Amazon Workers’ Fight To Unionize Draws Help From Around The World

Roughly a hundred organizers have been calling workers from Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse in recent weeks, making the case for why they should unionize. The organizing effort extends well beyond the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which would represent the facility’s employees. The phone campaign includes around 20 organizers on loan from the AFL-CIO, and a dozen nurses who recently unionized their hospital in North Carolina also have been pitching on the effort, calling workers to tell them large-scale labor victories are possible in the South.

Members of other local unions have been meeting with Amazon workers in Alabama to answer questions and counter the company’s aggressive anti-union campaign. Even unions from overseas have lent a hand, sending testimonials from their members to the RWDSU and offering to raise concerns about Amazon’s behavior in Alabama with their own governments.

“People want to be part of this. They want to help out, because they know this is not just about the people at this one facility. It’s about something much bigger,” said RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum. “Many union leaders in the U.S. understand the transcendence of this campaign.” Read more in the Huffington Post and scroll down to Upcoming Events for an action happening this weekend.