Feb. 2, 2021.

- Some workers in Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse complain

that the company’s aggressive performance (1) _____ leave them little expect
time to take bathroom breaks.
When they do get there, they face messaging from Amazon pressing its
case against (2) _____, imploring them to vote against it when mail-in union
balloting begins Feb. 8.
“Where will your dues go?” reads a flier posted on the door inside a
bathroom stall.
“They go right in your face when you’re using the stall,” said Darryl
Richardson, a worker at the warehouse who supports unions. Another
pro-union worker who spoke on the condition of (3) ______ for fear of anonymous
retribution said of Amazon’s toilet reading: “I feel like I’m getting
harassed.”
The stakes couldn’t be more (4) _____ for Amazon, which is fighting the height
biggest labor battle in its history on U.S. soil. Next Monday, the
National Labor Relations Board will mail ballots to 5,805 workers at the
facility near Birmingham, who will then have seven weeks to decide
whether they want the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
to represent them. If they vote yes, they would be the first Amazon
warehouse in the United States to unionize.
What’s more, a union victory could spark a wave of (5) _____ among the take
400,000 operations staff at the hundreds of other Amazon warehouses
and delivery sites that dot the nation.
A battle for higher wages and improved working conditions in Bessemer
and beyond could stall Amazon’s (6) ____, forcing the company to grow
negotiate expansion plans with the union. It would probably increase
costs and could even hurt (7) _____. Amazon has said its workers don’t efficient
need a union coming between them and the company, and some of the
nearly five text messages sent daily to its Bessemer staff urge them not to
abandon “the winning team.” It’s also pressing its case with leaflets and
mandated anti-union meetings.
The company has (8) _____ said its workers don’t need the RWDSU, or steadfast
any union. It offers Bessemer workers a starting pay of $15.30 an hour,
well above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. (Alabama has no
state minimum-wage law.) That pay, along with health-care, vision and
dental benefits and a retirement plan, offers employees more than
comparable jobs provide, said Amazon spokeswoman Heather Knox.

By Bel Chavantes/adapted from The Washington Post/April 2021