Amazon.com reacts swiftly to union campaign

Seattle, Washington, Nov. 16— Less than 24 hours after Amazon’s Seattle customer service representatives announced that they had begun a union organizing campaign, Amazon management has already launched an aggressive anti-union campaign.

One Amazon executive has called an “all-hands meeting” for Friday to discuss union organizing efforts with Seattle customer service workers. In addition, managers have already met to discuss the union recognition campaign, and learn how to talk to individual workers regarding a union.

These developments come after Amazon told CNN on Thursday: “It’s not the first time they have tried to organize. It’s nothing new,” said company spokeswoman Patty Smith. Amazon’s public nonchalance is at odds with the concern company executives are communicating to employees about possible unionization.

Even though the right to join a union is protected under federal law, and is mentioned as a basic human right in international accords, it has become common practice in the United States for companies to vigorously oppose any attempts by workers to form unions and bargain collectively.

Amazon’s top executives are joining the anti-union campaign. “I would like to invite you to one of the All Hands meetings scheduled below to discuss union organizing efforts,” wrote Bill Price, Amazon’s Vice President of Customer Service, in an e-mail to Seattle workers today. The e-mail also said that individuals would be paid if they attended the meeting if they were not scheduled to work that day.

“I want to know why we are getting paid to attend this one when we were specifically told we would not get paid for attending past all-hands meetings,” asked Myrtle Griffiths, a member of the Amazon union organizing committee.

While Amazon calls this an “all-hands meeting,” unions call them “captive audience” meetings because workers usually have to sit through long meetings while the company gives its perspective on unionization, but workers are given no opportunity to voice pro-union statements. These meetings can be very effective in stopping organizing drives as companies use them to intimidate and pressure workers into not supporting the union. Captive audience meetings are not illegal under federal labor law. However, labor organizations have argued that they are a form of intimidation by management seeking to discourage workers from joining the union.

Besides holding captive audience meetings, Amazon is training its managers to tell workers that unions will lead to strikes, picket lines, and possible job loss. “Inform reps of the disadvantages of joining a union, including the possibility of strikes, serving on picket line, fines and dues,” wrote company executive Laurie Arnold in an email to Amazon supervisors on Thursday.

Arnold’s email is typical of the anti-union rhetoric companies send to employees when faced with a union organizing drive. According to the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the vast majority of union contract negotiations -- about 97 percent -- are settled without a strike. The CWA also notes that local union decisions, including any decisions on whether to approve a contract or strike, are made democratically by the members of that local union, and not by any so-called “union bosses.”

Source: WashTech

Mexican oil workers take over state-run gas plant

Villahermosa, Mexico, Nov. 14— About 300 employees of the state-owned Pemex oil company took over a gas plant in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Tabasco to demand aid payments they said they had been promised.

The workers blocked entrances and occupied administrative offices Tuesday at the Ciudad Pemex natural gas plant about 55 kilometers (35 miles) east of Villahermosa, the state capital. They demanded that the company give them tax rebates promised by the federal government as part of an aid package for parts of Tabasco that flooded last year.

The workers said those rebates -- equivalent to about 15 percent of their wages -- had never been paid. A local leader of the oil workers’ union said the money may have been used by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to fund political campaigns.

“The rebates were channeled into vote buying and campaigns,” said union leader Jorge Chavez.

The PRI won the Tabasco state governorship in October amid charges of fraud, and the PRI has a history of campaign finance scandals in the state. Local PRI leaders were not immediately available for comment.

The Ciudad Pemex plant produces natural gas for domestic use. The rebates were due to as many as 15,000 Pemex employees in the region, and workers said they might expand their protests.

“We will pressure as much as we need to,” Chavez said.

Carlos Morales Gil, assistant regional director of the Pemex Exploration and Production division, said the protests had affected the company’s operations but that “it’s all under control.”

Morales Gil said Pemex has begun talks with the federal Treasury Secretariat on the dispute.

Source: Associated Press

South Africans march against privatization

Johannesburg, South Africa, Nov. 19— More than 60,000 municipal workers around South Africa on November 15-17 staged strikes and marches to oppose the privatization of local government services being pushed through by mainly African National Congress-controlled councils.

In Johannesburg, members of South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union picketed the city council’s offices on November 16. An estimated 25,000 workers marched through the city the following day. SAMWU and IMATU members also went on strike and marched in Pretoria, Durban, and Northern Cape and Northern provinces.

In Cape Town, rival ANC and Democratic Alliance councilors suspended campaigning for the December local government election and united to apply to the Labor Court to ban the strike.

Workers were extremely angry when they heard that the water multinational with the worst track record in the world, Suez-Lyonnaise, had announced in Paris on November 16 that it had won the contract to privatize Johannesburg’s water. SAMWU said that unless the contract was withdrawn, strike action was likely.

Source: Green Left Weekly: www.greenleft.org

NYU grad students vote to unionize

By Beth Gardiner

New York, New York, Nov. 16— Students working as teaching and research assistants at NYU voted 619 to 551 in favor of unionizing, becoming the first at any private US university to form a union, according to the final tally.

“This victory has been a long time coming and we are now ready to speak in a united voice to the university,” Kimberly Johnson of the Graduate Students Organizing Committee said in a statement. “It’s time to end long hours at low pay and inadequate health benefits.”

The students had voted in April, but the tally was held up for months by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) deliberations. The NLRB and the United Auto Workers, which helped organize the students, also challenged the eligibility of some voters.

A Nov. 1 labor board decision gave graduate students at private institutions the right to form unions, overturning a two-decade-old precedent. Graduate student workers at public universities are governed by state labor laws and many are already unionized.

It remained unclear whether the university would recognized the new union, however.

NYU spokesman John Beckman said the university could refuse to abide by the decision, be brought to court on an unfair labor practices charge and then make its case against the NLRB decision before a judge. He said officials had not yet decided whether to do that.

Beckman said NYU officials were troubled by the exclusion of 140 students from the vote.

The dispute that held up release of the election results centered on 94 votes from students who the UAW said did not meet eligibility requirements and 201 from students who voted despite not being eligible.

Source: Associated Press