Speaker 1: I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon
Speaker 1: customer because you guys paid progress. You guys paid problems.
Speaker 1: This is Megacorp, an investigative podcast exposing some of the
Speaker 1: world's most unethical corporations. This series is about Amazon. I'm
Speaker 1: Jake Hanrahan, journalists and documentary filmmaker. Megacorp is produced by
Speaker 1: H eleven for cool Zone Media. As we heard in
Speaker 1: the previous episode, Amazon workers are under a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1: That overworked, they're constantly monitored, and they don't have job security.
Speaker 1: To combat this, Amazon workers across the world have begun
Speaker 1: to organize. Many of them want a union. If they
Speaker 1: were unionized, it would give the workers more power to
Speaker 1: negotiate better working conditions, job security, and increased wages. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're unfamiliar with what a union is, I don't
Speaker 1: blame you. These days, workers unions are far less common
Speaker 1: than they used to be, although they do seem to
Speaker 1: be making a sort of comeback in recent years. Anyway,
Speaker 1: let me explain briefly what they are. Ensure. Unions are
Speaker 1: groups of workers that come together in a bid to
Speaker 1: get a better deal at their place of work. They're
Speaker 1: not against working, they're not being lazy. They just want
Speaker 1: a fairer time at their jobs. Where unions are active,
Speaker 1: the workers have somewhere outside of the company they're employed
Speaker 1: by to help sort out any issues and to build
Speaker 1: a better work community. Members usually elect union representatives that
Speaker 1: they can go to to solve problems, or alternatively, people
Speaker 1: volunteered to be the rep Often, unions give the people
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the workplace some leverage over those
Speaker 1: at the top. If you listen to the previous episode,
Speaker 1: you can probably imagine why Amazon workers have been pushing
Speaker 1: to unionize in many different places. It will also probably
Speaker 1: be no surprise that Amazon is trying desperately to stop
Speaker 1: the unions. When a company actively tries to disrupt union organizing,
Speaker 1: it's often referred to as union busting. This is something
Speaker 1: Amazon knows all about. Eighteen and internal anti union Amazon
Speaker 1: video was leaked onto the internet. The video is essentially
Speaker 1: a training guide on how to stop workers unionizing. The
Speaker 1: video was sent to managers at the company Whole Foods,
Speaker 1: amidst the initial stages of worker organization around June. Whole
Speaker 1: Foods was brought up by Amazon in seventeen for urteen
Speaker 1: point seven billion dollars. The anti union video is forty
Speaker 1: five minutes long, and it's split up into six different parts.
Speaker 1: The whole thing is animated. It's quite surreal. It's pretty odd.
Speaker 1: It takes place in a two D Amazon warehouse, where
Speaker 1: the narrator says, the purpose of the video is quote
Speaker 1: specifically designed to give you the tools that you need
Speaker 1: for success when it comes to labor organizing end quote.
Speaker 1: Now I don't mean to sound shreal or exaggerated here,
Speaker 1: but there really is something a little bit or well
Speaker 1: Ian in the way this video portrays itself. It's essentially
Speaker 1: a guide that Amazon has created to help recognize when
Speaker 1: workers unions are beginning to form in a workplace, but
Speaker 1: not so they can help them, so they can stop them.
Speaker 1: Yet the language used in the video acts as if
Speaker 1: it's somehow an ally of the workers. When they say
Speaker 1: they're helping give companies the tools they need for success
Speaker 1: when it comes to label organizing, what they mean by
Speaker 1: success is success in basically crushing unions. Now, let's have
Speaker 1: a listen to some of the internal anti union Amazon video. Welcome.
Speaker 1: We're excited to have you with this training specifically designed
Speaker 1: to give you the tools that you need for success
Speaker 1: when it comes to labor organizing. During this course will
Speaker 1: cover several important topics such as our position on unions,
Speaker 1: associate rights, signs of employee disengagement, and how do identify,
Speaker 1: escalate and address associate concerns. We are not anti union,
Speaker 1: but we are not neutral either. We will boldly defend
Speaker 1: our direct relationship with associates as best for the associate,
Speaker 1: the business, and our shareholders. Right. Notice what they just
Speaker 1: said that they're not anti union, but they're not neutral either.
Speaker 1: Obviously not as they wouldn't be making these training video.
