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New Day at Amazon.com: Online Workers Reach Out to CWA
CWA has launched an organizing push at dot-com companies with campaigns now underway to help workers at three online retailers to unionize.
At an Amazon.com customer service center in Seattle, more than 400 customer service representatives are pursuing union representation with the help of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. WashTech/CWA Local 37083 organizers say they have had inquiries from workers at several other dot-coms,
Also, in San Francisco, Northern California Media Workers/Typographical Union, Local 39521, has filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a representation election among reps at two Collaborative Media enterprises, Etown.com and ShopAudioVideo.com.
Fed up with low pay, excessive overtime and near-worthless stock options, customer service workers at Amazon.com have since mid-November formed an organizing committee, launched their own website, and at CWA News press time, were well on the way to collecting 400 signatures on a petition seeking representation by WashTech.
Meeting regularly with WashTech organizers, they put together a public relations campaign that hit during Amazon.com’s strongest retail season, bringing its workers’ plight to life in the pages of Business Week magazine, The New York Times and other major newspapers around the nation.
“The organizing campaign at Amazon.com is shattering the myth that high-tech workers in the new economy don’t want representation, and that unions are irrelevant in the 21st century,” said WashTech Co-Founder and Organizer Marcus Courtney.
For a Piece of the Pie
A handful of Amazon.com customer service reps first got together in a pizza parlor in late October and decided to reach out to colleagues, seeking ways to improve their situation. They quickly identified common concerns.
Job security is issue number one for the Amazon.com service reps, Courtney said. They are well aware that the company laid off 150 workers last January when the holiday crunch came to an end and began using more than 100 customer service representatives in Delhi, India. And, workers say, they are worried that the company might move their jobs to new offices in North Dakota or West Virginia.
While the company says it didn’t replace any current workers, customer service rep J.J. Wandler told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, “We feel like we’re being phased out.”
Their hourly pay of $11 to $13 per hour is less than competitive in the Seattle area, service reps say, but their salaries were supposed to be offset by stock options. Though the company was on target to nearly double its sales to $2.8 billion by the end of 2000, in early December it had yet to show a profit. Stock worth $113 per share in December 1999 had plummeted to less than $25 per share at the start of the recent holiday season.
And, workers are exhausted from forced overtime. Reps routinely required to work 50-hour weeks put in 70 hours a week during the holiday rush.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos consistently tells the media and workers, “Everyone in this company is an owner. We don’t need unions in Amazon.com."
But employees beg to differ. Customer service rep Kirk Sheldon, 25, told Steven Greenhouse of The New York Times, “Our ownership feels hollow. Managers say they are willing to hear our input, but there isn’t follow-through. The inaction is the root of why we’re organizing.”
It’s Day Two at Amazon
Zach Works, a 24-year-old Amazon service rep, explained to Business Week’s Aaron Bernstein how the group adopted a name.
“Bezos is always telling us, ‘It’s Day One, we can’t stop or rest,’ and we think five years of Day One is generating lots of problems for us.”
Reflecting their new way of thinking, they chose to be known as Day2@Amazon.com. They’ve developed their own website, hosted by WashTech at www.washtech.org.
The web address is broadly circulated among service reps by both word of mouth and e-mail, and serves as a rich organizing tool and source of news on the campaign.
“We, the hourly customer service workers at Amazon.com believe in the future of the company and that its future depends on the commitment to quality customer service and the people who provide it,” reads Day2’s mission statement.
Calling for increased job security, compensation, respect, promotional opportunities and continuing education — and “a majority organization that promotes our interests” — they invite reps to sign onto the mission statement or to contact the organizing committee by e-mailing day2@washtech.org.
The Day2 website is loaded with information to inform customer service workers about their rights in the workplace, particularly the right to organize, to let them know what kind of reaction to expect from management and to answer scores of frequently asked questions about union membership.
WashTech’s Courtney said the technique has been highly effective but that the committee preferred not to release numbers while it continues to build strength.
Bezos has met personally with workers to convince them they don’t need a union. Management for a time even required that service reps e-mail inquiring customers that, “While unions do have a role in society, at Amazon.com everyone is an owner and can exercise individual right to raise any workplace issue or concerns at any time.”
Day2/WashTech responded that requiring employees to send such a statement under their own signatures “may be illegal under U.S labor law.”
Now service reps at Amazon.com have the option to forward inquiries to supervisors — who still send out the statement. The company runs tips on its internal website to help managers spot organizing activity.
Union-Busting at Etown
At Etown.com and ShopAudioVideo.com, customer service reps, assisted by Local 39521 and the San Jose Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39098, are keeping up their fight for a union voice.
The campaign by 36 customer service representatives got underway in October, with workers pressing for job stability, an improved training program and other issues. By Thanksgiving Week, more than 70 percent of the unit had signed an authorization card and TNG-CWA Local 39521 filed for an NLRB election.
Despite a campaign of intimidation and harassment by management — including the firing of union activists and supporters — the Etown workers are determined to win their union.
As the organizing drive picked up steam, four employees were terminated because of their union activity. After the local filed for the representation election, another 13 customer service representatives were fired.
On Friday, Dec. 7, more than 100 workers, union members and community supporters rallied in front of Etown.com in San Francisco, to protest the company’s illegal tactics and to press forward in their campaign for respect and dignity, job security and a real voice in decision-making.
The company claims the layoffs were to cut costs, said Local 39521 Staff Represent-ative Erin Tyson Poh, but “if nothing else, the timing speaks to an anti-union animus.”
An NLRB hearing was set for Dec. 13 to determine when the election will be held. The local has filed unfair labor practice charges on behalf of the fired workers and is seeking a 10(j) injunction that would require Etown to rehire the workers immediately.
