Today, in response to a letter to shareholders from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which is conducting the unionization drive for the workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, issued the following statement:

Late yesterday, Local 338 Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union (RWDSU)/United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), announced that workers at Sunnyside* (operated by Cresco Labs) have ratified their first union contract, which comes just weeks after the passage of the Marijuana Taxation & Regulation Act. The bargaining unit covers approximately forty workers who work across New York at the company’s four retail dispensaries…

Today, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) announced it is filing Objections to the conduct of the Election and related Unfair Labor Practice charges (ULPs) with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charging that Amazon interfered with the right of its Bessemer, Alabama employees to vote in a free and fair election; a right protected under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. The RWDSU will request that the NLRB Regional Director schedule a hearing on its objections to determine if the results of the election should be set aside because conduct by the employer created an atmosphere of confusion, coercion and/or fear of reprisals and thus interfered with the employees' freedom of choice. The RWDSU will also present evidence to the Regional Director supporting the issuance of a ULP complaint against Amazon for unlawfully interfering with the protected right of employees to engage in union activity. Workers fighting for a voice and fair treatment in the workplace will now await the results of these hearings on the objections to determine the final outcome of their union vote. After enduring an intensive anti-union campaign designed by Amazon to intimidate and manipulate, workers are seeking the chance to finally have a right to fair representation, a seat at the table and a real chance to fix the litany of issues that workers at Amazon have faced for far too long…

Street, park, and sanitation department workers won a new paid holiday, Juneteenth, commemorating June 19, 1865, when the last slaves in the U.S. were freed. Members will see a 3 percent wage increase in the first year of the contract, and there will be wage re-openers in each of the remaining years of the agreement. The new agreement also includes a 25 cent per hour increase for employees with a CDL, and improvements in seniority, holidays, and vacation language, and it protects the employees’ union health insurance coverage for the life of the pact. The Local 512 members maintain the city’s streets and parks, and pick up trash in the Connersville. The Union's Bargaining Committee was Christopher Geise, Melody Steele and Peter Shonfeld. They were assisted by Indiana Joint Board President Eric Schwartz.