Speaker 1: So they're saying they're not t union and they're not
Speaker 1: neutral in a video about training employees to try and
Speaker 1: suss out and stop unionizing in the workplace. Again, not
Speaker 1: to sound all dramatic, but this is literally double speak.
Speaker 1: It's the way politicians talk when they're defending the indefensible
Speaker 1: in the media. This is bullshit. They're trying to soften
Speaker 1: the blow of what is clearly an anti union training video,
Speaker 1: and frankly, to say otherwise is a bit of an insult,
Speaker 1: but that's the way they framed it. Anyway, Let's listen on.
Speaker 1: We do not believe unions are in the best interest
Speaker 1: of our customers are shareholders are most importantly our associates.
Speaker 1: Our business model is built upon speed, innovation and customer obsession.
Speaker 1: Customer obsession things that are generally not associated with the unions.
Speaker 1: When we lose sight of those critical focus areas, we
Speaker 1: jeopardize everyone's job security. Okay, so they've just said that
Speaker 1: that everyone's job security at Amazon is in jeopardy when
Speaker 1: speed in a ation and customer obsession are lost site
Speaker 1: of Now, the way this too d Amazon presentation reels
Speaker 1: that off, it's quite easy to miss the point. That
Speaker 1: sentence seems fairly innocuous the way they read it. However,
Speaker 1: in my opinion here, the subtext of that sentence is this,
Speaker 1: if a union gains power within the workplace and they
Speaker 1: prioritize anything other than speed, innovation and customer obsession, people
Speaker 1: might get fired. They don't want unions focusing on anything
Speaker 1: else like workers safety, improved conditions, and better wages. That
Speaker 1: would take time away from efficiency. And if that happens,
Speaker 1: people are going to get fired. Now, I could be
Speaker 1: very wrong. Like I said, that's just my opinion of
Speaker 1: the subtext there, but I'm not sure how else to
Speaker 1: take it. Remember, as well, this was an internal video
Speaker 1: at Amazon not meant to see the light of day
Speaker 1: in the public. I think that gives you more context
Speaker 1: to what's being said here. Also, anyway, let's hear more.
Speaker 1: We don't bad mouth unions in general, but we will
Speaker 1: speak openly with associates about unions, including any specific concerns
Speaker 1: about particular unions involved in organizing, and we share our
Speaker 1: preference for a direct working relationship frequently and boldly, even
Speaker 1: when no organizing activity has occurred. You will learn about
Speaker 1: the warning signs most commonly associated with early union organizing,
Speaker 1: as well as other warning signs that could indicate associate disengagement,
Speaker 1: vulnerability to organizing, or early organizing activity. While employees have
Speaker 1: the right to organize, we have a right and responsibility
Speaker 1: to share our position that a direct working relationship is
Speaker 1: better for the customer, the company, and the associate. In
Speaker 1: order to be able to do that effectively, it is
Speaker 1: critical that we recognize the early warning signs of potential
Speaker 1: organizing and escalate concerns promptly, warning signs earlier new organizing,
Speaker 1: vulnerability to organize. In the way Amazon is talking about this,
Speaker 1: it sounds like they think unions are some kind of disease.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's quite odd listening to it like this. Now.
Speaker 1: I get Amazon is a private company. They have the
Speaker 1: right to dislike and even hate unions if they want to.
Speaker 1: But as you can see, this training video shows that
Speaker 1: their private face doesn't tally up with their public face.
Speaker 1: Shock horror. Who's surprised? Now? Amazon presents this happy, people,
Speaker 1: friendly corporation typeface, but this just isn't that. This next bit, though,
Speaker 1: I think, is really quite dark. If you see warning
Speaker 1: signs of potential organizing, notify you're building hr M and
Speaker 1: GM site leader immediately. Hr M s and g M
Speaker 1: site leaders should notify their assigned e R managers or
Speaker 1: e ER principle immediately. The most obvious signs would include
Speaker 1: use of words associated with unions, are union movements like
Speaker 1: living wage or steward petitions, or other concerted activity, such
Speaker 1: as an associate purporting to speak on behalf of his
Speaker 1: or her coworkers when raising concerns. Union graffiti, union t shirts, hats, jackets,
Speaker 1: or other clothing union flyers and union visitors in or
Speaker 1: near the parking lot. Some signs are less obvious than
Speaker 1: finding the actual union flyer, but they can still indicate
Speaker 1: associate disengagement, which is itself a warning sign for potential organizing.
