Winning A Union Election Is Not Always Winning: Amazon Labor Union: LRI INK

- Tweet0
- 0
- Pin It 0
- 0
- Subscribe to RSS
Subscribe

Subject: Winning A Union Election Is Not Always Winning: Amazon Labor Union: LRI INK

January 18, 2024

To visit the blog post, click on the link below that article.

Winning A Union Election Is Not Always Winning: Amazon Labor Union

By Kimberly Ricci

The media loves to celebrate high-profile union wins, but in many recent cases, a union election win hasn’t translated into getting a union collective bargaining agreement.

In several of these cases, the follow-up has not been jubilant after collective bargaining attempts belly-flopped, and unions have not been successful in negotiating contracts. We have seen this with Starbucks. Workers United hasn’t secured a contract in two years despite nearly 400 unionized cafes, and many locations have begun discussing decertification.

Another union trainwreck is the long-running leadership conflict occurring publicly and privately at the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). The ALU successfully convinced workers at a large Staten Island warehouse, known as JFK8, to join a union in April 2022 but are nowhere near a contract nearly two years later. In the interim, the union leadership has been distracted by infighting, internal politics, external interests, and lawsuits.

An instant labor celebrity: Chris Smalls, founder and President of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), landed on TIME's Most Influential list of 2022 with little to show for it. The ALU managed a solitary victory at the JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island in April 2022. No contract exists yet, but Smalls has presided over failed elections and withdrawn petitions at other warehouses, and churned up inner-union turmoil. Smalls also lost a lawsuit against Amazon after claiming that he was fired over his race.

He would soon repeat such a claim against members of his union, as the New York Times revealed, while labeling a “revolt by his former allies” as “an attempted coup” and complaining that many “dissidents are white while the union leadership is largely Black.” This suggestion earned him nothing but a full-on leadership shakeup for several reasons.

Violence and criminal charges: In April 2023, Business Insider reported upon video footage of Smalls and ALU Vice President Derrick Palmer assaulting an Amazon worker, with Smalls inflicting physical blows as Palmer restrained the worker. In a separate case, Palmer faced a felony criminal indictment over domestic violence accusations. After admitting to strangling his girlfriend, Palmer resigned in mid-2023.

Smalls continued his antics: The New York Times detailed frequent clashes within ALU. Smalls even ignored an agreement for him to stop jetting around to different Amazon warehouses, which only led to him drumming up failed elections while JFK8 workers wondered why Smalls wasn’t working towards a contract. Then there’s the matter of a GoFundMe that raised over $440,000, but union employees complained of missing paychecks. Smalls subsequently denied rumors of embezzlement; elsewhere, he was sued for $20,000 in unpaid child support. Yikes.

A revolt: ALU member Connor Spence recently launched the A.L.U. Democratic Reform Caucus. A lawsuit swiftly revealed allegations that Smalls refused new officer elections and tweaked the union constitution to maintain power. The caucus further demands a more transparent organizational structure rather than whatever it was that Smalls and Palmer were doing.

A turning point? A month ago, Smalls finally saw the writing on the wall and decided not to pursue reelection, according to Business Insider. From there, Bloomberg Law revealed that the ALU and the Reform Caucus reached a settlement to meet in late February and hash out new leadership elections. They also “agreed to try not to embarrass one another in public.”

The lack of a collective bargaining agreement must surely weigh on the minds of ALU members. Meanwhile, the Teamsters are eyeing this situation while simultaneously launching their own attempt to organize Amazon.

Blog Post

Shawn Fain’s Frenetic Bid To Grow The UAW Back To ‘Glory Days’ Numbers

By Kimberly Ricci

Last week, we promised more coverage of Shawn Fain’s antics, and here we go. To briefly refresh, the UAW chief went into overdrive following his “stand-up strike” against the Big Three, and he vowed more chaos to come:

“Now we’re going to organize like we’ve never organized before.”

The Big Three contracts didn't pass with unanimous approval, perhaps because 25% wage boosts by 2028 is far from the 46% that Fain targeted. The deals did survive, but what choice did workers have at that point? Strike pay wasn’t covering workers’ bills. Also, he’s not done yet.

Fain’s new goal: To take the UAW back to its heyday of 1.5 million members rather than the 380,000 or so (with 25%+ from higher education) of 2023. He’s beating that drum like the Energizer Bunny.

He spoke at an MLK Day tribute ceremony this week and dropped the following catchphrases:

"Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point.”
"Either we go up together, or we go down together."
"This is our generation's defining moment, so let's honor the legacy of Dr King. Let's stand up and get to it!”

After the UAW’s recent deal with Allison Transmission, what’s next?

Fain hopes to organize 13 non-union automakers with a potential 170,000 members up for grabs. And yes, Fain noticed that several of these companies upped hourly wages – Toyota (9%), Honda (11%), Volkswagen (11%), and Hyundai (25% by 2028).

