Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994.
One of the original names he picked for the company was — this is not a joke — “relentless.”
While good taste prevailed in the end, Amazon has pursued a relentless strategy in all facets of business…
… including against worker unionization
However, things may soon change after the company reached a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last week, per NPR.
This result comes after Amazon warehouse workers — in 6 separate cases — told the board that the ecommerce giant was blocking union organizing efforts.
Amazon interference was a major talking point following a (failed) union vote at an Alabama warehouse last April.
The road to unionization?
According to NPR, Amazon will change its union stance by:
- Emailing current and past employees (anyone who worked between March 2021 and now) about their right to organize
- Creating more room for unionization activities within its buildings
- Not threatening or disciplining workers for organizing in “exterior non-work areas during non-work time”
Further, the NLRB will have a straightforward path to suing Amazon if it doesn’t abide by this nationwide settlement.
Unions have been trending down for decades
Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 20% of US workers were union members in 1983. Today, it’s only 11%.
But, Amazon — with 750k employees — is a clear bellwether as the 2nd largest private employer in America after Walmart.
The settlement comes as workers at other companies (e.g., Kellogg’s, John Deere) have organized high-profile strikes, and could lead to relentless change for unionization in America.
Fun fact: Bezos still owns the URL to www.relentless.com and it redirects to… well, you can probably guess.
