In the latest installment of our special series “Battleground Bessemer,†TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez sits down with Joshua Brewer of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) Mid-South Council. Brewer is one of the lead organizers involved with the historic campaign to unionize 5,800 workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama. In this interview, conducted at the RWDSU Mid-South Council headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama, Alvarez and Brewer talk about Amazon workers’ arduous path to get to this point, and they discuss what a union at the Bessemer facility would mean for a workforce and for a town that is majority Black or African-American.
To see more of our in-depth coverage of the historic Amazon union drive in Bessemer, which we’ll be bringing you throughout the month of March, subscribe to our TRNN YouTube and podcast channels, and visit our website: https://therealnews.com/tag/battleground-bessemer (edited)
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** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
Amazon Employees Need To Unionize
Walmart Employees Need To Unionize
They Need A Union.
Union crooks , or corporate crooks . Take your choice .
Bullshit, WE ALL need unions, making it a racial issue narrows it, and divides the support.
You all realize the combination of-
Forced wage hikes.
Increased business taxes
Unionization.
Will be that final catalyst that'll finally force corporations into getting off their lazy collective butts and hyper accelerate mass machine automation and artificial intelligence in the workplace.
All of you are badly underestimating how far companies will go when it comes to mechanization.
They can and will take it to it's full logical conclusion.
Remember when good paying factory jobs were being offshored decades ago starting in the 1970s?
If companies could do that to stable, middle class jobs without a second thought.
What makes you think they won't mass automate most of the crappy, low paying service jobs today?
Nonsense. It has NOTHING to do with color! By releasing this trash, you are misleading the public.
Pathetic Bullshit. The zombies who work on this channel, much like every other mainstream media zombie – all use amazon.com
Give IT a rest!
Yah right. Are BLM going to stand up for all the black people in Tanzania? They are currently under a coup.
Wouldn't it be awesome if Amazon unionized, and the other transporters and distributers of imports followed, and then the manufacturing unions had an ally to coordinate their demands with? Get Amazon to put the origin of manufactured goods right on the page next to the price. Who knows what they could accomplish with an actual lever of power? It could be hugely symbiotic, if they don't burn the whole place down to stop it. Think about how much America loses strength by abandoning demand side economics, in order to give Bezos and the boys 200 billion dollars from importing 3rd world products. It would be better for all of us to embrace a little protectionism (but maybe not quite as good for Jeff and the boys).
Woo Woo!
Anti-“idpol†rhetoric is so shallow. So many people in this comment section are lamenting that these workers are fighting for black lives as if that somehow detracts from their work building the union. But they are building the union. This is a huge effort and empirically disproves anti-“idpol†talking points.
Maybe instead of criticizing any organization that fights for black lives, you all should be learning from the workers in Bessamer.
Such an important fight! Solidarity from Baltimore.
WOOOOOOOOOO WELL DONE GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was a UNION ORGANIZER for PIPELINERS LOCAL798. Huge local having jurisdiction in all 50 states. I don’t think the non skilled trade is a hard bargaining tool. AI just a few yrs away. Don’t price ur hands out of a job. Jeff Bezos will just pay up his investors n hang his hat. BE AWARE TIMES ARE WAY DIFFERENT. I’m all for UNION, hard to organize n KEEP ORGANIZED lower paid employees. Just the way it is lotsa drama n LIFE being brought onto the work floor.
God Bless the Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama for voting for their own best interest. This most often is never the case in the south. Fight for your right to unionize to better your life monetarily and a sense of worth that comes with a pension and generous benefits and COLA payments
Wow what a insult to blacks
Is it really helpful to define the fight for worker solidarity in terms which divide people into groups? In a union you are a worker, not a black guy or woman or white boy. The only 'others' are the company and their reactionary agents. They want us to see the fight in terms of black and white so the 75% of whites that read this title tune out and externalize the struggle. My 2¢
All Of God's Children lives matter. No color needed.
Racism is racist
Stop spreading hate with a forked tongue it will get you nowhere. God is Love â¤ï¸ðŸ™
Fear only the almighty God ðŸ™
Jesus Christ is our savior ðŸ™
Ask for his forgiveness and give your heart to Jesus you can't get to heaven without Jesus, in the end you pay him with your life â¤ï¸ðŸ™
Amazon is a fight for BLM; yeah right! (And) here I still cannot get my order I've been trying to receive.
Now unions using race for union dues..unions been loosing thousands of dues as ppl woke up..unions take best care of their higher ups