What’s the Significance of the Amazon Workers’ Unionization Drive?

In an article published in Society for Human Resource Management on March 23, Partner Peter Spanos was quoted discussing the importance of the Amazon workers’ unionization drive at a warehouse facility in Bessemer, Alabama.

According to Spanos, support for the union primarily comes from employees who want to change some of Amazon's work rules, such as productivity requirements (so-called production quotas), monitoring of employees' work and break times. Approximately 6,000 workers are attempting to unionize and if successful, labor organizers will be able to claim a victory.

While union leaders have accused Amazon of union-busting tactics, Spanos said, “Amazon's efforts to win over the votes of its employees are in no way different from those routinely engaged in by other companies facing union organization drives. None of these activities can fairly be called union-busting tactics, whether engaged in by Amazon or any other company.”                         

Union election voting concludes March 29.