Inside Amazon's Warehouses

[lpetrich]

Dave Jamieson on Twitter: "I spoke with Amazon workers, organizers and labor historians about how Amazon’s high turnover helps prevent unionization. 100%+ annual churn in a facility of ~5,000 is basically like organizing in quicksand. (link)" / Twitter

Dave Jamieson on Twitter: "NYT didn’t really explore this angle in their excellent deep dive on churn at JFK8, but turnover is key to understanding how steep a climb it is to unionize Amazon warehouses. It shaped the RWDSU's most crucial decisions in Bessemer, and it will shape whatever campaigns follow." / Twitter

Dave Jamieson on Twitter: "Gene Bruskin, who played a central role in the successful UFCW campaign to unionize Smithfield in NC, said you just can't rely on the normal playbook when you're dealing with turnover on Amazon's level. It creates all kinds of logistical hurdles. (link)" / Twitter

Amazon’s Greatest Weapon Against Unions: Worker Turnover | HuffPost
"The churn inside Amazon’s warehouse and delivery network has created a formidable barrier to organizing."

Chris Smalls made a lot of friends in his first year working at an Amazon warehouse in 2015. But within a matter of months, most of them were gone.

“That’s the name of Amazon’s game: Hire and fire,” said Smalls, 32. “They know that people don’t want to be here long, that these jobs break you down physically and mentally.”

Amazon’s turnover rate amid pandemic is at least double the average for retail and warehousing industries | The Seattle Times

“When you’re trying to build a committee and sort of track leadership, map the place out and figure out where your good connections are, you just can’t count on that,” Bruskin said. “The best you can do, knowing that you’re going to lose a lot of folks, is to try and create a culture of solidarity and activity … so that when somebody [new] comes in they sort of pick up the vibe. You just can’t be as dependent on a particular group of people.”

Bruskin said one worker he knows recently lost a longtime organizing ally when he quit Amazon. She was devastated by his departure because he had so much Amazon experience relative to other workers.

“A ‘long time’ there in Amazon is people who’ve been there more than a couple years,” Bruskin said.