This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

Amazon Threatened With Further Margin Contraction As AFL-CIO Seeks To Unionize Its Workers

Tyler Durden's picture




 

With around 110,000 workers globally, who Amazon claim are compensated above average for retail workers and have generous benefits, the news that 30 Amazon mechanics in Delaware are voting on unionization may strike fear into the heart of Jeff Bezos. With razor-thin margins,  the "cult stock" could hardly cope with any broad-based action to raise wages (though we are sure that would be a buying opportunity no matter what):

  • AFL-CIO: WORKERS' LIVES 'NOT GETTING BETTER' DESPITE RECOVERY
  • AFL-CIO: SEEKS TO UNIONIZE AMAZON AND OTHER LARGE COS.

While local union officials claim not to have targeted the workers, the 'small' vote will take place today but there are hundreds of other workers in the Delaware factory.

Recall that Amazon has a lot of unionizable employees...

 

Local Officials claim not to have targeted Amazon...

 

It's not about money - apparently - but other things like vacation. As Re/Code notes:

A group of up to 30 Amazon employees at one of the company’s Delaware warehouses will have the opportunity to vote today in an election that could establish the first-ever labor union representation at a U.S. Amazon facility.

 

The group, which consists of equipment technicians and mechanics, will be voting on whether they want to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. A simple majority — or half of those who vote plus one — is needed to establish the first-ever union shop inside an Amazon facility in the U.S., according to IAMAW spokesman John Carr.

 

Carr said the voting workers, who make up just a small fraction of the more than 1500 employees at the facility, are not most concerned with the wages they are paid. Rather, they’d like help negotiating for things such as vacation and promotion policies, seniority rules, as well as the possible creation of a safety committee, Carr said.

Bezos better hope so - or this will get ugly.

Not much room in those margins for a 'raise'... and sure enough, the company is already doing the Amazon equivalent of "Promise zones"

In the weeks leading up to the vote, the workers have been pulled into what unions call “captive audience meetings,” during which their superiors at Amazon attempt to persuade workers against unionization, according to Carr.

 

The union vote is just the latest in a series of events that have shined a negative light on Amazon’s growing network of what it calls fulfillment centers. The company has been engaged in an ongoing battle with some of its German workers who have organized strikes and protests over the past year over wages and was also the subject of an unflattering BBC documentary about worker conditions.

It would be ironic if unionization is the straw that also breaks the camel's back of the second, New Normal gilded age.

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:52 | 4335181 jcaz
jcaz's picture

Sounds like an attack drone is in order......

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:58 | 4335211 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

How do you unionize drones???

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:00 | 4335218 knukles
knukles's picture

I'm not unionized and my life's not gotten any better, either.
Yo, Mrs K, up my comp, sweets!
'Fact my comp's seen the glide path of a crow bar

(I knew you like that one, Kaiser) :)

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:04 | 4335226 synergize
synergize's picture

Unions = Rising Worker Wages = Inflation = Bond Route = $2000 Gold

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:12 | 4335249 The Juggernaut
The Juggernaut's picture

Amazon managers will automate the shit out of its operations.  These people need to wise up and look for another job.  SmartPhones can control houses now-a-days and will most likely control business operations.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:38 | 4335313 Say What Again
Say What Again's picture

Agreed.  I'm even thinking about having a robot enter my comments on ZH.  They don't pay me enough to do this crap.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:51 | 4335581 Richard Chesler
Richard Chesler's picture

About those drones... they'll be flying directly from China.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:38 | 4335324 zaphod
zaphod's picture

Amazon should just close the whole facility saying that it is unprofitable.

It is exactly what Walmart did years ago. Apparently one meat department with 7 or 8 employees voted to unionize. So what did walmart do? They decieded that the meat department overall was unprofitable and closed it less than 12 months later. 

From wikipedia: In 2000, meat cutters in Jacksonville, Texas voted to unionize and Walmart subsequently eliminated in-house meat-cutting jobs in favor of prepackaged meats on the claims that it cut costs and was a preventive measure to lawsuits.[99] Walmart claimed that the nationwide closing of in-store meat packaging had been planned for many years and was not related to the unionization.[99] In June 2003, a National Labor Relations Board judge ordered Walmart to restore the meat department to its prior structure, complete with meat-cutting, and to recognize and bargain with the union over the effects of any change to case-ready meat sales.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:01 | 4335219 eclectic syncretist
eclectic syncretist's picture

alibaba kicks amazon'a ass anyway.  People just haven't figured it out yet.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:12 | 4335251 PrecipiceWatching
PrecipiceWatching's picture

Can they FedEx me a magic carpet by Thursday noon?

