I find the notion of "votes to unionise" kinda weird. Like, shouldn't the nearly 50% of workers who want to unionise just be allowed to do it? Then half the workforce would be union, and that's enough to get some bargaining power, even if not as much as if everyone was. It should be their right to freedom of assembly to create a union even if only like five workers want to be in it.
This is where it’s important to remember who exactly is writing the laws for union recognition. Many countries have laws that nominally support the formation of unions but moreso exist to reduce union support or funnel unions into polite, legal activity.
Have to hand it to Bezos for his commitment to cartoonish supervillainy. Amazon resist unions the most aggressively out of any company out there, with employee mandatory training modules being anti-union propaganda and agitators facing disciplinary procedures. I'd even heard that their office workers can end up being battered by them too. Rumour about their Edinburgh office is that 20% of devs get PIP'd every year to keep them on their toes.
Amazon pulls all kinds of dirty tricks. Such as going on massive fire and hiring sprees right before the vote and pressuring all the new hires to vote no.
The online giant would have been forced to negotiate with workers on issues such as pay and conditions.In a statement, Amazon said it placed "enormous value on engaging directly" with staff.
The process would include persuading the Central Arbitration Committee, which is in charge of overseeing applications for recognition, that the pool of workers eligible to vote had changed.
The GMB, which lost by 28 votes, said its drive for recognition fell “agonisingly short” and accused Amazon of “union-busting”.It said there were “anti-union messages by company bosses, including multiple anti-union seminars” at the warehouse.It added that “the fire lit by workers in Coventry and across the UK is still burning”, and that the union would “carry on the fight” for low paid workers.
It went on to organise a further 37 days of industrial action over the last year and by recruiting on the picket line, steadily built up its membership to more than 1,400 members out of the centre's estimated 3,000 plus workers.In April the union launched a legal challenge against Amazon, claiming it used underhand tactics to encourage members to cancel their union membership.On Wednesday it said that legal challenge would continue.
This is why we’ve always worked hard to listen to them, act on their feedback, and invest heavily in great pay, benefits and skills development," the firm added.The GMB says it is surprised by what it sees as the fearlessness of an overwhelmingly immigrant workforce, many of whom arrived recently from South Asia.
They say that in the beginning many were frightened to get involved but as the strikes wore on, and people saw that workers who’d joined picket lines weren’t facing disciplinary action, their confidence grew.The union is hopeful that the government will strengthen their power to organise.
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