Amazon Union Is a Tough Sell in Town Where $15 an Hour Goes a Long Way

On a rainy Saturday afternoon in early February, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union held a rally in a grassy lot a five-minute drive from Amazon.com Inc.’s fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama. Organizers handed out pizzas supplied by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, a long-time Amazon critic. Members of the Teamsters had traveled to Bessemer to lend their support, some from as far away as Boston. Workers and activists brandished signs with such slogans as “Don’t Back Down” and “Our Community Supports Amazon Workers.”

Inclement weather aside, the event seemed to have all the ingredients needed to fire up workers keen to take on Amazon. Yet the crowd that day numbered about 50, including activists, out-of-towners and media, and many of Bernie’s pizzas were uneaten when the rally ended about an hour later.

The campaign in Bessemer has drawn national attention and is widely considered a once-in-a-generation opportunity to breach the defenses of the world’s largest online retailer, which has managed to keep unions out of its U.S. operations for a quarter-century. To prevail, the union needs to win over a majority of the votes cast at Amazon’s BHM1 fulfillment center from among a pool of some 5,800 workers. The RWDSU still has time to win workers’ hearts and minds because mail-in balloting, which started in early February, runs through March 29.

But even workers who support joining the union acknowledge victory is by no means assured. Many of their colleagues see a big employer investing in their impoverished town and offering more than double the minimum wage, with benefits, for entry-level jobs. Fifteen dollars an hour doesn’t go far in cities like New York and San Francisco. But in Bessemer, where a fixer-upper house costs less than a new car, it beats working the cash register at the local Dollar Tree.

On the warehouse floor, according to 16 workers interviewed for this story, opinions are sharply divided, with anti-union sentiment running at least as hot as pro-union passions. Cori Jennings, a 39-year-old mother of five, goes out of her way to avoid union activists staking out the Amazon parking lot. “God forbid you make eye contact,” she says. “You can’t rid of them.” Jennings worries that the RWDSU will chase Amazon out of town and derail her plans of becoming a manager.

Union officials say the company is sowing such fears by flooding the airwaves with anti-union messages and indoctrinating workers during mandatory information sessions. “The challenge is not Alabama. The challenge isn’t Bessemer,” says RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum. “The challenge is the most aggressive anti-union campaign anyone has seen in decades, with unlimited resources and unlimited access to workers.”

Amazon officials say they’re simply providing information about unions so workers understand what membership would mean for them and their day-to-day working lives. In a statement, a spokesperson said: “We don’t believe the RWDSU represents the majority of our employees’ views. Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available everywhere we hire, and we encourage anyone to compare our total compensation package, health benefits, and workplace environment to any other company with similar jobs.”

President Joe Biden indirectly edged into the fray with a video in which he said workers should be free from company pressure in weighing whether to organize. While not an explicit endorsement of the effort at Amazon, he clearly signaled his preference, saying: “There should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda.”

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