For the last seven weeks, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, have been voting by mail on whether to unionize. If the union wins, the warehouse employees would become the first members of Amazon’s us workforce to unionize.

The vote is taking place at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. In total, nearly 6,000 workers are eligible to vote.

Amazon tracks the average rate at which workers perform a task, called’takt time’. If workers fail to maintain a fast pace, they get reprimanded or fired.

This is a common complaint among workers at bhm1 and other Amazon facilities.’it got to the point where people started complaining about going to the bathroom and coming back,’ said one worker.

Darryl Richardson, one of the employees to reach out to the rwdsu, previously said he wanted the people to get treated with respect. Connelly and other workers hope a union can improve working conditions and create a process around dismissals that feels less arbitrary.

Many of the workers are acutely aware that Amazon has done stupendously well during the pandemic, with profits up 84 percent in 2020. Jeff Bezos’ personal wealth has risen by about $ 70 billion.

The majority of workers at bhm1 are black, and many participated in the protests around Birmingham. The rwdsu has also framed the campaign as a matter of civil rights and racial justice.

A lot of the employees at Amazon are tired of being treated any kind of way, and being treated like they’re less than anyone else,’ said Connelly.’right now, the union is another entity of that voice,’ he said.

Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the US, with 800,000 employees. The only other unionization effort to make it to a vote was in 2014, and it failed after an aggressive anti-union campaign.

‘there’s a basic principle of organizing work that success breeds success, and that organizing often happens in self-reinforcing cycles of victory,’ said Professor Benjamin Sachs.’the workers are more likely to take a risk when they see that the risk is going to pay off,’ he said.

Amazon has been touting this effect in ads lobbying for a $ 15 minimum wage. A recent study found that when Amazon raised its starting wage to $ 15 an hour in 2018, wages at nearby employers also rose.

When Amazon opens a warehouse, a Bloomberg analysis found, wages at nearby warehouses often drop. Amazon’s methods for worker tracking and enforcing productivity have also spread across the logistics industry.

Sachs calls Amazon a bellwether employer, for its outsize role in shaping the labor market and defining the future of work.’the unionization of that industry had a lot to do with labor law reform,’ he said.

Facebook ads directed to a website that warned workers they would have to pay union dues. The company has brought in a high-priced union-busting firm and held mandatory meetings at the warehouse.

The Amazon spokesperson defended the company’s response to the union effort.’it is important that all employees understand the facts of joining a union and the election process,’ she said.

Amazon sent employees with instructions on filling out their ballot with a’no’ vote and messaged them to deposit their ballots in a new mailbox installed at the warehouse entrance. After losing its fight to have the election held in-person, the company has also employed more unorthodox measures.

Employers have extreme structural advantages over organizers under us labor law. They are often left to canvass employees on nearby streets and sidewalks. Amazon asked the county to change the timing on the traffic light.

More than 3,000 workers had signed cards expressing interest in a union in the run up to the election. Amazon’s high rate of turnover, many of the workers who signed cards may no longer work there.

The union has been buoyed by a series of outside supporters. Sen. Bernie Sanders and activist killer Mike visited the warehouse on Friday. The latest in a string of official and celebrity delegations to Bessemer.

The National Labor Relations Board regional office will vote on Monday, March 29. Counting will begin Tuesday morning but it may be several days before we know the result.

Companies often Stonewall in negotiations over a first contract, requiring further public and political pressure from the Union.’there are so many examples of where unions win elections, and eventually they walk away because they can not get the company to bargain in good faith,’ said Professor.