Tornados Can Kill. So Can Amazon’s Business Model.
To deliver quality fast and cheap, Amazon sacrificed the good that should have been a safe workplace for Craig Yost and his fellow warehouse workers. And Amazon is doing its best to make sure that this sacrificing — by workers — continues. The company has been actively exercising its considerable corporate power to prevent the one turn of events that could reliably keep Amazon on its safety toes: an active union presence at every Amazon worksite.
Earlier this year, Amazon quashed a landmark union organizing drive at its Bessemer, Alabama warehouse via assorted subterfuges that the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union’s national president would later describe as “intimidation and interference” that “prevented workers from having a fair say in whether they wanted a union.” A National Labor Relations Board regional office last month agreed and ordered a do-over on the election.
But let’s be careful not to pick only