South of Birmingham, warehouse employees are voting on whether to form a union. Their decision could have ripple effects around the country. A seven-week balloting period began last month and will end on March 29th.
The question is whether even a supportive president can reverse the decline in union power that economists say has helped hollow out America's middle class. Neither organized labor nor sympathetic politicians have managed to do that for decades.
The presidency of Joe Biden represents an opportunity for the alliance of unions and a Democratic president to come to the aid of workers seeking more income, a greater say in their workplaces, and improved health and security.
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President Biden's statement on Tuesday urging the U.S. House of Representatives to approve the Protecting the Right to Organize Act follows his earlier support for workers who want to organize an Amazon warehouse in Alabama.
The South is more than its shading on an Electoral College map; the entire region is home to a rich history of resistance against the twin forces of race hierarchy and class exploitation. The Amazon workers union campaign is part of that history.
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The new film Nomadland is a heartfelt look at the lives of itinerant Americans cast aside by the Great Recession. But it ignores how employers like Amazon are raking in profits off this new class of worker.
With the formidable pressure on Amazon, the new Democratic control in Washington, D.C. , and the unique circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic, the progressive current of Alabama's labor history may bode well for the union election at the tech giant.
The Amazonification of logistics has created a new group of highly exploited workers: delivery drivers. Amazon itself increasingly relies on an expanding network of subcontracted drivers and independent contractors to deliver packages.
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