Page 78 - Stuart Appelbaum News Today

BESSEMER, Ala. —  Timmy Johnson, a 23-year-old dockworker for Amazon, was skeptical when he first heard about the push to form a union at his warehouse. Scanning boxes and taking them to trucks was exhausting, but $15.55 an hour was more than he had earned as a stacker at Lowe’s, and he didn’t see the point of paying nearly $500 a year in dues. Then he spoke to his father, a former coal miner. “He said it was a good thing for us to have,” Johnson said. “He told me my job would be ...

Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images The US House of Representatives has officially passed a sweeping, bipartisan labor bill, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. Cheered by unions and disliked by businesses, the bill likely cannot pass the Senate without filibuster reform. The bill passed the House Tuesday night on a vote of 225-206. The bill gained the support of five House Republicans, and was co-sponsored by three Republicans: Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Chris Smith and J...

Like President Biden’s unprecedented speech in favor of unionization, last week’s visit by a group of Congressional Democrats to Bessemer, Alabama was aimed at salvaging the union drive by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) and establish tight control over a strategic section of the working class.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union jumps into a competitive House race in Ohio for a soon-to-be-vacant seat.

Column: Why the effort to unionize 5,800 workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama is the most important unionization drive in years.

The effort to unionize 5,800 workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama is the most important unionization drive in years. This is happening at the corporation that is arguably doing

What do you you do when you want to organize people without getting close to them?

Reps. Andy Levin, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush and Nikema Williams joined Terri Sewell to spotlight the union push.

If unions didn’t make workers lives better, corporations wouldn’t mind if you joined one. You know the basic story of labor in this country. Unions used to represent as many as 1 in 3 private sector workers. That number is now just 1 in 16. And as union membership has fallen, the share of income sucked up to the richest […]

Attempts by Amazon to delay the vote in Bessemer have failed. So too have the companys efforts to require in-person voting, which organizers argue would be unsafe during the pandemic. Mail-in voting started this week and will go on until the end of March. A majority of the 6,000 employees have to vote “yes" in order to unionize. Amazon, whose profits and revenues have skyrocketed during the pandemic, has campaigned hard to convince workers that a union will only suck money from their paycheck...