The annual decline in the number of union members actually slowed after the a right-to-work law in Michigan took effect in 2013. And membership grew to 604,000 in 2020 from 589,000 in 2019.
The Amazon organizing drive has drawn attention to just how much the deck is stacked against workers and unions. The Pro Act would provide a much-needed update to labor law after decades of rising inequality and an erosion of collective bargaining.
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 investors calling for Amazon to cease pushing back on the unionization efforts collectively hold more than $20 billion worth of the company's shares.
The company has also sent anti-union text messages to workers and posted anti-union banners in its facilities in the lead-up to a union election at its Bessemer, Alabama facility.
Many workers are turning to unions as they say say employers and government systems that are meant to protect them have failed.
Dozens of leaked documents from Amazon reveal the company’s reliance on Pinkerton operatives to spy on warehouse workers and the extensive monitoring of labor unions, environmental activists, and other social movements.
Union leaders hope Biden will be able to enact policies to reinvigorate the labor movement, bringing in more members, money, and political influence while dramatically expanding collective bargaining rights and protections from workplace abuse.
Unions are uncommon in the ad industry. But the disappearance of thousands of agency jobs in the pandemic and agencies’ growing use of AI to perform tasks like media planning and buying, and market research, could make unionization more appealing,
Amazon uses such tools as navigation software, item scanners, wristbands, thermal cameras, security cameras and recorded footage to surveil its workforce in warehouses and stores.
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