April 12, 2021

Amazon Workers Reject Unionization

A warehouse in Alabama didn’t go along with the pleas of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.

As a general rule, companies that deserve unions get them. Again, that’s a big generalization, but it’s something that could be a factor in the news that Amazon workers in Alabama just voted by a 71-29 margin to reject becoming a part of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

Workers tend to unionize when conditions like poor wages and bad conditions merit it. They tend not to when wages and benefits are high and there’s little reason to give up part of your paycheck to a political organization, especially when there are so many recent stories of union bigwigs committing fraud and embezzling money.

Think this vote wasn’t political? Because most of the workers at this Alabama warehouse are black, the union and its allies tried to tie the effort to Black Lives Matter. Moreover, both President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders urged workers to unionize. “Your health, your safety, [and] higher wages” are on the line, Biden warned them in a video. Sanders actually came to Bessemer, Alabama, to personally tell workers to “take on the wealthiest guy in the world” — that would be Amazon chief Jeff Bezos. More on him in a minute.

But even Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio urged workers to unionize, albeit with very different rationale. He wanted to punish Amazon for its multiple offenses in censorship of conservatives. Rubio also hopes to expand the GOP’s outreach with blue-collar workers, though we’d have to say this particular effort fell flat.

So, back to Amazon. The union leader in Alabama suggested there might have been a problem with the integrity of the vote. However, we’re told by Reliable Sources™ like CNN that there’s never trouble with elections anymore.

Kidding aside, the real reason for the vote is far more simple. By all accounts — well, other than the ignorant ramblings of a former bartender in Congress — the world’s biggest online retailer is a pretty good place to work. And it hired 427,000 workers in less than a year. There are comprehensive benefits that include healthcare and parental leave, and wages start at $15 per hour. That latter point is a two-edged sword, given that Amazon employees love it but it also squeezes Amazon’s small business competitors that can’t afford those wages.

Ironically, in spite of all those benefits for its own workers, Sanders wants workers to take on his fellow socialist, Bezos. Perhaps the multimillionaire Sanders is simply jealous of the fact that Bezos is worth an obscene $177 billion. But the two men must surely have a wink-and-nod relationship given that they’re working hard for the same goals, especially through Bezos’s Leftmedia mouthpiece, The Washington Post.

In any case, Bessemer, Alabama, is a 72% black suburb of Birmingham in Jefferson County. Donald Trump won Alabama with 62% of the vote, but Joe Biden won Jefferson County with 55%. Yet even with Biden taking the exceedingly rare step for a president of weighing in on behalf of a union during a vote, workers at one of Amazon’s 800 warehouses signaled that maybe the marriage between Democrats and unions isn’t quite so sound as it used to be.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.