Monday, March 01, 2021
Professor and Chair of Labor and Employment Studies John Logan discussed Amazon's newest anti-union tactics, including the mysterious new mailbox placed outside their warehouse.
As workers at Amazon's Bessemer, Alabama warehouse begin to cast their votes in a seven week union election, the company has implemented a variety of anti-union tactics encouraging employees to vote no. One noticeable measure is the new on-site mailbox, where Amazon has requested workers submit their mail-in ballots despite the National Labor Relations Board rejecting Amazon's request for in-person voting in February. Employees believe the mailbox is being used to monitor worker engagement with the union drive and gauge how many people are voting.
"I would consider these mailboxes to be an anti-union tactic," Logan said. "Mail-in voting was relatively new and rare in the history of NLRB union elections until COVID-19 hit, and we haven't seen a huge range of tactics used to discourage mail-in voting, but Amazon is notorious for doing things that we haven't seen before to bust unions. This is one of them."
Visit the Labor and Employment Studies department page to learn more about the program and faculty.