Issues Which Have Led to the Desire to Unionize Amazon or Not (Essay Sample)

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Amazon to Unionize or Not
Background: Amazon’s benefits and Working Conditions
Amazon provides various excellent incentives to staff and eligible family members, incorporating domestic partners with their children, and a starting salary of at least $15 per hour, which is more than twice the federal minimum wage ("Amazon," n.d). These robust benefits begin on the first day of employment and include health insurance, parental leave, avenues to save for the future, and other tools to foster health and well-being ("Amazon," n.d). Amazon assists its workers in establishing stable futures for themselves by including industry-leading salaries and other benefits. Furthermore, regardless of rank, tenure, or role, Amazon provides medical, prescription drug, vision, and dental coverage to all its regular full-time workers. Employees are rewarded for their efforts with pay and valuable support for themselves and their families. Furthermore, Amazon provides up to 20 weeks of parental leave to birth mothers and six weeks to adoptive parents ("Amazon," n.d).
Issues Which Have Led to the Desire to Unionize
As the most prominent American e-commerce store, hiring over one million employees and exponentially expanding, Amazon's workplace labor policies have been susceptible to continued criticism, with reports on job conditions, increasing injury rates, workplace surveillance, and campaigns to block unionization. According to Willow (2019), there are several reports of workers being forced to hit exceedingly high targets, exposed to stringent breaks and a terrifying work environment, remotely tracked, and concerned that failing to meet targets will result in imminent loss of employment (Willow, 2019). Amazon started to discuss factory pay and employment opportunities in the late 2010s. Despite raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, providing healthcare incentives, and conducting COVID-19 testing, labor unions and government leaders criticized Amazon's factory working practices ("Working from Home," n.d).
Process Taken by Employees to Unionize
According to Jones (2021), employees at other facilities were calling for improvements to workplace practices, while staff at the Bessemer, Ala. factory voted on whether or not to unionize. They were gathering signatures on petitions and discussing the prospect of going on strike. They were also said to be talking to unions about possible demands.
Process Taken by Amazon to Prevent Unionization
Throughout Amazon's 25-year history, it has effectively resisted unionization attempts. For instance, when the Communication Employees of America began a movement to unionize 400 customer service staff at a call center in 2000, the organization closed it (Nickelsburg, 2020). Amazon reported that the call center was closed as part of a more considerable consolidation and layoffs at the time. According to Jones (2021), Amazon had increased its attempts to persuade staff in Bessemer not to form a union. The corporation said that its employees did not need collective bargaining arrangements because it already provided much of the benefits that unions demand. Amazon has devised methods for detecting possible union activity among its employees. The corporation immediately removed the two job postings for intelligence analysts whose responsibilities included monitoring "labor organizing threats," claiming that they did not adequately describe the jobs (Nickelsburg, 2020).
Discussion
The workers' decision to unionize was ethical. Collecting signatures and alerting the public to the likelihood of peaceful protests is ethical, in contrast to Amazon management, which discouraged unionization by threatening to fire employees who joined labor unions. Employees should be able to make sound decisions in union elections without being influenced by their employers.
Unions are more relevant now than they have ever been. Employment is evolving in a global economy, and some workers are resisting unionization. When employees attempt to join unions, they are often met with misinformation and threats, including the dismissal of union supporters. Workers have little control when acting alone, but they may impact significant change when working as a group. Unions are the employees' united voice. Unions use their influence and power to ensure that emplo