Speaker 1: Examples include associates who normally aren't connected to each other
Speaker 1: suddenly hanging out together, associates who are close suddenly stopped
Speaker 1: speaking to each other, groups of associate scatter when approached
Speaker 1: by management, increased associate negativity, anger or confrontation, unusual complaints
Speaker 1: or change in passion or detail around complaints, unusual interest
Speaker 1: and policies, benefits, employee lists or other company information, or
Speaker 1: any other associate behavior that is out of character. For example,
Speaker 1: an associate who normally leaves promptly begins hanging out in
Speaker 1: the brake room for an or after work each day.
Speaker 1: In order to recognize warning signs, it is critical that
Speaker 1: you know what an associates normal behavior looks like. Often
Speaker 1: it is the change in behavior that is the warning
Speaker 1: sign more than the actual behavior itself. Now, if that
Speaker 1: doesn't sound authoritarian, I don't know what does. Their training
Speaker 1: and encouraging workers to literally spy on each other. They
Speaker 1: suggest monitoring their behavior, their clothes, and even what words
Speaker 1: they use to try and work out if they're involved
Speaker 1: in union organizing or not, and they say they're not
Speaker 1: anti union. At the end there it goes as far
Speaker 1: as to suggest that manages second guess the motivations of
Speaker 1: the workers by watching to see if anything changes in
Speaker 1: their behavior, even if they have not said anything regarding unionizing.
Speaker 1: In order to recognize warning signs, it is critical that
Speaker 1: you know what an associates normal behavior looks like. Often
Speaker 1: it is the change in behavior that is the warning
Speaker 1: sign more than the actual behavior itself. That and say
Speaker 1: that workers must inform on each other if they spot
Speaker 1: any of this behavior. It all sounds a little bit
Speaker 1: too much like the Stasi to me. And remember, this
Speaker 1: is just a company, This is not a government, this
Speaker 1: is not a police force. Seems a little bit over
Speaker 1: the top. Something else are noticed, Only just at the
Speaker 1: end there is that in the video of this Amazon presentation.
Speaker 1: You know, I said it was to the animated the
Speaker 1: guy that is giving all this information to the viewer,
Speaker 1: which would be the members of the team that Amazon
Speaker 1: is trying to train too effectively union bust. The character
Speaker 1: is actually a worker on the warehouse floor in the
Speaker 1: Amazon warehouse. Maybe that was intentional, maybe not, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It seems pretty fucked up to me. He's even wearing
Speaker 1: a little high of his jacket. There are conveyor belts everywhere.
Speaker 1: It's an Amazon worker telling the managers how to stop
Speaker 1: him from organizing madness. To get a better understanding of
Speaker 1: where the Amazon unions are at right now, and also
Speaker 1: to hear about the Amazon union busting tactics, I spoke
Speaker 1: to journalists Dave Jamieson. He is a labor reporter for
Speaker 1: her Post. Back in the day, there was a labor
Speaker 1: reporter on pretty much every newspaper, every outlet. Nowadays it's
Speaker 1: more rare to see them, but it's a very important job,
Speaker 1: especially within journalism. It helps shine a light on bad
Speaker 1: practices as the ones we've just heard of in regards
Speaker 1: to Amazon. Let's see what you have to say. Let's
Speaker 1: let's kind of um begin with the union, the unionizing
Speaker 1: efforts that Amazon workers have been involved in. Okay, so um.
Speaker 1: In the US, Amazon does not have unionized workers. Amazon
Speaker 1: deals with with unions overseas in some places, um like
Speaker 1: like in Europe. But in the US they've managed to
Speaker 1: keep unions out as a lot of kind. But he's
Speaker 1: managed to do these days are our unionization rate in
Speaker 1: the US is just six percent in the private sector,
Speaker 1: A lot of American workers these days could work their
Speaker 1: whole careers and and never be in a in a
Speaker 1: in a union. We used to have much higher union density,
Speaker 1: like after World War Two, it was up into the
Speaker 1: thirty some odd percent um. It's much lower now and
Speaker 1: that's in part because the employers have gotten you know,
Speaker 1: more aggressive, I think over the years in terms of
Speaker 1: trying to beat back union drives. And so it was
Speaker 1: kind of no mystery that you know, Amazon wanted to
Speaker 1: keep unions out like any any kind of big growing
Speaker 1: employer in the US. So it came as a as
Speaker 1: a bit of a surprise when when this union, the
Speaker 1: retail wholesale and Department store union, filed for a union
Speaker 1: election at a warehouse down in Alabama, in this town
Speaker 1: called Bessemer, right outside of Birmingham. Because there had never
Speaker 1: been a a union election at a a major Amazon
Speaker 1: facility like this with the unit that we call wall
Speaker 1: to wall, were like everybody inside there, pretty much outside
Speaker 1: of management, would be in the union if the union one.
