Amazon’s Business Model: Bury U.S. Labor History

Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls with members of Unite HERE at a pre-election rally outside Amazon’s Staten Island fulfillment Center.

By Joe Maniscalco

Amazon, in its quest to stamp out the smoldering sparks of unionization first ignited at its JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island, N.Y., earlier this year, is attempting to roll up the entire history of the American labor movement—the weekend, the eight-hour day, livable wages, safety standards, job protections, pensions—and incinerate it.

It’s happening in a big way at captive audience meetings held inside Amazon’s ALB1 facility in Albany, N.Y., and in text messages to warehouse employees there who are attempting to follow in the footsteps of the victorious Amazon Labor Union downstate in New York City.

Ignore all the gains workers have achieved through unionization over these many decades—Amazon’s union-busters are telling hard-pressed workers subjected to dystopian levels of surveillance and Dickensian-like working conditions—labor unions are nothing but a “business” peddling a service “in exchange for money.”

Mary “Mother Jones” Harris Jones

Forget that Mother Jones—the iconic union organizer who, during the hot labor summer of 1903, led a march on President Teddy Roosevelt’s Oyster Bay, N.Y., home in defense of underage kids being exploited by greedy manufacturers—she must’ve been in it for the money, too. Old Mary Harris Jones was just “selling a service,” no?

Old-Fashioned Union Busting

The e-commerce giant calls this and other priceless little gems torn from big business’ well-worn union-busting playbook—“the facts about joining a union.”

I asked Amazon about the way unions are being characterized in captive audience meetings inside ALB1 and the company’s view of the American labor movement overall.

In an email response attributed to Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel, the company said, “It’s our employees’ choice whether or not to join a union. It always has been.”

The statement continues: “Holding meetings about unions with employees is a process that’s been legally recognized for more than 70 years. Like many other companies, we hold these meetings because it’s important that everyone understands the facts about joining a union and the election process itself.”

Again, forget all about Mother Jones and the many struggles for workplace justice she led, or being able to provide for your family and retire with dignity when you eventually become too worn out to work. Amazon—the second largest private employer in the nation—offers American workers “shift flexibility” and the opportunity to “stay busy.” Whatever you do, Amazon is telling its employees—“Don’t sign a union card!”

Amazon treats employee unionization like an existential crisis. If only company founder Jeff Bezos and his foot soldiers were as upset about American democracy imploding and the planet burning up. In addition to continually slagging unions in “legally recognized” captive audience meetings and calling the cops on union organizers at its “fulfillment centers”—Amazon has unceremoniously pulled the plug on expansion plans as soon as it appeared they’d have to bow to united opposition insisting on some level of labor protections and the right of workers to unionize.

A New Jersey Shutdown

The last time it happened was in New Jersey where Amazon was close to building an entire air cargo hub at Newark Liberty International Airport. The hub would have come with a 20-year lease through the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and consist of not one, but two facilities totaling a half-million square feet.

“While our communities fought for basic health and safety, Amazon was unwilling to comply with basic labor and environmental standards,” said David Lenis, a resident of Elizabeth, N.J., and a member of community organizing group, Make the Road NJ, after Amazon folded up its tent. “This fight has shown us that when we come together and fight against corporate greed and environmental destruction, our communities win.”

Amazon just doesn’t like it when its employees stand up and challenge the behemoth’s anti-union propaganda. Amazon’s entire rationale for having the Amazon Labor Union’s stunning spring victory on Staten Island overturned at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) largely rests on its claim that workers refused to be propagandized at captive audience meetings.

All of this, along with the introduction of Rep. Henry Cuellar’s (D-Texas) Worker Flexibility and Choice Act—a legislative bludgeon that opponents rightly fear would gut key components of the Fair Labor Standards act of 1938—are prompting calls to finally revive and enact the Protecting the Right to Organize Act.

That piece of ever-languishing legislation would — in addition to several other important pro-worker provisions — would put an end to the more than 70-year history of “legally recognized” captive audience meetings Amazon, Starbucks and all the rest of big business loves so much.

Last month, Reuters published a report alleging SMART Alabama LLC—a majority-owned subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co.—used child labor at an assembly plant in the city of Luverne. A class action lawsuit on behalf of outraged car buyers was subsequently launched just this week.

In light of all this, codifying the PRO Act might be acting too conservatively — working class people may need to look into the possibility of resurrecting Mother Jones and putting her back into the fight.