Yo yo, what's up everyone? You're watching Weekends with Anacasparian and Nando Vila. Nando's in Miami, okay? Yep. He's uh, enjoying himself. I saw you, I saw you wiping the sweat from your forehead and I'm like, he's definitely in Miami.

Yeah, it's just I forgot like how humid it gets here. Yeah, so I'm a little sweaty. Uh, apologies to the viewers at home. If it's like, you know, I'm just like dripping, you know, like an airplane, let's see an airplane worth it. Just like they're just water is just falling out of his head. Um, yeah. Yeah, so, uh, you'll make it through. We're gonna have a great show. Uh, Megan Day will be joining us later to talk about a number of different topics, including, you know, leftism post-Bernie. Um, and of course,

uh, we'll probably want her to weigh in on what happened in Besamer, Alabama with the Amazon warehouse workers, uh, you know, voting to unionize. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough votes. Nando's gonna do a deep dive on that in his decode segment. And I'm gonna talk about leisure, something that, um, people shockingly enjoy, uh, and we need surveys to prove it. Uh, but I'm gonna talk about the workplace, uh, and how some remote workers are definitely concerned about having to go back into the office. Um, so we'll,

unpack all of that and more. And then finally, if we have time to get to our salt segment today, I'm really looking forward to debunking the talking points by a conservative who thinks, no, no, no, people love to be classified as non-workers. And they love not getting benefits because, hey, if you're a gig worker, you get to choose your own hours. Obviously, we have, um, some thoughts on that. Yeah, I think she's invented a new category, which is woke conservatism. You know, yeah.

Like this is like, what if this, this article is an example of something that I'm gonna call woke conservatism, you know, that's just, it makes sense. Uh, absolutely. Yeah. Because, you know, and you guys will see why. I mean, she uses the framing of, we're just looking out for women. As a way to convince people that doing away with workers rights is the right way to go. But anyway, we'll get into a longer discussion about that later. Um, Nando, why don't we jump right into it? Um, let's talk a little bit about versus

so, and then get to your segment. Yes, absolutely. Well, you know that if you join the Verso Book Club, you get every new ebook that Verso publishes each month, as well as one or more books in the mail. All Verso Book Club members will also get 50% off everything on the website books and merch for as long as you are a subscriber. Each member tier is 50% off for your first three months. The Conrad tier is only $20 a month. And if you join in April, you'll get four books. Planet on fire. A manifesto

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one book, you don't get two, but you get four books for 20 books. Like it's pretty deal. Deal of a lifetime. Check it out. Yeah. So Nando, we did get some bad news just yesterday about the unionization effort in Bessemer, Alabama. And it's important to do a post mortem. Jane McLevy wrote a pretty good one in the nation, but you've got your own well thought out, produce segment on it. So why don't you jump into it?

Alrighty. Yeah, it's tough because the results of the unionization drive in Bessemer, Alabama are in and they were a crushing blow. The no votes for the union outnumbered the yes votes by a margin of around two to one. And it was the latest example of just how weak labor is and how dominant capital is right now, especially Amazon.

Yeah, I mean, we should read a lot into this. It does feel that Amazon is indestructible right now. I mean, find me a company that handled a union drive worse than Amazon did over the past few months. They've had employees, you know, basically sending photos of them peeing and bottles on the job. They've dared members of Congress to provide proof and the workers have come out and provided that proof. And yet they crushed the union in this effort. So it really just goes to show you that the state of American labor

right now is pretty weak and Amazon. I mean, that was the biggest challenge to them. Were they going to change the way that these fulfillment centers work. And it doesn't seem like that's going to be the case anytime soon. So if you're Amazon, you're in a pretty entrenched position right now.

So how did this happen? I mean, the unionization drive in Bessemer was unique compared to other similar campaigns in recent years and that it was so high profile. We saw

major national politicians and celebrities go down to Bessemer. The campaign got the attention of not just left media, but the mainstream press and even cable news.

And there was this feeling that given all the attention to the horrible working conditions at Amazon and the outpour of support from around the country that maybe just maybe these workers could do it.

And the truth is that the union campaign was likely doomed from the start because Amazon won a key victory early on. They were able to dramatically expand the size of the bargaining unit from 1500 workers to close to 6,000.

Are you surprised not necessarily by the results, but that the results seem to be so much in favor by better than two to one in favor of Amazon, not the union here.

Well, I'm saddened, but I'm not completely surprised because of the kind of compromises that the union had to take in order to get to an election.

They had to be willing to accept into the petition for bargaining unit as substantial number of employees that Amazon was pressing to include these were seasonal employees.

Seasonal employees are generally not considered part of a bargaining unit for union election, but this was allowed otherwise it would have been tied up in litigation for the better part of the year and the longer it took for it to go to election.

The more time Amazon would have had to work at the anti-union campaign against the union, but as it stands, it looks like they were effective anyhow.

Now, it's hard to overstate just how crucial this was to thwart the union. Amazon used a Trump era NLRB decision that made it easier for employers to determine the size of the potential bargaining unit.

Expanding the bargaining unit is a classic union busting tactic, the more workers you have to convince the harder it is for organizers with limited resources and time to organize them.

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