Speaker 1: And so this was like a really big deal, uh,
Speaker 1: not just for labor, but it had big advocations for Amazon.
Speaker 1: They want to keep unions from getting any toe hold
Speaker 1: inside their facilities. Right in the US, unions would have
Speaker 1: to unionize these facilities one by one, So it would
Speaker 1: still be a few thousand workers out of nearly a
Speaker 1: million in the US that would be covered by a union.
Speaker 1: But the fear for a company like Amazon is that
Speaker 1: this is gonna spread, right that if if if a
Speaker 1: union can break into one facility, that they're gonna start
Speaker 1: popping up and winning elections at other facilities. So this
Speaker 1: became like really closely watched in the US, and it
Speaker 1: was kind of an unusual campaign because it was it
Speaker 1: was during the pandemic, so um, it was going to
Speaker 1: be a kind of long now and voting process where
Speaker 1: where both the union and and the company we're going
Speaker 1: to be making their cases to workers. And so even
Speaker 1: though we knew that that Amazon did did not want unions,
Speaker 1: that they were going to try to keep unions out,
Speaker 1: this was kind of the first time really that Amazon
Speaker 1: was forced to kind of get its hands dirty in public, uh,
Speaker 1: while they tried to fight off a union drive. Right right,
Speaker 1: maybe you can give us some idea of the union
Speaker 1: busting efforts to Amazon has going to When you look
Speaker 1: at what Amazon did, I view it as simply a
Speaker 1: scaled up version of what your typical American employer will do.
Speaker 1: Amazon basically has bottomless resources, so they could throw tons
Speaker 1: of money at it. But what they did basically what
Speaker 1: any um, um you know, depocketed company was going to do,
Speaker 1: which is you fight kind of this this two pronged
Speaker 1: war one with with your lawyers right where you you
Speaker 1: bring in um, the best lawyers you can get, management
Speaker 1: side attorneys who are going to do whatever they can
Speaker 1: at the National Labor Relations Board to um slow this
Speaker 1: process down, UH, to throw up hurdles in front of
Speaker 1: the union. And that's that's what what Amazon did. They
Speaker 1: hired Morgan Lewis. It's you know, the top or one
Speaker 1: of the top management side firms when you're dealing with
Speaker 1: the union. And the guy they had leading their litigation
Speaker 1: is his name is Harry Johnson. He used to be
Speaker 1: a Republican member of the National Labor Relations Board, which
Speaker 1: is like our Supreme Court um for for dealing with
Speaker 1: labor issues. So they really, you know, they got lawyers
Speaker 1: from from the top of the game. And UM, you know,
Speaker 1: as you're doing that, UM, you know, you also as
Speaker 1: a company, you often want to run this sort of
Speaker 1: ground game inside your workplace where you're trying to so
Speaker 1: doubt about the union um uh, and and and sort
Speaker 1: of do everything you can legal or sometimes not legal,
Speaker 1: to encourage a no vote. And so what Amazon did
Speaker 1: is they went out and hired union avoidance consultants who
Speaker 1: came in and and companies have to disclose this stuff
Speaker 1: to the government when they do it, and we know
Speaker 1: a little bit about UM, what Amazon went out and did.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a while before we know more, just
Speaker 1: because of the disclosure process. But they hired a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of consultants who came in to hold what we
Speaker 1: call captive audience meetings. This is where UM workers are
Speaker 1: are corralled into a room and a consultant or management
Speaker 1: or both get up there and give a speech about,
Speaker 1: you know, basically, why the union sucks, why you don't
Speaker 1: want a union. UM. There's certain lines they can't go over. UM.
