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The
Congressional delegation includes U.S. Representatives Andy
Levin, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Terri Sewell, and Nikema
Williams. Workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer,
Alabama, are voting on whether to become the first Amazon
employees to join a union.
The visit comes on the heels of President Joe Biden's recent
message where he defended workers' rights to form unions. While
he did not mention Amazon, he referenced "workers in Alabama."
The move by the Alabama workers, which is being backed by the
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), could help
kickstart a new chapter for the labor movement in the southern
states, where unions have long struggled to gain a foothold,
labor experts said.
Union membership in southern states is half that of the national
average, according to data from Bureau of Labor Statistics.
One of the main reasons for this has been fewer job
opportunities in the region and political hostility toward
unions, said William Gould, a labor law expert at Stanford Law.
Gould is also a former chairman of the National Labor Relations
Board.
"But that is changing because of how companies such as Amazon
have really tested the limits of workers' endurance," he said,
adding that the pandemic had exacerbated existing health and
safety issues.
Amazon did not respond to requests for comment. A company
spokeswoman has previously said it does not believe the RWDSU
represents the majority of employees' views and that Amazon
offered "some of the best jobs available everywhere we hire, and
we encourage anyone to compare our total compensation package,
health benefits, and workplace environment to any other company
with similar jobs."
Bessemer, which is about 15 miles (24 km) away from Birmingham,
the most populous city in the state, is majority African
American - a fact that has also made the fight an important one
for several lawmakers.
"More than 80% of workers at the Amazon plant are Black. Their
incredible organizing is Black liberation in action," Cori Bush
said on Twitter.
Andy Levin, who will visit the Bessemer warehouse on Friday,
told Reuters he was going to tell workers at the facility "how
incredibly courageous they are."
"I consider this election in Bessemer... to be the David and
Goliath story of labor relations in the 21st Century," he said.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington, Additional reporting
by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
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