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:35 | 4335326 FrankiesBaggage
FrankiesBaggage's picture

Can you elaborate? I'd love a good comparison, for the home shopper - not for bulk or remarketing goods. Thanks!

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:44 | 4335367 pods
pods's picture

At least Amazon pretends to not sell you knock off Chinese shit.

Alibaba if I want 20 tons of Chinese grown Fuji apples or maybe a "king" chainsaw that is a stolen IP knockoff.

Umm, no thanks.

pods

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:59 | 4335213 Say What Again
Say What Again's picture

This is too funny.  Do these guys really think they can form a union in the heart of darkness?  There are 100 other workers ready to take the spot of a single amazon worker that goes on strike.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:39 | 4335350 trader1
trader1's picture

+1

"heart of darkness"?

please elaborate ;-)

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:52 | 4335388 MeBizarro
MeBizarro's picture

No their really aren't especially if you look at the insane turnover rates they have in their warehouses.  Articles in PA in Allentown paper 3 years ago found they had higher turnover rates than fast food restaurants because of the lousy work conditions, lack of focus on worker safety, and the incredibly frantic pace at which you were expected to work. 

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:06 | 4335426 Blues Traveler
Blues Traveler's picture

Unions will end up fighting obamacare

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 20:53 | 4335975 Freddie
Freddie's picture

Jeff Bezos = friend of Obama and a tribesman.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:52 | 4335183 Sonic the porcupine
Sonic the porcupine's picture

Serves the bastards right for pushing internet sales taxes to crowd out competitors.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:54 | 4335191 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

have you seen the sales taxes on ebay for european buyers?

Sometimes it's 200% of the productprice

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:55 | 4335196 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

Agreed. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:52 | 4335185 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

Amazon is number 2 and soon Grainger will overtake them on the ecommerce biz.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:55 | 4335194 Stoploss
Stoploss's picture

30 ass whippin's coming up...

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:55 | 4335198 Spungo
Spungo's picture

This will have no effect on stock price. If people are retarded enough to bid it up to 1400x earnings, I'm guessing nobody actually looks at the earnings.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:57 | 4335205 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

PeeeeEeeeeee

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:55 | 4335200 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

One can only hope it takes Amazon AND the AFL-CIO down together.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 16:56 | 4335202 Charles Nelson ...
Charles Nelson Reilly's picture

lol.... their message - nah, we don't want to be paid more.  We just want to be paid the same for doing less shit!

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:00 | 4335214 Charles Nelson ...
Charles Nelson Reilly's picture

the safety committe - 

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:00 | 4335217 fonzannoon
fonzannoon's picture

This ends when the federal workers end up with no benefits like the private workforce, or the private workforce unionizes and demands the same rainbow and unicorn benefits that the federal workforce gets. Amazon knows this, as does the rest of the corporations, and are moving to robots as fast as possible.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:06 | 4335228 knukles
knukles's picture

Bing-Fucking-O, Fonz!

The only people left with living wages, medical and retirement anymore are the 1 fucking % and government employees.
And do I see any of my Gubamint employee buds standing in line shouting shit about income and wealth inequality stepping forward to be the first to set an altruistic noble example for anybody else fo fucking follow, taking a cut so anybody else can have a share, right there with their preachy fucking socialist statist so called ethic?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

They can tell the rest of us to eat raw donkey dick, by they get the fillet mingions

Greedy hypocritical fucks.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:37 | 4335336 Tijuana Donkey Show
Tijuana Donkey Show's picture

And what do you have against a raw donkey dick? People pay good money to see an University of Phoenix grad mouth the whole thing south of the border. Gotta pay those student loans....

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:31 | 4335518 Ying-Yang
Ying-Yang's picture

Beijing’ Famous (Donkey) Penis Restaurant ?

They couldn’t pay me enough to try a bite of cooked animal genitalia, but there are people who would spend hundreds of dollars on delicacies like cooked yak penis or sheep gonads. These are the kind of foods that have made the Guolizhuang Restaurant so popular in China’s capital city.

http://www.odditycentral.com/travel/guolizhuang-beijing-famous-penis-res...

Hey... FLOTUS eats donkey dick, right?

