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Amazon Workers in Bessemer, Alabama Have Voted Not to Form a Union

posted by martyb on Saturday April 10 2021, @02:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the people-have-spoken dept.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/04/the-amazon-union-drive-in-alabama-appears-headed-for-defeat/

Update: A majority of workers have voted not to form a union at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Bessemer, Alabama. The result of the NLRB's initial vote count was 1,798 votes against the union and 738 in favor. Hundreds of additional ballots were not counted because their authenticity was disputed. But the "no" side already has a majority of the 3,215 votes cast, making the issue moot.

Original story, April 8: A closely watched effort to unionize an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama appears to be headed for defeat. With about half the votes counted, 1,100 workers have voted against forming a union, while only 463 voted in favor.

The National Labor Relations Board is counting the 3,215 votes that were cast by workers at the Bessemer facility. The union needs to win at least half the votes in order to become the official representative of the roughly 6,000 workers at the Bessemer facility. Counting has ended for the evening and is scheduled to resume at 8:30 am Central Time on Friday.

Also at The Washington Post, c|net, and Al Jazeera.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 10 2021, @11:45PM (4 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 10 2021, @11:45PM (#1135846) Journal
    The obvious rebuttal to that is you're in territory that is traditional grounds for voiding a contract. If a business creates such contracts with the intent that the company can commit wrong doing and have it protected by the arbitration process, then that's a contract entered into with bad faith, maybe even fraud -such as if the business has presented the arbitrator as being independent while it was not.

    Arbitration (in the US) serves a useful purpose - it keeps a lot of crap out of the US court system which has plenty wrong with it, being costly and slow.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @06:58AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @06:58AM (#1136276)

    Oh, Christ! Khallow is on another "obvious rebuttal"! Can't we form a Soylentil union to prevent such eggregious abuse?

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 12 2021, @02:59PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 12 2021, @02:59PM (#1136424) Journal
      I have an even simpler suggestion. Think before you post. This is an obvious situation that should have been anticipated by the person making the earlier post. Contracts get voided all the time for stuff like bad faith, fraud, and duress. And arbitration didn't come about because companies want to screw over workers, but because there's deep problems with arbitration via the courts.

  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday April 12 2021, @09:13PM (1 child)

    by Thexalon (636) on Monday April 12 2021, @09:13PM (#1136672)

    The thing is, that requires affirmatively proving the bad intent in a court of law, in the face of a motion to dismiss before discovery starts, which means you don't have access to documents and witnesses about how the policy was created. So basically, you can't prove the contract is unconscionable, even if it is.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 13 2021, @12:49AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 13 2021, @12:49AM (#1136780) Journal
      Wouldn't be the first shenanigan that requires some footwork to show.