“The 15 workers left remain strong,” Poh said. “They’re committed to the organizing drive.”
At an Amazon.com customer service center in Seattle, more than 400 customer service representatives are pursuing union representation with the help of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. WashTech/CWA Local 37083 organizers say they have had inquiries from workers at several other dot-coms,
Also, in San Francisco, Northern California Media Workers/Typographical Union, Local 39521, has filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a representation election among reps at two Collaborative Media enterprises, Etown.com and ShopAudioVideo.com.
Fed up with low pay, excessive overtime and near-worthless stock options, customer service workers at Amazon.com have since mid-November formed an organizing committee, launched their own website, and at CWA News press time, were well on the way to collecting 400 signatures on a petition seeking representation by WashTech.
Meeting regularly with WashTech organizers, they put together a public relations campaign that hit during Amazon.com’s strongest retail season, bringing its workers’ plight to life in the pages of Business Week magazine, The New York Times and other major newspapers around the nation.
“The organizing campaign at Amazon.com is shattering the myth that high-tech workers in the new economy don’t want representation, and that unions are irrelevant in the 21st century,” said WashTech Co-Founder and Organizer Marcus Courtney.
For a Piece of the Pie
A handful of Amazon.com customer service reps first got together in a pizza parlor in late October and decided to reach out to colleagues, seeking ways to improve their situation. They quickly identified common concerns.
Job security is issue number one for the Amazon.com service reps, Courtney said. They are well aware that the company laid off 150 workers last January when the holiday crunch came to an end and began using more than 100 customer service representatives in Delhi, India. And, workers say, they are worried that the company might move their jobs to new offices in North Dakota or West Virginia.
While the company says it didn’t replace any current workers, customer service rep J.J. Wandler told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, “We feel like we’re being phased out.”
Their hourly pay of $11 to $13 per hour is less than competitive in the Seattle area, service reps say, but their salaries were supposed to be offset by stock options. Though the company was on target to nearly double its sales to $2.8 billion by the end of 2000, in early December it had yet to show a profit. Stock worth $113 per share in December 1999 had plummeted to less than $25 per share at the start of the recent holiday season.
And, workers are exhausted from forced overtime. Reps routinely required to work 50-hour weeks put in 70 hours a week during the holiday rush.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos consistently tells the media and workers, “Everyone in this company is an owner. We don’t need unions in Amazon.com."
But employees beg to differ. Customer service rep Kirk Sheldon, 25, told Steven Greenhouse of The New York Times, “Our ownership feels hollow. Managers say they are willing to hear our input, but there isn’t follow-through. The inaction is the root of why we’re organizing.”
It’s Day Two at Amazon
Zach Works, a 24-year-old Amazon service rep, explained to Business Week’s Aaron Bernstein how the group adopted a name.
“Bezos is always telling us, ‘It’s Day One, we can’t stop or rest,’ and we think five years of Day One is generating lots of problems for us.”
Reflecting their new way of thinking, they chose to be known as Day2@Amazon.com. They’ve developed their own website, hosted by WashTech at www.washtech.org.
The web address is broadly circulated among service reps by both word of mouth and e-mail, and serves as a rich organizing tool and source of news on the campaign.
“We, the hourly customer service workers at Amazon.com believe in the future of the company and that its future depends on the commitment to quality customer service and the people who provide it,” reads Day2’s mission statement.
Calling for increased job security, compensation, respect, promotional opportunities and continuing education — and “a majority organization that promotes our interests” — they invite reps to sign onto the mission statement or to contact the organizing committee by e-mailing day2@washtech.org.
The Day2 website is loaded with information to inform customer service workers about their rights in the workplace, particularly the right to organize, to let them know what kind of reaction to expect from management and to answer scores of frequently asked questions about union membership.
WashTech’s Courtney said the technique has been highly effective but that the committee preferred not to release numbers while it continues to build strength.
Bezos has met personally with workers to convince them they don’t need a union. Management for a time even required that service reps e-mail inquiring customers that, “While unions do have a role in society, at Amazon.com everyone is an owner and can exercise individual right to raise any workplace issue or concerns at any time.”
Day2/WashTech responded that requiring employees to send such a statement under their own signatures “may be illegal under U.S labor law.”
Now service reps at Amazon.com have the option to forward inquiries to supervisors — who still send out the statement. The company runs tips on its internal website to help managers spot organizing activity.
Union-Busting at Etown
At Etown.com and ShopAudioVideo.com, customer service reps, assisted by Local 39521 and the San Jose Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39098, are keeping up their fight for a union voice.
The campaign by 36 customer service representatives got underway in October, with workers pressing for job stability, an improved training program and other issues. By Thanksgiving Week, more than 70 percent of the unit had signed an authorization card and TNG-CWA Local 39521 filed for an NLRB election.
Despite a campaign of intimidation and harassment by management — including the firing of union activists and supporters — the Etown workers are determined to win their union.
As the organizing drive picked up steam, four employees were terminated because of their union activity. After the local filed for the representation election, another 13 customer service representatives were fired.
On Friday, Dec. 7, more than 100 workers, union members and community supporters rallied in front of Etown.com in San Francisco, to protest the company’s illegal tactics and to press forward in their campaign for respect and dignity, job security and a real voice in decision-making.
The company claims the layoffs were to cut costs, said Local 39521 Staff Represent-ative Erin Tyson Poh, but “if nothing else, the timing speaks to an anti-union animus.”
An NLRB hearing was set for Dec. 13 to determine when the election will be held. The local has filed unfair labor practice charges on behalf of the fired workers and is seeking a 10(j) injunction that would require Etown to rehire the workers immediately.
“The 15 workers left remain strong,” Poh said. “They’re committed to the organizing drive.”