Alabama? A Potential Shift in the Contours of Political Parties
Another big event is on the United States horizon, in Alabama, and its occurrence portends a potential seismic shift in the contours of our political parties.
Amazon workers at an in Bessemer, Alabama facility are going to vote on unionization. And of course, Amazon opposes unionization. Amazon has a lot at stake if the Bessemer facility unionizes as it employs more than 400,000 warehouse and delivery workers. It is shaping up to be the biggest fight over unionization in American history.
Unionization of workers at an Amazon plant “may” (and I say may) be the beginnings of a political party shift in Alabama favoring Democrats. Democratic President Biden is messaging his support of unionization.
Amazon warns the unionization of its workers may increase costs and slow growth. To counter the effort, it has staged mandatory company meetings flooding workers with anti-union messaging and literature and gone as far as to post signs in bathroom stalls. Workers have complained about working conditions and mandatory overtime and in response, Amazon points out Bessemer workers benefits are good and the starting pay of $15.30/hour and exceeds the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour.
As Heather Cox discusses in her March 5th “Letters from An American;”
“the reason this unionization effort jumps off the page for politics is President Biden recorded video on February 28 is taking a strong pro-union stance.”
President Biden had a message in his video to remind viewers;
“America wasn’t built by Wall Street, it was built by the middle class, and unions built the middle class. Unions put power in the hands of workers. They level the playing field. They give you a stronger voice for your health, your safety, higher wages, protections from racial discrimination and sexual harassment. Unions lift up workers, both union and non-union, and especially Black and Brown workers.“
President Biden clarified in his message, the choice to unionize should be made by workers without pressure from employers.
“The choice to join a union is up to the workers—full stop.”
Also, Biden has nominated Boston mayor Marty Walsh, the former president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, as Secretary of Labor. If confirmed, Walsh will be the first union member to serve as Secretary of Labor in nearly 50 years.
Biden’s vocal defense of working Americans has the potential to rally struggling workers to the Democrats more firmly than they have rallied for decades.
As a side note, when I was managing a $200 million warehouse for a $12 billion company, the costs were not in Labor, Indirect Labor or Overhead. The costs were in the Inventory. Amazon is a big warehouse business and I am going to guess the costs are similar with 80 to 85% being inventory. There are ways to lower the cost of Inventory.
Why should Jeff Bezos go full on reactionary over starting a labor union in a right to work state? Claims of his intelligence are over-stated.
Ron:
The meaning of “Potential” is eluding you, perhaps? Why should Bezos care, because it is the start of a shift and it could take hold.
OTOH, good on Biden!
That comments eating dog is still lurking here.
Ron:
You were not in spam or trash. Dan and I have a meeting next week with the programmers. I hope others losing comments alert us in the comments section also. It is easier to track them.
Run,
Right to work states such as Alabama have always had unions, just not consolidated union political power. Bezos is just possessed with his own self-importance on this matter. Amazon got a big bump from Covid-19, but it was more out of convenience than price points. That was also a important matter before the pandemic. Walmart only stocks the stuff that turns over rapidly in their stores. Retail consolidation has reduced choice for those not living in a major metro. Bezos made the right moves because they were obvious to anyone that saw the wedge fit between Internet shopping and retail consolidation. Bezos just happened at the right time and was able to stay in the game when the dot-com crash happened. That was not genius nearly so much as lucky timing with an obvious opportunity. Now it seems that Bezos is counting the same chickens as the liberals. Too bad those eggs will end up the post pandemic omelette.
OTOH, Bezos may just be helping Amazon with keeping unions small and politically ineffective even if Amazon workers unionize in right to work states. Amazon really needs to improve working conditions and unionization can help there even without having union shops. The bottom line for both management and labor will improve. Happier workers make for a more productive work place. Amazon can take away its most onerous practices and improve its bottom line over the long run with fewer more productive workers.
Union Members in Alabama – 2020Little bit of informational also.
Union Members in Alabama – 2020: In 2020, union members accounted for 8.0 percent of wage and salary workers in Alabama, compared with 8.5 percent in 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that the union membership rate for the state was at its peak in 1993, when it averaged 14.7 percent, and at its low point in 2017 at 7.4 percent. (See chart 1 and table A.) Nationwide, union members accounted for 10.8 percent of employed wage and salary workers in 2020, up by 0.5 percentage point from 2019. Since 1989, when comparable state data became available, union membership rates in Alabama have been below the U.S. average.
Alabama
Thank you for your comments and history lesson. That Biden would come out and back this is a big and political move in a state which votes Repub and is a smart thing to do. It is also the right thing to do.
The portion of private company wage and salary workers who are union members is 6.2% nationally and significantly lower in the South. Alabama however has the second highest portion of private company union members among the Southern states. West Virginia is first in the South.
Clarifying my comment:
Union membership in general is significantly lower than average in the South. Alabama however has the second highest portion of union members among the Southern states. West Virginia is first in the South. Still, the portion of private company wage and salary workers who are union members is only 6.2% nationally which is not generally promising.
BLS Southeast Information Office
This is correct; notice I am referring to “private company” wage and salary workers and not all workers which includes government. For “all” workers the national average was 10.8% in 2020:
* The portion of private company wage and salary workers who are union members is only 6.2% nationally which is not generally promising.
[ I have all the data in table form, but was uncertain about posting since my posts do not space correctly. No problem, but the 6.2% figure for private workers was correct in both comments. ]
try a C&P if you do not have an address for the table.
The matter is complex.
Amazon was going to locate a headquarters in New York City, but local union leaders objected to the company for the anti-union stance. The result was that New York lost thousands of fine jobs and a high technology company that would have attracted other companies.
Paul Krugman wrote that it did not matter. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez objected to Amazon. I think this was a terrible mistake, a terrible loss for New York. Workers in New York are well protected.
Amazon is very, very important through my neighborhood and the impression I have is of well cared for satisfied logistics personnel. As for service that has been excellent, which I would hope reflects well-cared for workers.
Krugman and AOC were I think misinformed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/opinion/amazon-new-york.html
February 14, 2019
New York Returns 25,000 Jobs to Amazon
As the company cancels its plans for a major Queens campus, anti-corporate activists got what they wanted at a great cost.
I am sorry not to have posted the union data, but I do not know how to do so properly and besides I have before been much discouraged in doing so.
Anne:
Across the top there is a row of boxes with b, i link (for articles), b-quote (indented quote),
del(strike), ins (insert, and img for img. If you click on the img you can insert the address (for an image http://) and then doing “continue” will allow you to add a description. Images are pretty simple if you have an address. I often times create my own and C & P if there is not uploadRun
re: The meaning of “Potential” is eluding you, perhaps?
It is said that Elephants are afraid of mice. I don’t know about that, but “bosses” have always been crazy afraid of the smallest show of insubordination (independent thinking, uppityness) in one of, let alone some of, their subjects.
it’s why poor people beat their children and make them show “respect”… so they won’t get killed for being cheeky to their betters. of course after three or four generations they forget the reason: they beat them because they were beaten.