Amazon workers in Alabama who are in a monstrous unionization vote have gotten a not so subtle whoop from President Biden.
Without naming Amazon, Biden offered his help for unions in a video posted on Twitter that appeared as though it was pointed soundly at the Seattle-based e-tailing giant, which has been battling to ward off the mission to organize workers at a warehouse in Bessemer, Ala.
“Today and over the course of the following not many days and weeks, workers in Alabama and the whole way across America are voting on whether to organize a union in their work environment,” Biden said. “It’s an indispensably significant decision — one that ought to be made without terrorizing or dangers by managers.”
The union drive in Alabama is the greatest in Amazon’s history, and the principal such vote since workers in Delaware opposed a union push in 2014. The 6,000 workers in Bessmer started voting on Feb. 8 and are required to close the cycle before the finish of March.
“Let me be really clear: It’s not up to me to decide whether anyone should join a union. But let me be even more clear: It’s not up to an employer to decide that either,” Biden said in the video. “There should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda. The choice to join a union is up to the workers — full stop.”
In January, the online behemoth tried to get endorsement for an in-person vote instead of via early polling form. The National Relations Labor Board dismissed Amazon’s solicitation.
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) has been initiating the work to unionize. Three dozen other left-inclining bunches including the American Economic Liberties Project, the Working Families Party and the Unite Here union kept in touch with Biden on Thursday encouraging that he freely back the unionization exertion.
Noticing that he battled on a promise to be “the most supportive of union president you’ve at any point seen,” the gatherings revealed to Biden that “this is a once-in-a-age opportunity to make that vow a reality. We encourage you to loan all your help to the Amazon workers in Bessemer. They don’t merit anything less.”
While trying to influence workers, Amazon set up a site doitwithoutdues.com asserting they’d need to pay $500 to the union for benefits they are as of now getting from e-tail giant.