Amazon worker organization

The warehouse workers of Amazon, the largest American e-commerce retailer, have organized for workplace improvements in light of the company's scrutinized labor practices and stance against unions. While some Amazon warehouses are unionized in Europe, none are unionized in the United States. Worker actions have included work stoppages and have won concessions including increased pay, safety precautions, and time off.
Background.
As the largest American e-commerce retailer, employing over one million workers and rapidly expanding, Amazon's warehouse labor practices have been subject to continued scrutiny, with reporting on work conditions, rising injury rates, worker surveillance, and efforts to block unionization. In the late 2010s, Amazon began to address warehouse wages and training opportunities. Despite increasing its minimum wage to $15/hour, providing healthcare benefits and COVID-19 testing, labor advocates and government officials have criticized Amazon's warehouse working conditions. While unions are common among Amazon warehouse workers in Europe, none of Amazon's American workers are unionized. Amazon has actively opposed unionization in the United States, having stated a preference to resolve issues with employees directly, asserting that unions would impede the company's innovation. Prior to the 2020 Bessemer union drive, Amazon had not faced a major union vote in the United States since Delaware in 2014.
United States.
Technical Amazon workers held the company's first unionization vote in the United States in January 2014, which failed 21 to 6. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held the vote following a December petition from International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers on behalf of 30 Amazon warehouse maintenance and repair workers in Middletown, Delaware.
Throughout the late 2010s, warehouses in Staten Island and Minnesota participated in union drives and bargaining. Workers organized for work conditions in particular, such as need for more frequent breaks. Workers have leaked Amazon manager training videos about discouraging labor organization. In response to changes following Amazon's 2017 acquisition of grocery Whole Foods, workers began to organize as Whole Worker. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union began to organize 2,500 workers from Amazon's Staten Island warehouse in December 2018, but this did not result in a union vote.
When other businesses shut down during COVID-19 pandemic safety measures, the welfare and salary of workers ensuring the delivery of goods, including Amazon's labor, received renewed attention. Amazon workers, amid increased demand, advocated for pay increases and safety measures through work stoppage including walkouts and not appearing for work. Amazon increased pay for warehouse, transportation, delivery, and store workers and increased paid time off. Some workers described these concessions as a minimum for convincing employees to risk working during the pandemic. In December 2020, the National Labor Relations Board found merit to a complaint that a Staten Island warehouse worker's firing was an illegal retaliation for organizing for pandemic safety procedure.
Bessemer union drive.
In November 2020, Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a unionization vote. The bargaining unit would include 1,500 full-time and part-time employees with representation from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The workers, who are 85% Black, were inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. Amazon retained anti-union lawyers Morgan, Lewis & Bockius to fight the effort. Amazon had previously used the firm to successfully fight the 2014 unionization effort of Delaware warehouse workers. The NLRB denied the company's request to delay initial hearings. Amazon recommended expanding the bargaining unit to 5,700 workers, and in a three-day NLRB hearing, lawyers from Amazon and the union established a broader bargaining unit membership than originally proposed, including seasonal hires and on-site medical, safety, and training workers. These were common tactics to discourage unionization, as a larger bargaining unit would dilute the union's penetration, having only organized a portion of the originally proposed, smaller unit. The union accepted the expanded unit to let the vote proceed sooner. The voting process officially began with mail-in ballots sent out on February 8, 2021 after the NLRB rejected Amazon's attempt to delay the vote. Ballots were required to be returned by March 29.
The union drive received outward support from American politicians including U.S. Representatives Andy Levin, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Terri Sewell, Nikema Williams and US Senator Bernie Sanders, among many others. President Joe Biden alluded to the Alabama drive in a contemporaneous speech in support of unions. 
During the drive, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union reported interest from a thousand Amazon workers across the United States.
Votes were counted on April 8 and April 9, with the workers voting against joining the union 1,798 to 738.
On April 9, RWDSU announced that it was filing unfair labor practice charges against Amazon before the NLRB, alleging that the company interfered in employees' right to "vote in a free and fair election". The union cited the installation of a private mailbox on the warehouse property that Amazon had requested from United States Postal Service after the NLRB rejected Amazon's request to have one installed.
Biden gave stronger support than any president has given unions in decades, and labor activists said his advocacy would build his support in the working class, fighting off Republican inroads there. 
After Bessemer.
The Bessemer union drive inspired a peer-organized poll of Amazon delivery drivers (Delivery Service Partners, or DSP), in which the vast majority of its 500 respondents showed interest in unionizing. Amazon's 158,000 DSP drivers are subcontracted across 2,500 companies spanning eight countries, such that Amazon can drop any one provider whose workers unionize. One DSP provider's Michigan office closed within a month of its workers voting to organize. Amazon supplies subcontracted companies with financing and surveillance technology to track driver movements in real time. The subcontracted companies, in turn, handle workplace management and liability, insulating Amazon. After the Michigan example, Amazon advised other DSP firms on how to avoid union drives, which proved successful through early 2021.
Europe.
Some Amazon warehouses are unionized in Europe. Amazon, and other American technology companies with philosophies against organized labor, are scrutinized for operating counter to European norms. European criticism of Amazon's labor practices exceeds that of its practices in the United States. The first collective bargaining agreement between Amazon and a trade union was signed on May 22, 2018, between Amazon and the Italian Filcams Cgil trade union, after 70% of voters were in favor.
In France during the COVID-19 pandemic, unions were involved in setting the terms of warehouse workers returning to work, including pandemic protections for workers, following a month-long dispute. Those who volunteered to return sooner, in a reduced capacity, received bonus pay and a reduced work day.
Germany.
Germany is Amazon's largest foreign market as of 2019. Amazon opened its first German logistic center in 1999 (FRA1) followed by FRA3 in 2009 in Bad Hersfeld. Hundreds of Amazon warehouse workers in Leipzig and Bad Hersfeld, organized by the trade union Ver.di went on strike in 2013 over their worker classifications and salaries. Amazon subsequently improved overtime schedules, break rooms, and introduced Christmas bonuses. Amazon Germany also confirmed it would be opening three logistics centers in Poland.
Poland.
Amazon opened its first logistics centers near the Polish cities Poznań and Wrocław in September 2014. While operating in Poland, they primarily serve foreign markets, notably Germany. There are two trade unions involved in organizing Amazon workers. The more militant union is Inicjatywa Pracownicza (Workers' Initiative) is active in Poznań. They are criticized by the more mainstream and established Polish union Solidarność (which is affiliated with UNI Global Union) as being 'too radical'. During a German strike in 2015, due to Poland's geographic proximity to Germany, orders shifted and increased in Poland. Several dozen workers in Poznań facility engaged in a work slowdown. Shortly afterwards, Amazon increased the hourly wage by one złoty.