The NLRB is Not The Only Route To Unionization. But the Unorganized Need Backup.

Source

 

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

GED/HEO

10-20-22

 

Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table. George P Schultz

 

I see that Amazon workers at the ALBI facility in upstate New York have rejected a union vote. According to the National Labor Relations Board, (NLRB) about 66% of the workers rejected joining the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), the independent union for Amazon workers founded by Chris Smalls.

 

Naturally, Amazon bosses and its mouthpieces are elated that the company can continue to “……work directly with our teammates in Albany, as we do everywhere,” says one Amazon spokesperson.

 

“We are filled with resolve to continue and expand our campaign for fair treatment for all Amazon workers,”, Chris Smalls, the ALA president said in response to the result and that it’s not a loss but a part of “an ongoing battle.”. He's right about that.

 

Smalls and the ALU that he co-founded, successfully organized the Amazon workers at the JFK8 facility in Staten Island, a much larger facility than the upper New York State plant with over 8000 eligible voters compared to the ALBI with some 900 eligible voters. This might have contributed to the result. And despite this setback, and increased propaganda from Amazon with television ads touting the company’s generosity, Amazon workers throughout the country are anything but passive.

 

But, as I have stated in numerous articles on failed organizing drives, often reported by Labor Notes, what matters most in these drives is whether or not the union can bring the potential power of the working class, organized labor and workers in the communities to the table.

 

Power Attracts

Myself and another retired trade unionist and socialist were asked to give a short introduction to a discussion on the recent developments within organized labor in the U.S. to some friends in the UK and other parts of the world. Not surprisingly, many activists and socialists throughout the world are excited about the recent upsurge in pro-union activity in the US, Amazon, Starbucks and a couple at Apple facilities are an example.

 

One of the points I made was while this is a very positive development, the union drives are primarily directed through established legal channels, and I mean here the National Labor Relations Board. This is no small matter as even in these cases, workers using the rights afforded to them by the state, the bosses still respond aggressively, holding anti-union workplace meetings, threatening workers, firing them and so on. I call it workplace terrorism.

 

But the NLRB route has its limits. In the case of the success at the JFK8 facility, it is not yet done. Amazon contested the vote despite one of the NLRB hearing officers recommending the vote be upheld. The Amazon bosses will use every legal maneuver possible to delay the result of the JFK8 vote as they bribe, threaten and coerce workers to switch sides, every minute of every day.

 

At the ALBI facility, workers earn about $17 an hour which is approximately $2 above the minimum wage here in California. The $17 came about because of the activity of the ALU and the work that Chris Smalls and others are doing to organize other Amazon facilities. Amazon only recently raised wages in the front-line jobs to “an average of $19 across the country”. It is crucial for us to recognize this; that Amazon raised wages of its front-line workers throughout the nation by one to two dollars an hour as a direct result of the union activity in its plants as well as in other workplaces like Starbucks. It did it at a cost of some $1 billion just to to keep unions out.

 

I think most workers, including many that have rejected union organizing drives like the four-time rejection at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga Tennessee, do so because they are well aware of the brutality of the bosses’ not because they are anti-union. They know what they will face if they vote yes on a union. If the union involved cannot respond to the bosses’ retaliation and threats with some real power, mass picketing, shutting down or slowing production, turning out thousands of supporters in response to victimization  rather than filing NLRB charges or asking some Democratic politician for help, the workers will not risk the consequences and take the safest route out.

 

One woman at the ALBI facility who voted no, told the Wall Street Journal that “….she wasn’t convinced the union could deliver better pay and benefits.” . Why would she not feel this way? The. Trade union leadership whose policy is concessions, has failed the 14 million members in organized labor to the point that union workers have to work more than one job to survive. Wages, benefits and union power on the job is being eroded with the support of the present hierarchy at the helm of the AFL-CIO, all in order to defend capitalism and the market. Seeing the organizations they lead as employment agencies with themselves as the CEO’s, when capitalism goes in to crisis their immediate response is to “save the business”, bail it out at the expense of their own members’ living standards and power on the job.

 

Here in California we are more than three months in to contract talks between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) that represents employers like terminal operators and shipping lines. The ILWU represents the workers on the docks of the West Coast from the Mexican border to Canada and the potential power of the ILWU and the port workers is considerable as 40% of cargo containers that enter the US come through the Longbeach and Los Angeles hubs. California is the 5^th largest economy in the world with a GDP of about $3.5 trillion close to 15% of the US total so a strike by the ILWU could cripple the US economy and curtail profit taking for a while.

 

Yet we hear almost nothing about this dispute. The reason for this blackout in the mass media is the leadership of the ILWU has ensured the bosses and the Biden Administration that there will be no strike, or lockout and the post pandemic economy will not be threatened. Both sides have pledged to keep port operations moving according to some reports in the media. I have heard that there is a bit of s stumbling block over some issues but what an opportunity this could be.

 

As I write I believe dock workers, members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) that represents workers on the East Coast, the Great Lakes and some other water ways, are threatening to strike at the Mobile Docks in Alabama.  I saw on the ILA website that this union promised “Full Solidarity and Support” to the dockworkers that were on strike in Felixtsowe in the UK.  But these are just empty phrases. Full support from one group of workers to another means not handling goods that hurt others. It means challenging and violating anti-union laws and not limiting demands to those that effect only the workers on strike.

 

The two maritime unions alone could transform the situation in the US and the balance of class forces. The 14 million members of organized labor in the US could be mobilized, links built with the unorganized and low waged that are stirring at the moment and setting roots deep in to our communities linking organized labor with the housing, transportation, health care and other struggles that are present throughout the country but are all left to confront US capital, and indeed, global capitalism alone. Industrial unionism came about in the US by violating the law, though mass action, occupations and the Civil Rights movement that followed used the same tactics. We must not lose sight of the fact that unions were illegal and were only accepted after mass action and breaking laws.

 

We know the present leadership of organized labor will not take this route as they are wedded to the Team Concept and the so-called free market. Chris Smalls of the Amazon Labor Union and leading figures in the efforts to organize Starbucks like Laila Dalton and other non-union workplaces like Apple Corp, were not invited to the AFL-CIO Convention in June despite organizing new members being an item on the Agenda. That says it all.

 

After a few years of telling “essential workers” what heroes they are and lavishing constant praise on those workers who for years have been treated like dirt, underpaid and overworked, we are witnessing an upsurge in activity particularly in the low waged sector. It will not be easy to put this genie back in the bottle.

But the bosses’ are responding with both the carrot and the stick and will not yield easily.

 

We learn through the struggle for reforms. The movement that is growing across the country will discover that relying on capitalist institutions, the courts, the NLRB, or the Democratic Party and its agents within organized labor has limits. Relying on our own strength as workers. Building an independent mass movement of all workers, union and non-union, linking with our communities and other workers internationally, and ultimately building a political party of our own is what will clear the path to a secure future for all.