“Amazon Union Drive Takes Hold in Unlikely Place” 25 January 2021

The largest, most viable effort to unionize Amazon in many years began last summer … in the right-to-work state of Alabama.

By late December, more than 2,000 workers signed cards indicating they wanted an election … The National Labor Relations Board then determined there was “sufficient” interest in a union election … About a week ago, the board announced that voting by mail would start next month and continue through the end of March.

Just getting to an election is an achievement for unions, which have failed for years to break into Amazon. But persuading the workers to actually vote for a union is a bigger challenge…

The retail union has pointed to its success representing workers during the pandemic as a selling point in Bessemer.

“The pandemic changed the way many people feel about their employers,” said Stuart Appelbaum, the retail union’s president. “Many workers see the benefit of having a collective voice.”

Success at the Bessemer warehouse, which opened in March, could inspire workers in the booming e-commerce industry more broadly, said Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “If you can do it in Alabama, we can do it here in Southern California for sure,” he said. “It would have a huge ripple effect.”