Pizella and Ortiz: Amazon Union Vote Marks Crucial Victory in Battle for Worker Rights

Patrick Pizella and Alfredo Ortiz write in The Hill about the promise for workers’ rights implied by the decision by Amazon workers in Alabama not to join the Retail Workers and Department Store Union, despite the clear wishes of progressives:

Perhaps nothing better demonstrates left wing activists and politicians’ growing disconnect with working Americans than their paternalistic view that employees want and need unions to represent them in the workplace.

This perspective was undermined once again last week by Amazon warehouse employees in Alabama who overwhelmingly voted against organizing under the Retail Workers and Department Store Union. The more than 5,800 workers there were subject to a barrage of pro-union messages from politicians, including President Biden, the media, and celebrities, who billed the effort as a seminal event in labor history. Yet a clear majority of employees casting ballots voted against unionization, and only one in six total warehouse employees voted in favor.

This clear union rebuke suggests that the economic policy goal of progressives to expand and facilitate unionization is not shared by the workers who are the supposed beneficiaries. But do not expect this humbling defeat to derail Biden’s aggressive labor agenda. Why let what employees want get in the way of what union bosses need?

Read the rest of the article here.