I love to read news about unions and unionization.
Great, I thought. So I went on reading and encountered this paragraph containing an advisory about unions — which is, to me, hilarious. Join me in some guffaws? (I’ve done a bit of bolding, so you can quickly see the funniest bits.)
“It’s important that employees understand the facts of joining a union,” Heather Knox, an Amazon spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We will provide education about that and the election process so they can make an informed decision. If the union vote passes, it will impact everyone at the site and it’s important associates understand what that means for them and their day-to-day life working at Amazon.” The company, which went on a huge hiring spree last year as homebound customers sent its sales to a record $386 billion, recorded more than $22 billion in profit.
Dear Workers of the (Amazon) World,
I feel strongly that you should get the facts about joining a union from the actual union, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. As the Times article points out:
The retail workers union has a long history of organizing Black workers in the poultry and food production industries, helping them gain basic benefits like paid time off and safety protections and a means to economic security. The union is portraying its efforts in Bessemer as part of that legacy.
“This is an organizing campaign in the right-to-work South during the pandemic at one of the largest companies in the world,” said Benjamin Sachs, a professor of labor and industry at Harvard Law School. “The significance of a union victory there really couldn’t be overstated.”
On to victory.