(Behind a paywall but if you register you can read it and maybe another
article as well.)
Older, pro-union workers found themselves forcefully sidelined in the
company’s classes. Glenda (she asked that her last name not be used), a
fifty-eight-year-old grandmother who worked in the Stowing Department,
spoke up to try to expose the consultants’ and managers’ sleight of
hand. She had previously been employed as a unionized secretary at
U.S. Steel, where she had seen her hourly wage nearly double over
fourteen years on the job. As for the younger workers at Amazon, she
said, “They come from fast food and don’t realize they can have it so
much better than they have it now.” Glenda recalled one slide from the
classes that listed scheduled pay raises through thirty-six months of
employment. “I asked, what happens after thirty-six months? Because with
a union you’ll have a contract and you’ll know what the raises are
through the contract.” At U.S. Steel, she said, contracts typically ran
five years and the raises that were written into them were legally
binding, unlike Amazon’s PowerPoint slides. How could anyone take these
slides seriously, she wondered, coming from a company that had revoked
their two dollars an hour in COVID-19 hazard pay just as the virus
started to spike in the region? Like many workers who asked pointed
questions during the presentations, Glenda found herself silenced by the
instructors. “I got bombarded with the people who were there conducting
this meeting,” she said. “They shut you down quick.”
https://harpers.org/archive/2021/07/hard-bargain-amazon-unionization-bessemer-alabama/
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