Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: John Logan on Bessemer

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Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2021

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

Suzi talks to labor historian John Logan who assesses the historic unionization drive against Amazon at the new Bessemer Alabama warehouse — and processes the outcome: a no vote for the Retail Workers union. Front line workers took on the second largest, notoriously anti-union company in the US during a pandemic — and won widespread sympathy and media coverage — but failed to win enough votes to get union recognition. With so much riding on this struggle, we ask what was achieved, and what the defeat means for organizing in the US, where labor law is stacked in favor of the employers. We get John Logan’s perspective on the larger significance of this drive as well as the nitty gritty of the obstacles faced every step of the way.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Jacobin Radio, I'm Suzy Weismann. On today's program we spend the hour with labor
0:22.2	historian John Logan to assess the historic unionization drive against Amazon at their
0:28.5	new Bessemer Alabama warehouse and the outcome, a no vote for the retail workers union. Frontline
0:35.5	workers took on the second largest company in the United States, a notoriously anti-union
0:40.2	company with unlimited resources during a pandemic and one widespread sympathy and media
0:45.9	coverage but failed to win enough votes to get union recognition. With so much writing
0:50.6	on this struggle, we'll ask John what was achieved and what the defeat means for organizing
0:55.9	in the United States where labor law is stacked in favor of the employers. We'll get his
1:00.6	perspective on the larger significance of this drive as well as the nitty-gritty of the
1:05.7	obstacles faced every step of the way. All this when our program returns in just a moment.
1:25.9	This is Jacobin Radio, I'm Suzy Weismann and very pleased to have John Logan back with us today.
1:52.5	It's a labor historian and we're going to talk about the defeat of the historic unionization
1:58.1	drive at the new Amazon plant in Bessemer Alabama which we've been covering literally non-stop
2:04.7	since January. The NLRB completed the vote count on Friday after several weeks of deciding
2:11.0	which ballots were to be challenged. In the end they voted 76 ballots and challenged
2:16.7	another 505. These numbers, you know, just let them percolate. 738 votes were cast for. Joining
2:24.7	the RWDSU will call it RW from now on and 1,798 voted against joining the union. The number
2:34.7	of eligible voters otherwise known as the size of the proposed bargaining unit was 5,876
2:43.8	and there were 3,041 valid votes counted. These are all important numbers that we'll get back to and plus that
2:50.9	challenged ballots. The unionization drive garnered widespread sympathy and media coverage and here
2:58.7	were frontline workers taking on the second largest company in the United States and notoriously
3:04.8	anti-union company at that with unlimited resources and we're going to ask John to go through
	...

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