Teamsters to vote on plan to unionize Amazon workers

Teamsters are voting tomorrow on a plan to unionize Amazon workers. Yahoo Finance’s Max Zahn shares the details.

Video transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: There's another big tech headline that we're watching closely today, and that is something that's playing out-- that will be playing out tomorrow, that critical vote to unionize Amazon's workforce. The Teamsters announcing members will vote on a resolution at its national conference to create a new division that will work directly with Amazon employees.

Yahoo Finance's Max Zahn following this story for us today. Max, you've been following a number of these discussions around the unionization of Amazon workers. How does this particular resolution differ from what we saw, for example, over in Alabama?

MAX ZAHN: Yeah, so there's a few reasons why it differs. And that was, again, just a couple of short months ago that we saw workers at the warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama vote overwhelmingly against unionizing. So the question is, does this pose more of a threat to Amazon that did? And there's a few reasons why it might.

The first is that the Teamsters is one of the largest unions in the country. It has 1.4 million members. It brought in more than $200 million in revenue last year. So the first condition for bringing a concerted, major union drive against Amazon is having the resources, and the Teamsters certainly do.

Compare that with the Retail Wholesale Department Store Union, that's the union that attempted that organizing drive in Bessemer. It only has 100,000 members, so less than a tenth the size of the Teamsters.

Now, the second reason is that the Teamsters have experience organizing in this sector. They currently represent logistics employees at UPS. They also represent workers in related occupations like trucking, like package delivery. And if you're going to Amazon employees, and you're trying to persuade them to take the risk of joining a union, the risk to their livelihood, knowing that they're up against a powerful employer that opposes unions, you need to be able to show them a track record and perhaps even a community of other workers in the sectors who've done it successfully. And the Teamsters can point to that.

Now, the third reason, and maybe the most interesting reason, is that the Teamsters want to go about this a completely different way than they went about it in Bessemer. What happened in Bessemer was a traditional union organizing drive. You had a union sign up Amazon workers on enough cards to trigger a union election at the warehouse. Then a little while later you had that election. And again, it fell short.

Now, one of the reasons why labor leaders think it fell short is that the company opposed the union drive so intensely, using intimidation tactics, some of which frankly, are permitted by labor law, in such a way that the union drive failed because workers were scared. So until labor law changes, we need a new strategy, some labor leaders say.

Now, what the Teamsters want to do is they want an unorthodox campaign that pressures Amazon publicly through media blitzes, through more militant tactics, like work stoppages, in the hope that all the attention that draws to a high-profile company like Amazon will force them to the table, and they'll have to negotiate with the union, not through a legal requirement after an election but rather through a voluntary choice to end the pain caused by this union drive.

Now, whether they can bring that pressure, whether we'll see Amazon, a company that is anti-union, come to a compromise, that's something that we'll have to wait and see in the coming months and potentially years.

AKIKO FUJITA: So it sounds like the question before the members is structured a little differently this time around. What's the chance that this resolution passes?

MAX ZAHN: The expectation is that it'll pass. I know "Vice" has reported that the expectation is that it will pass resoundingly. The union has put quite a bit of effort into this resolution. Before the drive, they created a long video to persuade members of the importance of this drive. They laid out a strategy that involves different components, whether it's educating the union's own members on the drive, whether it's going out and organizing Amazon workers, whether it's pressure, again, through the press.

So the union has put a lot of effort into this. And they've done so, they say, for five years, they've been looking at this drive. So they're convinced this will pass. And reports say that they're expecting it will.

ZACK GUZMAN: All right, Yahoo Finance's Max Zahn keeping us abreast of the situation there when it comes to union pressures at Amazon. As always, appreciate it.