Campaign for unionization at Amazon intensifies

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by Miguel Helft

(IDG) -- Union organizer turned up the heat on Amazon.com last week, launching a campaign they say is aimed at improving wages and working conditions at Amazon's distribution centers.

The worldwide campaign, backed by the Prewitt Organizing Fund, an independent union-recruiting group based in Washington, D.C., is seeking union representation for some 5,000 workers in Amazon's distribution centers throughout the U.S., as well as in France and Germany. The agitating came just days after the Seattle-based Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, or WashTech, launched an effort to organize some 400 customer-service workers at the company's Seattle headquarters.

The campaigns are designed to coincide with Amazon's holiday season, which is the online retailer's busiest time. They also come at a time when the company's performance is under intense scrutiny from Wall Street.

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos maintains that while unions have a role in society, they are not needed at Amazon.

"Everyone is an owner," he said, referring to Amazon's stock-ownership program for employees during a visit to the company's distribution center in Fernley, Nev. Bezos also said Amazon employees are given opportunities to bring up grievances with management.

But with Amazon shares trading at less than half of the company's highs, union organizers are referring to the Amazon's stock-purchase plan as a "stock scam" and are demanding higher wages. The organizers also are complaining about forced overtime, a mandate to work on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and what they say are costly family benefits.

Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith said the kind of debate going within the company is not unusual. "We don't see how a union would benefit our employees and customers," Smith said. "But obviously it is up to our employees to determine what is right for them."

The Prewitt fund said it has been meeting with Amazon workers at various distribution centers since May. Many workers, said Duane Stillwell, a spokesman for Prewitt, are ready to support a "call for fairness."

"Bezos has to make a choice between doing the right thing and taking care of these workers into the future, or he can watch between now and the holidays and determine whether these workers are ready to move to force him to do the right thing."

For his part, Bezos said last Friday that the organizing campaign would not derail holiday work. "I am not concerned at all that it will disrupt the holidays," he said.

During last Friday's meeting, Bezos addressed some 200 workers at the Fernley warehouse with the enthusiasm and fervor of a TV evangelist. The workers, gathered in a semicircle around Bezos, repeatedly interrupted him with cheers and applause.

If there was any discontent among the group, it certainly was not apparent. Several workers were wearing Amazon T-shirts, and when asked who was a veteran of last year's holidays, many of them proudly raised their hands. Several workers also asked Bezos to sign the back of their shirts -- to which Bezos immediately agreed.

"We have to have the worker support, and that is an open question right now," Stillman acknowledged. "There are workers who come out of factories. This is a good job for them. But [Amazon] can do better."

Amazon has responded to the organizing drive by holding meetings with workers in Seattle and at some of its distribution centers. Meanwhile, union groups organized press conferences in front of Amazon's distribution center outside Paris last Tuesday, and in Germany last Wednesday.

Organizers say they are targeting Amazon because of the company's stature as a model for online retailing.

"However Amazon goes in the industry," Stillwell said, "conditions go in the e-tailing industry."

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