Speaker 1: They can't interrogate you about your your union sympathies. They
Speaker 1: can't threaten your job if you vote for a union,
Speaker 1: But they can get really close to that line, and
Speaker 1: through careful language, they can kind of sow those doubts
Speaker 1: UM while while still kind of staying on the right
Speaker 1: side of the line. And so that's why you bring
Speaker 1: consultants into do that. And so Amazon had these meetings
Speaker 1: going on in the Best sumber warehouse every day for
Speaker 1: weeks in the in the run up to the vote.
Speaker 1: I talked to workers who were in there, um, you know,
Speaker 1: multiple times. Uh, and it's it's it's a weird experience.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've talked to a lot of workers over
Speaker 1: the years who've gone through this, not just at Amazon
Speaker 1: but elsewhere, and it's it's very strange. You know, you
Speaker 1: have this this guy from the outside who comes in
Speaker 1: is kind of acting like he's your pal, like he's
Speaker 1: just there to answer questions and kind of clarify the process.
Speaker 1: They always kind of put off the air of being neutral,
Speaker 1: of just wanting to provide you with information, But when
Speaker 1: you look at what they actually say, it's it's always um,
Speaker 1: you know, within with an anti union angle to it. Um.
Speaker 1: And this can be really effective in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: It's sort of For one, it can help the the
Speaker 1: the employer know where certain workers stand. Right. So this
Speaker 1: is a was a big facility of nearly six thousand
Speaker 1: workers in the proposed bargaining unit. So if the union
Speaker 1: one that would be nearly six thousand people in that union. UM,
Speaker 1: that is really large. We in the US, we like
Speaker 1: rarely see union elections on that scale anymore, you know,
Speaker 1: in part because of UM uh you know, the industrialization
Speaker 1: and and and a lot of bargaining units have just
Speaker 1: gotten smaller. So this was like a really big facility.
Speaker 1: So Amazon was holding tons of these meetings and they'd
Speaker 1: have people off to the side, and you know, I
Speaker 1: talked to workers who didn't know who who these people were.
Speaker 1: Maybe they were managers, they didn't recognize them, Maybe they
Speaker 1: were in from other facilities. And Amazon did bring in
Speaker 1: a lot of people from corporate during the campaign to
Speaker 1: be around the warehouse that were managers from other facilities
Speaker 1: in UM and it was just kind of a strange environment. UM.
Speaker 1: Sometimes workers would push back. I talked to a few
Speaker 1: who kind of got got sick of of you know,
Speaker 1: what they felt was was ridiculous propaganda, and so they
Speaker 1: would they would uh, you know, push back UM, you know,
Speaker 1: challenge the presenter and and talk about the goods unions,
Speaker 1: good unions could do UM. And I talked to one
Speaker 1: guy who who did that, and then he when he
Speaker 1: once he was back out on the floor. He had
Speaker 1: some union avoidance consultant coming over to talk to him,
Speaker 1: and he just said it was weird. Man. He was like,
Speaker 1: he was like, I don't want to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Uh So it creates a very strange environment, but it
Speaker 1: can be really effective, especially in a place like Amazon.
Speaker 1: And this is really key to understanding any union campaign
Speaker 1: and an Amazon facility is the turnover there, right, sky
Speaker 1: high turnover UM. New York Times had a number that
Speaker 1: they say they got internally that was over a yeah,
Speaker 1: staff turnover, right, worker turnover, and that's consistent with UM,
Speaker 1: with other numbers that have been done by outside analyses
Speaker 1: suggesting over a hundred percent. What that means is um,
Speaker 1: over the course of a year, the number of workers
Speaker 1: who quit or get fired is greater than the average
Speaker 1: number of positions in that facility. Right. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that literally every worker leaves, but it means that they
Speaker 1: that if they have five thousand positions in there, then
Speaker 1: more than five thousand or more people passed through that
Speaker 1: warehouse in a year. That is a very high turnover
Speaker 1: rate for the industry. And you know one reason, Frankly,
Speaker 1: I think it's part of of Amazon's early d n
Speaker 1: A was that, like, we didn't want this attachment to workers,
Speaker 1: like these places they run on algorithm, right, so the
Speaker 1: workers are like our plug and play right um. And
Speaker 1: and Bezos felt like, you know, workers just if they're
Speaker 1: just kind of there in a job for years, they
Speaker 1: get complacent. So this idea of like burning through workers
Speaker 1: is kind of part of part of like like the
Speaker 1: Amazon theory, um. But it also is like a huge
Speaker 1: benefit when you're a company fighting an organizing drive, because
Speaker 1: you constantly have people passing through the door, um, and
Speaker 1: they don't have time to kind of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: develop sympathies with the union, and in this case, a
Speaker 1: lot of them never even heard the union's case. Right.
