US President Joe Biden makes comments ahead of the signing of an executive order aimed at addressing a global semiconductor chip shortage in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, Feb. 24, 2021.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Without specifically mentioning Amazon, President Joe Biden on Sunday expressed support for a closely watched union vote at one of the Alabama retail giant’s warehouses, calling it “vital.”
“Today and in the coming days and weeks, workers in Alabama and across America are voting whether or not to organize a union in their workplace,” Biden said in a video shared on his Twitter page. “This is vital – an extremely important choice, as America grapples with the deadly pandemic, the economic crisis and the race race – what it shows are the great differences that still exist in our country.”
Amazon representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this month, nearly 6,000 employees at an Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama, began voting by mail on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, kicking off the company’s first major union campaign since 2014. . Employees of the Alabama facility have notified NLRB of their plans to vote on whether or not to be represented by the RWDSU.
The ballots were sent to workers on February 8 and must be received by the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board by March 29. The counting starts the next day.
The Alabama union action has emerged as a protracted labor battle at Amazon, with the company hiring the same law firm that it used to assist in the negotiations during a failed union campaign in Delaware in 2014. Amazon has also made its stance on the union campaign clear to workers at the Bessemer facility, by holding mandatory meetings, setting up a website urging workers to “do it free of charge” and, according to a recent vice report, distributing pamphlets instructing workers to “vote NO” on the historic elections.
In addition, Amazon had tried to postpone the union elections and pushed for a personal election, which the NLRB denied.
In the video, Biden said it is “up to the workers, the point” to decide whether to join a union. He also discouraged employers from interfering in union elections.
“There should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda,” said Biden. “No executive should confront employees with their union preferences.
“You know, every employee should have a free and fair choice to join a union … no employer can take that right away. So speak up,” he added.
While on the campaign trail, Biden promised to become “the most pro-union president”. He also made employee empowerment an important starting point of his labor agenda.
In a statement, union chairman Stuart Applebaum thanked Biden for his support of the union action.
“As President Biden notes, the best way for working people to protect themselves and their families is to organize in unions,” Applebaum said in a statement. “And that’s why so many working women and men are fighting for a union at the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama.”