Amazon.com union drive gains steam
By Gery
Armsby
Customer-service workers based at Amazon.com's Seattle
headquarters have launched a union drive, sparking world
attention. Amazon.com is the e-tail icon of the "new
economy."
While Wall Street analysts look on nervously, workers hope
their efforts will build majority support for union
recognition and ultimately a union contract for 400
customer-service employees. The "reps" are the backbone of
Amazon.com's coveted reputation for customer service. The
company has used these workers to strategically position
itself in the market and attract investors, although it has
not turned a profit after five years of operations.
The union petition takes up the core concerns of
customer-service reps at Amazon. com. Job security and wages
top the list.
Workers want to keep their jobs, and they want protection
from arbitrary dismissal and discipline. They are also
concerned that the company is expanding its customer-service
operation into cheaper labor markets at the expense of
Seattle jobs.
On the organizing committee's Web site, workers say
current compensation is not "commensurate with the role that
we have played in making Amazon.com what it is today. The
value we contribute to the company in helping build lasting
customer relations must be recognized and rewarded in our
compensation."
Other issues include scheduling, respect and honesty in
employee relations, career development and advancement
opportunities.
The group leading the organizing drive is called
Day2@Amazon.com. It seeks to be recognized as the union
representing the collective interests of customer-service
reps at Amazon.com.
If it's successful, Day2@Amazon.com will become a part of
WashTech--the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, a
local affiliate of the Newspaper Guild/Communication Workers
union.
The name Day2@Amazon.com has special meaning to Amazon.com
employees. One "tier three" customer-service employee
explained, "We call our group Day2@Amazon.com because
[Amazon. com President and CEO Jefferey P.] Bezos is always
telling us, 'It's Day One, we can't stop or rest,' and we
think five years of Day One is generating lots of problems
for us."
Organizing drive spreads fast
Just two days after the reps in Seattle went public with
their petition drive, an organization based in Washington,
D.C. announced efforts to organize 5,000 Amazon.com warehouse
employees in the United States, France and Germany.
Another big boost came just before the "thanksgiving"
holiday when management introduced three swift policy changes
for the reps. Amazon.com bosses reduced holiday phone shifts,
instituted free massages and ended the requirement that
individual reps send out the company's official anti-union
e-mail message to customers.
Eliminating mandatory phone shifts for some workers during
the holiday was a big victory. Instead of answering customer
questions on the phones, they answered customer e-mails--a
much less stressful activity during one of the higher volume
customer-service days this year.
Free massages will help relieve the high stress of the
busy season. While these massages during the holidays are not
new, last year employees had to pay $15 for them. Now that
management is facing a union drive, Amazon.com seems to have
come up with a way to absorb this cost.
Since early November, Amazon.com management had required
its customer-service reps to send anti-union e-mail in
response to customer inquiries about the union drive. In the
e-mail, Amazon's management said, "While unions do have a
role in society, at Amazon.com, everyone is an owner and can
exercise individual rights to raise any work-place issues or
concerns at any time."
Organizers argued that requiring individuals to send out
such a message may have violated U.S. labor law. The e-mail
incorrectly called workers "owners"--because employees
receive part of their pay in stock options that recently lost
a great deal of value in the reeling tech market--and implied
that they therefore cannot exercise the right to
organize.
Amazon.com quickly changed its tune. Now reps are not
required to send out the anti-union message. They may instead
forward any inquiries about the union drive to
supervisors.
These changes are clearly efforts to try to subdue the
drive to unionize by enticing Seattle customer-service reps
with favorable shifts in policy. But statements on
Day2@Amazon.com's Web site indicate that management's
reaction did not diminish their resolve one bit. In fact,
rather than turning them from organizing, it gave workers a
taste of what they can achieve through building the union
drive.
To learn more about this important struggle, readers can
check out the Web site www.washtech.org or e-mail
day2@washtech.org.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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