President Joe Biden.Photo: The White House
PresidentJoe Bidenexpressed his support for a group of Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama who are pushing a vote to unionize.
In avideo messageshared via the White House’s official Twitter page, the president backed the bid without naming Amazon directly or expressing a view on how the vote should end.
“Workers in Alabama, and all across America, are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace,” Biden, 78, said, calling their vote “vitally important.”
“Let me be clear: It’s not up to me to decide whether anyone should join a union,” Biden said. “But let me be even more clear: It’s not up to an employer to decide that either. The choice to join a union is up to the workers — full stop.”
The president weighed in on the issue aftercampaigningon the promise that he would be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.
About 6,000 Amazon workers in its Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse are voting this month on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union,The Washington Postpreviouslyreported.
If they vote to do so, the group would become the first Amazon workers to unionize. TheNew York Timesreported that Amazon currently has 400,000 American workers.
Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty
Amazon, according to thePost, has used anti-union messaging tactics at the Alabama warehouse ahead of this week’s vote, including putting up flyers in the workplace bathroom.
“We don’t believe the RWDSU [the union] represents the majority of our employees' views,” Knox said in a statement.
In his message Sunday, Biden said “there should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda.”
“No supervisor should confront employees about their union preferences,” he added.
“Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union,” the president said. “The law guarantees that choice. And it’s your right, not that of an employer. It’s your right. No employer can take that right away.
source: people.com
