After a highly-publicized unionization campaign, a Bessmer, Ala. Amazon center took a heavy loss in the voting results. The results there offer some insight on how potential unionizing in the two new Columbia County Amazon sortation centers will be handled.
“Out of 2,536 workers who voted in the union election at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama facility (known as BHM1), 1,798 voted against unionization compared to 738 who voted to unionize. Ballots from another 505 workers were challenged by either Amazon or the union, but those votes won’t change the outcome, so the election is over,” per an article on the vote from Vox.com.
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While some workers claim Amazon employed anti-union tactics in order to place a finger on the voting scales, the margin of defeat was still substantial and according to economist Barry Hirsch of Georgia State University, could deter future unionization attempts for existing and future Amazon centers across the southeast.
“A lot of people down south, especially the rural south, see good, steady jobs paying above minimum wage and realize it’s much better than some of the other options they have,” Hirsch said.
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He continued to say that it’s not surprising that southern workers might not want to bite the hand that feeds them. Amazon has been opposed to allowing their centers across the country to unionize.
Mounting unionization campaigns are expensive and can be challenging to organize, especially in the South where industry infrastructure was slower to develop than in places like Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New York, said Hirsch.
“I think every economic developer in America was paying attention to see what would happen,” said Robbie Bennett, executive director of Development Authority of Columbia County.
“Unions in the south are not typically very strong, at least in terms of starting new ones,” Bennett said. “I’m no expert, but I would say it’s highly unlikely that it will happen here.”
In terms of the overall economic impact of the coming Amazon centers, Bennett said it was a continuation of industrial growth in not just the county, but the region as a whole.
“It will diversify the local economy, and it brings intangible economic value already that we could not have asked for at a better time,” Bennett said. “You have over 500 workers out there working on construction right now, and the majority are staying in our local hotels.”
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According to Bennett, the arrival of the Amazon centers will also provide a boost to the tax base of the Columbia County Board of Education, and the show of support in the area from Amazon will signal other big-time companies to look to the Columbia County area for potential developments in the future.
“My commitment from day one is that throughout the process, we address safety and traffic. Also, that what we build out there creates long-term value for the community,” Bennett said. “And I think as we share those concerns and information with the residents in that area, there’s support from the existing community.”
Both Bennett and Hirsch agreed that while Amazon’s working conditions have come under fire both before and during the Bessemer unionization saga, the addition of new centers in the area will provide more benefits to the community than negatives.
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com.
