Bessemer, Alabama Amazon Worker on the Union Drive – ryan

Amazon Workers Perform Their Jobs Inside of an Amazon Fulfillment Center.
Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Every Shift, Darryl Richardson Clocks in to the Amazon Warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, at 7:15 in the Morning. He walks up four flutes of stairs, and waits. Soon a robot arrivals with a pod, which holds inside it the parts of someone Amazon Order. Richardson picks out the ittems, places say in a tote, hits a button, and starts the process all over again. He does this for 10 to 11 hours a day, except for two breaks Lasting 30 minutes each.

The work is grueling, and Last Year, Richardson deciding to do something about it. He contacted the retail, which is the department of the union to the process of unionizing his bessemer facility. Now he and his co-workhers have entered the final days of voting on whether to unionize, an outcome amazon has vigorously fought to avoid. If the Company Loses, Other Warehouses Could Unionize Quickly Beind Bessemer: In the Weeks SINCE RWDSU Went Public With Its Organization Drive, Over 1,000 Amazon Workers in Other Cities Have Inquired About a union.

Though Amazon Pays Its Warehouse Associates $ 15 an Hour and Offers Some Limited Benefits, Richardson Describes Dehumanizing Conditions Inside His Warehouse. Workers Still aren’t paid enough for their physically demanding labor, he said, and amazon is so great for their that that can be barely go to the beatr or get a drink of water. Amazon Needs a Union, he to Told Intelligency, and They Need One right now.

I’m a picker. And you got employs Called stowing. Stowing is putting into a pod the Items that you arehed, and i’m the one who say out. Of Wait till the robot come Around. A monitor lets with know, be the robot come Around, what I pull out in that pod. I pull the Item from the pod, I put it in a tote.

From 11 to 10 Hours a Day, Only Two Breaks, Its Very Stressful. IT’s very tiring. Oh, you be sore. Your wrists be sore. Your legs be sore. You be cramping up. IT’S Devastatting and It ‘Really Rough. There really ain’t no way to stay comfortable you’ve got to move the robots Move. Every minute that you don’t pick, you get “time off task” (Also known as tot). If you leave your space and go to the bathroom, your time is getting docked. If you get up to two hours of tot, that leads to termination. It is not fair for employs to get fired for going to the Bathroom. SOMESTEMES THE WATER IN THE BATHROMS ISN’T WORKING ON THE FLOOR, AND YOU HAVE TO GO DOWN ANOTHER FLOWERS to go to the Bathroom.

I Organized Because of the tot policy, Employees Being Fired for Not Being Six Feet Apartments, Promotions, Pay Raises. Oh, you are definitely not getting paid for what you will out there. Only Two 30-Minute Breaks with 11 to 10 Hours. IT’S NOT RIGHT. IT’S JUST AN INDICATION THAT YOU NEED TO DO SOOM Changes. I Never WORKED FOR A Company That Waled You For Going to the Bathroom. WHO WOULD DO THAT? They Change the schedule while you sleep. I Can Lay Down at Night, Knowing My Schedule, Wake Up in the Morning, and It’ll Be Changed to 6:15 AM You Get Time From You Don’t Know They Changed Your Schedule. You want me to keep on look at my app, to see if my schedule changed, while i’m asleep? What is this? Oh, i just don’t understand that. The reasson I want the union is Because of thought amazon was a good place to work. I realized, wow, there need to be some changes.

I met with an organizer about three times, one-on-ion. I GOT ABOUT FIVE OR SIX EPLOYEES WILLING TO HELP ME. We met with organizers, and started strategaging.

In and out of the stalls in the men’s bathrooms they Put anti-union flyers. In and out of the facilities, They Say “Vote Early, Vote No.” In the break room, on the tables, “Ten Ways We Don’t Need a Union.” Amazon Management, From Out of Town, Walking Around Talking to Employees About Why We Don’t Need the Union. You know, Scare Tactics. But they don’t come to me.

Be i have my break, have to leave the facility. Be i’m in there so long and working so hard, have to go outside. I always go to my Truck. But it hurts be i’m on break and i see the anti-union signs. I Feel Bad. I Feel Disappointed. I Feel Like I’m Not Appreciated. I Can’t Undersand Why the Company Treats Employees like the Treats Employees, and Run Around, Trying to Convince They Don’t Need No Union. I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY THEY WE DON’T NEED NO UNION WENE THERE AROUND FIRING EPLOYEES WITH JUST Cause? For not being being six feet apart, we are it i difficult to stay six as apart in the facility. We get tired. We want to have job security. NOBODY SHOULD COME TO WORK AND FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE, not knowing if they will get fired for going to the Bathroom.

You want to feel good your workplace. You want to feel like you’re appreciated. But it’s not like that there. That’s why we Need a union.

We have confirmed caes of Covid Just About Every Week. And they don’t let us know where the employs workhed, i don’t feel Amazon is cleaning propperly. SOMESTEMES WHEN I Get to My Station in the Morning Its Still Dirty, Trash. It ‘hard to get a supervisor in the station Because they don’t walk around to see what you’re doing or what you need. You’re taking a chance every day. Of the Course of Feel Unsafe. Everybody’s Got Responsibility, Everybody Needs A Job. We just can’t not be at work.

They don’t caare about Black Lives. I Feel Like They Try to make it seem like they do, especilly when it is comes to martin Luther King. They’ve Got Fliers and Pictures of Martin Luther King and Black History in the Hallways. They’re just trying to make it seem like they do caare, Because the Majority of the Plant is Black. EIight-five percent of it is Black and Most of say that are Black are Black females.

The Union Will Change Job Security. And promotions. The union will go by seniority. And upt my, unpaid my off. What I Mean by UPT is if you’re 15 minutes late, they’re gonna automatically taken an hour away from you. (Ed. Note: Amazon Workers Are Only Allotted 20 HOURS OF UNPAID TIME OFF FOR YEAR.) You’ve Got Big Turnover in the Company Becayees Employees Get Firehed Because of Time. The union will stop you from getting docked for going to the Bathroom or getting a drink of water. And Better Pay Rate, and Better Benefits. Mainly, i Just Want to Not Get Fired for Not Being Six Feet apart. I just want employs to get treated like the’re’re suppoted to, and in my heart, I feel the union can bring it.