to unionize.
[520]
I would say I don't sympathize with them,
[522]
but I empathize.
[523]
I understand what they're saying
[524]
and I understand their feelings.
[527]
But, um, I mean,
[530]
it's been that way from day one.
[532]
You can't come into a situation
[534]
that doesn't work for you
[536]
and then get into it
[537]
and then expect it to change just for you.
[540]
The significance of this moment
[542]
as a progression of Alabama’s
[544]
anti-racist organizing
[545]
is not lost on Darryl.
[547]
He got killed
[549]
for trying to make things right,
[550]
trying to make everybody come together.
[552]
And that’s me.
[553]
I want everybody to get treated fair.
[555]
I want everybody to get paid for what they deserve.
[557]
I want everybody to have an opportunity.
[560]
Past efforts to organize have failed,
[562]
but there is a palpable sense of
[563]
hope and optimism
[565]
that this time will be different.
[568]
I think we're going to win.
[570]
And I'm always have that faith until that day.
[574]
So I can't do nothing but have faith
[577]
and praying that we do.
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage