President Joe Biden today released a statement voicing support for workers in Alabama voting to form a union.
“Today and over the next few days and weeks, workers in Alabama and all across America are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace,” Biden said. “This is vitally important, a vitally important choice as America grapples with the deadly pandemic, the economic crisis and the reckoning on race - what it reveals (about) the deep disparities that still exist in our country.”
However, his video address of a little more than two minutes was notable for a word he did not use - Amazon.
The video released by the White House this evening, with Biden speaking and the presidential seal in the background, is the highest profile show of support for workers and union organizers in Alabama since the organizing drive began last fall at Amazon’s Bessemer fulfillment center.
Previous shows of support have come from Sen. Bernie Sanders, candidate and activist Stacey Abrams, the NFL players union, actor and activist Danny Glover, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and others. Earlier this month, labor leaders connected with the Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union (RWDSU) were reportedly in contact with senior advisors and members of the Biden Administration.
In his address, Biden also alluded to allegations made against Amazon by union organizers, saying, “there should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda. No supervisor should confront employees about their union preferences.”
Here is full coverage of the Alabama Amazon unionization effort
In a little more than a month, ballots from workers at Amazon’s Bessemer fulfillment center will be counted in an ongoing mail-in election on whether to organize as part of the RWDSU. Ballots were sent out to more than 5,000 workers at the center earlier this month.
The election has also been a source of controversy, with union organizers pointing to everything from an anti-union website created by Amazon, to changing traffic lights near the center, as actions by Amazon against the union vote. Amazon, for its part, has said in several statements that the company believes the union does not represent the majority of its employees’ views.
Biden said the statement was part of a promise for his administration to support “unions organizing and the right to collectively bargain.”
“So let me be really clear,” Biden said. “It’s not up to me to decide whether anyone should join a union. 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, full stop.”
Biden opened his talk by laying out his beliefs on the benefit of unions.
“I’ve long said America wasn’t built by Wall Street, it was built by the middle class, and unions built the middle class,” he said. “Unions put power in the hands of workers. They level the playing field. They give you a stronger voice for your health, your safety, higher wages, protections from racial discrimination and sexual harassment. Unions lift up workers, both union and non-union, and especially Black and brown workers.”
Pointing at the camera, Biden told workers to “make your voice heard.”
“You know, every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union,” he 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.”
Stuart Appelbaum, President of the RWDSU, in a statement thanked Biden for the “clear message of support.”
“As President Biden points out, the best way for working people to protect themselves and their families is by organizing into unions,” Appelbaum said. “And that is why so many working women and men are fighting for a union at the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama.”
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