Speaker 1: You have the the union told me that they were
Speaker 1: under the assumption that they were losing sixty union cards
Speaker 1: every week to turn over. And what they mean is
Speaker 1: that sixty workers who signaled they would support the union
Speaker 1: election we're going to leave naturally every week, either either
Speaker 1: quitting or getting fired, and so you gotta find new
Speaker 1: new support to replace that. So you're constantly treading water
Speaker 1: as people come in the door, trying to organize them
Speaker 1: and make your case to them. As a union. You know,
Speaker 1: an Amazon of course knows that. And so people during
Speaker 1: this this um you know, mail and election, there were
Speaker 1: there were uh people you know coming in ahead of
Speaker 1: the election, UM who never heard from a union organizer,
Speaker 1: and in their first week on the job, they're going
Speaker 1: into these anti union meetings basically hearing uh, you know,
Speaker 1: how crumby the union is, and and and what a
Speaker 1: bad idea would be to vote for the union. And
Speaker 1: so Amazon had this large scale sophisted campaign going on,
Speaker 1: in part down on the ground level in the air house,
Speaker 1: with these consultants in their consultants who were coached by
Speaker 1: managers and supervisors on on how to act around the
Speaker 1: workers and how to um you know, essentially uh you know,
Speaker 1: turn out no votes. While at the same time they
Speaker 1: had they had lawyers at the highest level that we're
Speaker 1: trying to um throw up barriers, um, you know, inflate
Speaker 1: the bargaining unit, make the union union, the proposed bargaining
Speaker 1: unit as large as possible so that the union would
Speaker 1: have to be organizing all these all these other workers, UM,
Speaker 1: and just slow things down legally so that um inside
Speaker 1: the warehouse, the company has the time to get their
Speaker 1: anti union campaign up and running. So yeah, this was
Speaker 1: like a pretty uh sophisticated campaign, I think, and probably
Speaker 1: a very expensive one. It's gonna be a little while
Speaker 1: before we know how much Amazon spent on the consultants. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll learn that sometime next year. A lot of people
Speaker 1: I have talked to think, um, you know, it's probably
Speaker 1: almost certainly in the millions. Um, possibly possibly eight figures,
Speaker 1: but we'll never know, you know, what they spent on
Speaker 1: on the lawyers, because that's not subject to disclosure. So
Speaker 1: this was like and you know, defeat the union at
Speaker 1: all costs. Yeah, it's it's very aggressive. Um. I was
Speaker 1: reading the thing I think it was to Die actually
Speaker 1: or yesterday, where a court had basically said in the
Speaker 1: US that union workers were allowed to kind of push
Speaker 1: that union voting ahead again because the court ruled the
Speaker 1: Amazon had basically unfairly kind of influenced the decision. Um,
Speaker 1: did you see about that? That's right? Yeah, So this
Speaker 1: this was news the pro clast night. Basically, the National
Speaker 1: Labor Relations Board, a regional director there um ruled that
Speaker 1: that Amazon broke the law during the election, that they
Speaker 1: you know, basically tainted the democratic process, and that the
Speaker 1: workers are entitled to do over vote. Um, I think
Speaker 1: it's likely that second vote will happen because the the
Speaker 1: Labor Board now has a democratic majority that's more favorable
Speaker 1: to workers. So I think my sense is that this
Speaker 1: this ruling will will be upheld and that another another
Speaker 1: vote will will come. But it's really an illustration of
Speaker 1: why why companies like Amazon really pushed the limits, so
Speaker 1: to unpack sort of what Amazon did here, um to
Speaker 1: to kind of spoil the election. This was, like I said,
Speaker 1: this happened during the pandemic. This vote, and so the
Speaker 1: Labor Board wanted to do a mail in ballot right
Speaker 1: where normally, in normal times you're gonna have this election
Speaker 1: over two or three days at the big warehouse where
Speaker 1: there's a little polling place and workers can go in
Speaker 1: when they have a minute and fill out their ballot
Speaker 1: and drop it in the box. Here, it was all
Speaker 1: gonna be done by mail. Amazon didn't like that, and
Speaker 1: I think the reason is because Amazon wanted this election
Speaker 1: to be conducted on their home turf. Right, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of advantages to doing this at the work site.