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 23:17 | 4336626 Tijuana Donkey Show
Tijuana Donkey Show's picture

Wookie dick my man. As for that link "For example, women should not eat testicles, because the hormones could give them a deeper voice and a beard, but penises are harmless." Wow, that is a hell of a statement.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:24 | 4335293 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

I've seen some cutting edge robots at work in a major university lab. I can confirm that Americans better be worried, the new generations of software writers are able to get the new robots to do amazing things. And we are only at the begining of the new generation of hardware and the new code written for them. Brave New World is coming fast. People as workers are under grave threat of being just plain of no use to anyone in the upper regions of income and government elite postions. They will soon view us as a threat, not as needed labor. That is when it could get really ugly for many many people.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:36 | 4335332 Bangin7GramRocks
Bangin7GramRocks's picture

That was coming either way. Big, complicated companies that deal in logistics fucking hate humans no matter how little they earn. Humans cannot be programmed to work at 100% capacity 24 hours per day. Humans get sick. Corporations hate humans, and I wish them lots of luck selling products to the new army of efficient worker robots.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:43 | 4335364 ajax
ajax's picture

 

 

"Humans cannot be programmed to work at 100% capacity 24 hours per day. Humans get sick. Corporations hate humans, and I wish them lots of luck selling products to the new army of efficient worker robots."

I wish them luck as well but I don't want to be around when it happens.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 19:56 | 4335844 PrecipiceWatching
PrecipiceWatching's picture

Why oh why, should just "Americans" be worried?

Oh that's right, this is ZH......

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 20:33 | 4335993 Freddie
Freddie's picture

I think chefs in quality restaurants like steak houses should be okay.  You cannot train robots to beat their meat.  

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:34 | 4335530 Hindenburg...Oh Man
Hindenburg...Oh Man's picture

They first cut at military pensions has just taken place, which underscores your argument. 

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:09 | 4335242 One And Only
One And Only's picture

Amazon workers get paid more = prices go up = I'll shop for cheaper allternatives.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:20 | 4335490 alien-IQ
alien-IQ's picture

I'm not sure if you've noticed but prices and corporate profits keep rising despite the fact that employee wages do not. CEO wages, on the other hand, have seen an uninterrupted parabolic rise in the last decade or three.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:20 | 4335261 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

Amazon could simply ignore the union, and hire repacement workers. I suggest hundreds of thousands would apply nationwide. West of where I live out in Sugar Beet country, American Crystal Sugar offered it's union members a pay and benefit cut as part of their new contract, members voted "no". American Crystal Sugar knew they would vote no, so they locked them out and sent in the already hired replacement workers. Some relacments came from outside the region, others were the next door neighbors of the very union members locked out, and a good number of union members tried to walk back into their jobs, but were told "no" repleacements have your jobs, but we will put you on a list for New Hire when a position opens. Given the labor markets and political climate, this was totally expected by all, except the union members. They were told a bunch of BS by the Union Leadership, and voted "no".

In 2013-14, a contract with pay cuts and benefits cuts is the norm, people fight for any job, so any man or woman can be replaced at a whim. American Crystal Sugar and it's Lawyers mapped out their plan to get rid of the union and all it's members in one stroke, and it worked. I have seen this before back in the 80's when meat packing plants were throwing out the unions and bringing replacement workers from Mexico. A local chicken plant in the town where a brother of mine lives has replaced all the local people and their union with non-union Mexicans over 20 years ago. Even today, the plant has an agent who works full time in a medium size Mexican city in Central Mexico, this agent's job is to recruit immigrants to come north and staff that one particular chicken plant.

I write this not to judge uinons workers, management or plant owners. I post it as simple fact and a mirror of how the labor game is played now in America. Expect more of this, and expect more people to drop out of the labor markets. It is just fact, business can get all it's unskilled workers from Mexico and many High Tech companies can bring in programmers and engineers from India, as I see down in Minneapolis high tech firms. I know because Indian's love to take weekends up north in the woods here and I have rented B&B rooms to them. I speak to them and I know from them how this system works to bring them in.

My take is this."Americans, do not turn your back for an instant, if you do, you may juts have lost your job" When CLinton promised jobs in return for globalization, THIS is what he meant, we are living Clinton's dream, and I must add both Bush's dream as well.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:38 | 4335295 Yenbot
Yenbot's picture

Amazon could simply ignore the union, and hire repacement workers. 

