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To: Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Mark Kelly (AZ), Mark Warner (VA)

Don’t allow a repeat of Amazon’s union-busting tactics: Pass the PRO Act now!

Workers in Amazon’s Bessemer, AL warehouse—where 85% of workers are Black—fought hard to organize and form the first union at an Amazon warehouse in the U.S, but their efforts were thwarted by Jeff Bezos’ anti-union scare tactics, intimidation, and bullying.

This union-busting by Amazon is just one example of why we must pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which will reverse the trend of billionaires and bosses successfully stopping workers from organizing and collectively bargaining.

Under current law, there are no penalties for companies who violate workers’ right to organize. The PRO Act will ensure that every worker has a free and fair chance to join a union by adopting real penalties for employers like Amazon who intentionally sabotage union organizing efforts, and protecting workers’ right to strike and engage in other forms of collective action.

Senators, please pass the PRO Act.

Why is this important?

Amazon knew exactly what a unionization win by its Bessemer workers would mean: It would have paved the way for more organizing across the country and built power for the working class, who have been exploited to enrich the ultra wealthy time and time again.

It’s why Amazon used every union-busting tactic in the book (and even pioneered new ones!) to stop the organizing effort. To prevent a few thousand workers from unionizing, one of the richest companies in the world: hired a Koch-backed anti-union consultant, sent up to 5 harassment texts a day to workers, forced employees to watch anti-union videos, changed the stoplight by the warehouse so organizers couldn’t hand out union flyers to drivers, offered $2,000 severance checks for workers to quit, retaliated against pro-union workers, collaborated with the USPS to put up a fake dropbox for the union votes—and more. These union-busting intimidation tactics aren’t isolated to Amazon—giant corporations have used these and more throughout history to fight back against working people organizing for living wages and better working conditions.

If the PRO Act were law right now, Amazon wouldn’t have been allowed to engage in these sorts of repressive anti-organizing tactics, and would be held accountable for union-busting. But since it isn’t, there’s a real risk that other corporations will see what Amazon did in Bessemer and replicate it around the country.

Thanks to union members who fought and died to build power for the working class, some workers have weekends off, an 8 hour work day is the norm instead of 12, and kids aren’t forced to work. Unions are good for workers: They protect workers from exploitation, they bring fairness into the workplace, they allow employees to have a say in the workplace policies that affect them, and they win fair wages and protections for all workers, including working mothers, Black, brown and disabled workers, as well as undocumented immigrant workers who are especially at risk for facing exploitation and unsafe working conditions on the job.

Giant corporations and the ultra-wealthy, like Jeff Bezos, know that a unified working class will hold them accountable for their anti-worker tactics, abuses, exploitation, and greed.

That’s why we need the PRO Act, which would allow the National Labor Relations Board to impose monetary penalties against employers who violate workers' rights, empower collective action and worker strikes, ensure that employees are not misclassified as independent contractors, and eliminate “right-to-work” laws, a relic of the Jim Crow era designed specifically to separate workers and undercut collective bargaining rights.

Every Senator who cares about protecting working people from exploitation and intimidation by corporations like Amazon needs to co-sponsor the PRO Act immediately, so we don’t see a repeat of the shameful behavior by Amazon anywhere in the country ever again.

Partner

Updates

2021-05-01 16:47:17 -0400

20,000 signatures reached

2021-04-30 13:59:42 -0400

10,000 signatures reached

2021-04-30 13:00:49 -0400

5,000 signatures reached

2021-04-21 18:19:21 -0400

1,000 signatures reached

2021-04-21 17:15:57 -0400

500 signatures reached

2021-04-19 14:33:52 -0400

100 signatures reached

2021-04-19 12:25:35 -0400

50 signatures reached

2021-04-19 12:00:57 -0400

25 signatures reached

2021-04-19 11:52:17 -0400

10 signatures reached