Fain attempts to take credit for these increases, when he labeled these raises as union benefits for non-union members. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that employers are struggling to hang on to workers as it is, especially as the age of the workforce declines (GenZ, etc.) and are more willing to go looking. Employers have been increasing wages for a while.

Here is how Fain’s newest efforts are going:

Volkswagen: 1,000+ workers signed union authorization cards at the Chattanooga plant. That adds up to over 30% of the bargaining unit thus far, which is higher than the UAW managed in 2019 and 2014.
Mercedes-Benz: The 30% mark has been reached at the Tuscaloosa, Alabama plant. The union plans to rally after 50% (at the VW plant also) and demand recognition at 70%.
Tesla: Rumor has it that covert organizing efforts are ongoing at Tesla. Meanwhile, all U.S. production workers will receive a “market adjustment pay increase.” Notably, CEO Elon Musk has also made no secret of his distaste for unions. In 2022, he even threw down the gauntlet and dared the UAW to try to unionize Tesla’s employees.

Fain has taken that dare: “When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with the Big Three, but with the Big Five or Big Six.”

Not so fast? Increased labor costs for the Big Three were inevitably going to lead to layoffs somewhere, and a fearful Stellantis Toledo Jeep worker recently wondered aloud why Fain doesn’t seem to care: “Now that he got the contract passed, none of his Facebook Live posts are about us. Now he is trying to get Toyota, Honda, and Tesla.”

He sure is. Fain’s singular focus appears to be a sheer numbers game, and time will tell if non-union workers will take his bait or appreciate that their newfound raises won’t be minimized by paying union dues.

Blog Post

Game On? College Athletes Are Inching Closer To Employee Status

By Kimberly Ricci

The Powers That Be are determined to reclassify college athletes as employees who can organize and collectively bargain for their working conditions and compensation. This appears likely to happen, possibly within the next year.

A less certain path: Democratic senators recently reintroduced the College Athletes Right to Organize bill, which is aimed towards unionizing athletes who are compensated via scholarship by their schools. The current balance of Congress doesn’t guarantee that this bill would ever pass, but the NLRB aims to get there first, so let’s dig in.

General Council Jennifer Abruzzo’s crusade for this cause began in 2021 when she suggested that student-athletes are misclassified if they’re not considered employees under the NLRA. In early 2022, she welcomed entities to file unfair labor charges against the NCAA, and she preemptively invited college athletes to file for union elections. Biden’s board further argues that colleges are profiting in the billions from “players’ labor” while withholding workplace protections under the student-athlete label.

In December 2022, the NLRB opted to pursue unfair labor charges filed by the National College Players Association against the NCAA, the University of Southern California, and the Pac-12. As it currently stands, the results of these charges would only apply to private universities (which include USC). Yet Abruzzo argues that the NLRB could expand jurisdiction to all schools under the rationale that the NCAA, universities, and conferences are joint employers (oh, what a web that she is weaving) of college athletes.

The athletes’ perspectives: Recently, multiple USC athletes testified in front of a regional administrative judge about the extraordinary control that coaches and administrators exert over players, including biometric monitoring of their whereabouts, including whether they check into the dining hall, attend classes, and stay properly hydrated. These athletes hope that this degree of control will justify employee status.

Where the issue goes from here: Later this month, legal proceedings will continue with an administrative law judge hearing from athletes, university administrators, and other entities. Post-hearing briefs will follow, with a decision arriving later this year. Don’t be terribly surprised if that decision eventually appeals all the way to the Supreme Court.

Where the Supreme Court sits on the issue: The Supreme Court’s previous 2021 ruling in NCAA v. Alston points toward the highest court in the land leaning towards granting employee rights to college athletes. As part of that unanimous ruling, conservative Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh notably likened the NCAA to a cartel-like, price-fixing organization that indulges in antitrust behavior while not properly compensating players.

Downsides of such an employee classification: This won’t be all roses for athletes if they achieve employee status. They would immediately be subject to federal taxation, and since they would technically be employed by universities, they could also be terminated as such. Universities could also face pesky downsides like losing access to student fees and charitable gifts via their Section 501(3)c designation, so athletic programs could lose substantial resources to pay these newfound employees.

Further, these college athletes would learn that unions often don’t deliver promised results. That nugget comes from the School of Hard Knocks.

Blog Post

About Labor Relations INK

Labor Relations INK is published weekly and is edited by Labor Relations Institute, Inc. Feel free to pass this newsletter on to anyone you think might enjoy it. New subscribers can sign up by visiting here.

If you use content from this newsletter please attribute it to Labor Relations Institute and include our website: http://www.LRIonline.com

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to receive our labor relations newsletters and updates. You can manage your email preferences by clicking the link at the bottom of any of our email communications.

About Labor Relations Institute

LRI exists to help our clients thrive and become extraordinary workplaces. We improve the lives of working people by strengthening relationships with their leaders and each other. For over 41 years, LRI has led the labor and employee relations industry, driven by our core values and our proven process, the LRI Way.

Share

Subscribe

Subject: Winning A Union Election Is Not Always Winning: Amazon Labor Union: LRI INK