Not sporting. And quite illegal:

http://www.nlrb.gov/rights-we-protect/employerunion-rights-and-obligations

http://www.bctgm.org/organizing/know-your-rights/

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 21:12 | 4336142 Meat Hammer
Meat Hammer's picture

Close plant; say it was always in the plans; open new plant; hire non-union workers.  Very sporting.

Laws.  Lol.  Cute.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:37 | 4335341 WillBest
WillBest's picture

That was the way things worked in the 1920s.  Which is why unions resorted to thug violence to beat line jumpers.  These days the Feds say you have to negotiate with them in good faith.

I guess fortunately for Amazon is they have no profits.  So it means they might get away with a take it or leave it offer.  Then the union can strike and then Amazon can go get some guys to replace them.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:20 | 4335483 akarc
akarc's picture

You may wish t edit your commnent. Corporations hied thugs to beat up on workers as they tried to start unions. When the corporat hired thugs could not do the job the U.S. government sent in troops. And you got two up votes for propaganda?   YOu have no shame sir.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:47 | 4335374 dark pools of soros
dark pools of soros's picture

yeah until workers get wise and just create worker owned small businesses and let the big greedy slow dumb companies rot and die

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:10 | 4335437 R_Soles
R_Soles's picture

Good info Jack.

I live not far from you, in Ontario, where we have a Lesbian premier of the province ( like a gov). Here in Ontario, the medical system will pay for a boy to become a girl or vice versa but will no longer pay for eyecare. Mothers that give birth ( like my niece last week) are told to bring diapers to the hospital as they only give out 2 now!-but we can afford sex changes, yes siree!

This is just one example of government totally fucking things up when they run it. To your point, I have a brother who works in an Auto parts plant where they use more and more robots( he has been trained how to use one) to take humans out of the hiring process. At his company they now have unionized guys at23$ + on one side of a fenced off area and 11$ guys on the other side-guess they are afraid of an employee war.Basically just getting rid of high cost labor one by one.

This province, in the last month has lost 39,000 jobs ( equiavlent to say 390,000 in california) with Kellogs, Hershey, Heinz and Caterpillar all closing plants and either moving offshore or to "right to work" ( ie be a slave stae in the US). We added 18,000 governemtn jobe though-yeah like those cunts pay any tax revenue at all. Where do the idiots running this province think all the $$ is going to come from to pay all the hanger on government parasites?

I've seen this province go from being an economic powerhouse to a have not POS in 10 years. Your right, the trend is automation and ultimately the elimination of about 75% of jobs as the "west" seems intent on having incompetent lackeys running things that don't believe in balanced budgets or saving money to finance consumption. I fear for my children and grandkids as I think a debt fuelled depression is almost here. There is no fukin money left in the average person's pocket to do much more than exist. Personally, it would not surprise me to see street riots somewhere in NA this year ( thought it would happen in 2013 and it didn't).

I'm hoping we can find some kind of saviour here, but as with Obozo down south I'm not real confident

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:22 | 4335281 HaroldWang
HaroldWang's picture

Looks like new ATH for AMZN coming. Worse the earnings/margins, etc, the more it flies. Up, up and away!

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:23 | 4335288 phoolish
phoolish's picture

Bezos just signed a multi-hundred million dollar deal w/ CIA.  I'm like so sure that he's afraid of this.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:26 | 4335300 youngman
youngman's picture

They are fighting for a vacation I hear...I think they are going to get a long one coming up...what is unemploymnet now..99 weeks still....lol

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:28 | 4335308 pragmatic hobo
pragmatic hobo's picture

margins don't apply to amazon.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:34 | 4335322 bigrooster
bigrooster's picture
  • AFL-CIO: WORKERS' LIVES 'NOT GETTING BETTER' DESPITE RECOVERY

Welcome to the club FUCKERS!  Let me guess you all voted for Obongo and your hope and change is not what you thought it would be?  

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 21:15 | 4336155 Meat Hammer
Meat Hammer's picture

When are they going to learn to stop trying to think for themselves?  If the media says all's well, then guess fucking what, all.....is.....well.  The cupboards being empty is just the new normal, not adversity.

Because Obama.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 21:41 | 4336242 hangemhigh77
hangemhigh77's picture

Dude get it right would you? It's "Welcome to the club MOTHERfuckers" that's better isn't it?  I prefer "Oboner",but "Obongo" is good!