Speaker 1: Right when the workers gonna have to go in and vote,
Speaker 1: they're gonna walk by all their managers, they're gonna be
Speaker 1: around all the propaganda. And there was propaganda all over
Speaker 1: the warehouse. Um you know, all this sort of like
Speaker 1: subtle anti union stuff and and um you know even
Speaker 1: when when you went to the bathroom, uh you were
Speaker 1: you were seeing these these um posters and flyers about
Speaker 1: you know, do you really want to be paying dudes? Um. So,
Speaker 1: you know, Amazon wanted to have have that that that
Speaker 1: vote on the on the home field. Um, they didn't
Speaker 1: get it. So what they did they basically, um, you know,
Speaker 1: arranged to have the the US Postal Service install a
Speaker 1: mailbox on on the warehouse site, right in the parking lot.
Speaker 1: And they um surrounded this thing with their with their
Speaker 1: you know Amazon propaganda. You know, come here, have your
Speaker 1: voice heard. Um. The labor board had had specifically said
Speaker 1: they did not want, you know, ballot drop boxes on
Speaker 1: site for the election. So Amazon went out on its own.
Speaker 1: And there's there's we know that they um, you know,
Speaker 1: converse with the US Postal Service to have this arranged.
Speaker 1: Um in mind you there's already you know, business arrangements
Speaker 1: between Amazon and the US Postal Service. Um. So so
Speaker 1: this was um upset the union quite a bit and
Speaker 1: everything we've seen so far of the union's claims that
Speaker 1: this post postal box tainted the process has been upheld
Speaker 1: so far, you know by labor officials. So there was
Speaker 1: a fear that by having this there um that that
Speaker 1: there was there was fears that the that the postal
Speaker 1: box was being surveiled. Right this is right outside Amazon's door.
Speaker 1: And what the Labor board official yesterday had to say
Speaker 1: about this was that was that she had specifically said
Speaker 1: she did not want ballot drop boxes there and that
Speaker 1: what Amazon did here was essentially hijacked the process. Amazon's
Speaker 1: defense has been, well, we just wanted to kind of
Speaker 1: boost turnout, sure everyone everyone uh you know, had their
Speaker 1: voices heard, just make it easier to vote. And they said, well,
Speaker 1: look that's not your job that that's our job is
Speaker 1: to administer the election. And so I was a little
Speaker 1: surprised that Amazon went so far as to do this,
Speaker 1: this this ballot box routine. Um I I but again
Speaker 1: this goes back to wanting to win this this election
Speaker 1: at all costs, and certainly on on the first go round,
Speaker 1: I think Amazon wanted to not only win, but but
Speaker 1: to run up the numbers. And they did, you know,
Speaker 1: they essentially, you know, defeated the union. It was around
Speaker 1: a two to one margin, although some challenge ballots were
Speaker 1: never open. But you know, Amazon, really they wanted to
Speaker 1: crush this. They wanted to run up the numbers and
Speaker 1: and make it look futile to try to do this.
Speaker 1: And so what we're seeing now is that it's looking
Speaker 1: like they broke the law to do it. They broke
Speaker 1: the law to do it. So Amazon so eager to
Speaker 1: union bust that they literally broke the law to try
Speaker 1: and stop one forming. But remember, like they said in
Speaker 1: the internal training video, they're not anti union union. Now
Speaker 1: the courts have ruled that the union Dave Jamison mentioned
Speaker 1: there are going to be given another chance at voting
Speaker 1: to properly unize Amazon. It's safe to say this is
Speaker 1: definitely not going anywhere, despite Amazon putting literally millions of
Speaker 1: dollars into trying to stop this. So let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: Will keep you updated here at Megacorp. Mega Corp. Is
Speaker 1: made by my production company H eleven for Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 1: It's written, researched, and produced by myself, Jake Hanrahan. It
Speaker 1: was also produced by Sophie Lichtman. Music is by some
Speaker 1: black graphics by Adam Doyle and sound engineering by splicing block.
Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch, follow me on
Speaker 1: social media at Jake Underscore Hanrahan. That's h A n
Speaker 1: I A h A n m