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To be honest I find it much more likely Amazon would just shut down the Bessemer, Alabama warehouse, terminate the employment of any workers who joined the unio
by oarabbus_ 6y ago
To be honest I find it much more likely Amazon would just shut down the Bessemer, Alabama warehouse, terminate the employment of any workers who joined the union, and open a new warehouse within a 50 mile radius of the current one.
edit: since there are labor law repercussions to terminate the unionized workers, they'd likely just shut down the plant in its entirety.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- eplanit 6y agoAnd invest (even more) heavily in robotics.
- amelius 6y agoThat would cause even more outrage.
- oarabbus_ 6y agoAnd? It's a business decision, not a popularity contest. Amazon is not afraid of "outrage".
- maxerickson 6y agoMy understanding is that it would be illegal to do that under Federal labor law (they can't punish the workers that joined the union for joining the union).
- oarabbus_ 6y agoI think you're right, but they have ways to do it. They'd simply shut down the plant in it's entirety, and open another warehouse far away. They can dress it up as "operational inefficiencies" or "poor location for shipping" etc. The fact the workers were going to unionize? Oh, just a coincidence! We were already planning to shut down our Alabama location anyway.
- maxerickson 6y agoI would expect that tactic to still require that they give the workers at the facility shutting down similar opportunities to what they have given other employees in the past in similar situations.
- edmundsauto 6y agoIt's a pretty easy loophole: offer workers their jobs at a different location with no relocation benefits. Most warehouse workers aren't going to take them up on it.
- oarabbus_ 6y agoAnd drive a 50+ mile commute daily? None of the workers are going to take them up on that "offer".
- MeinBlutIstBlau 6y agoIt's called a blacklist
- scsilver 6y agoIm not sure they have the political will to do that right now. They are under the federal and social microscope, during a new bipartisan wave of antitrust sentiment.