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:37 | 4335342 Spungo
Spungo's picture

"How do you unionize drones???"
Put a resistor in series with the power supply. This will slow the thing down considerably. 

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:16 | 4335345 alien-IQ
alien-IQ's picture

If I can't treat my employees like slaves on a plantation and pay them like slaves on a plantation so that I can become a quadrillionaire...well then damn it, this is not capitalism!

I'm gonna take my copy of Atlas Shrugged, go up on a mountain and pout until all you slaves beg for my forgiveness and return:-(

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 21:17 | 4336165 Meat Hammer
Meat Hammer's picture

All those employees who are voluntarily employed and can leave at any time of their choosing?

Yes, very slavey.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:40 | 4335354 WillBest
WillBest's picture

Assuming they are talking about paid vacation, then they are talking about a raise.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:41 | 4335355 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

don't worry about bezos, he got plenty

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:07 | 4335429 Thalamus
Thalamus's picture

Drones and robots are the answer to petulant humans.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:11 | 4335448 orangegeek
orangegeek's picture

where ever a union, pension or government is, there is pending failure/bankruptcy

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:20 | 4335487 akarc
akarc's picture

Will Amazon have to actually make a profit?

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:41 | 4335546 Dingleberry
Dingleberry's picture

This is no big deal. There are unions and there are UNIONS. Meaning nearly all unions (small case) today are bullshit ones, that exist to get workers say 10 cents more above minimum wage and (coincidentally) charge 10 cents and hour for union dues.

I was in two of these bullshit "unions". 

I shit you not.....my union dues to the AFCW (or something like that) was the difference between my wage and minimum wage.  Another union (when I was in a factory) was similar. There was no representation. No bennies. NO SHIT! Other than paying dues faithfully. And no....I did not ask to be in them. It was the law. I HAD to join. What a scam.

Unions get no support from their fellow non-union workers because they deserve none. They exist as vehicles of theft from the workers to union bosses.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 20:43 | 4336038 Freddie
Freddie's picture

I remember watching a documentary on youtube about the mob.  The mobsters would come to the business and offer to help them with labor problems.   The deal was something like give the workers a .40 cent an hour raise.   The union would raise union dues and promise to kick back part of the raise to the company.  Eventually the mob stopped sending the kickback.

Unions and their pension plans are just piggy banks for mobsters and usually the tribe members at the top of the union.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 18:59 | 4335596 Jeepers Creepers
Jeepers Creepers's picture

The union has absolutely no power here.  Too many people will line up for those jobs that require zero skills, and so much will be automated, soon that they won't be needed anyway.

 

Union parasites kill everything they touch.  They let the Union in there and people will be making 6 figures to put on packing labels.

 

Fuck both amazon and the AFL-CIO.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 19:07 | 4335613 Fíréan
Fíréan's picture

sweat shops or nothing, that will be the way it goes eventually. Competing for jobs with Foxconn and the like.

It has already been said that workers in the west, on their way down have to be prepared to descend so far as to meet, in competition and living standards,  the third world on the way up. That's a long ways down from that which we have been familiar for a half century and  more. Their super rich and "our" super rich just go together on the upwards .

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 19:09 | 4335619 PGR88
PGR88's picture

Bezos is a leftist - he should welcome the union gangsters with open arms!

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 21:20 | 4336173 Meat Hammer
Meat Hammer's picture

No, leftists are only generours with your money.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 19:24 | 4335675 grunk
grunk's picture

I worked one Christmas season at the Delaware Amazon.

The most souless and empty job I have ever had in my life.

Having said that, I could never understand why the process was not automated.

I think it was the year the Beatles CD, "One" came out. I remember "One" and "Goodbye Moon."

Once you completed a cart of orders, you got a paper slip and a cart for another order or set of orders. 

CD's books, the occasional toy (at the time), the same item was stocked in 2 or 3 different aisles.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 19:28 | 4335712 zipit
zipit's picture

They need to get those profit margins negative so we can start valuing them with some modern metric (such as the one Twitter uses).

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 19:42 | 4335789 ShrNfr
ShrNfr's picture

Easy, just do fufillment in right to work states. Oh sorry you unionized fellas, not enough work for ya. Have to lay you off. See ya.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 21:36 | 4336229 hangemhigh77
hangemhigh77's picture

Hey Bezos you friggin CLOWN, accept BitCoin and expand your market and cut out the thieving banks.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!