Labor News & Commentary August 2, 2024 the Amazon Labor Union holds their first leadership elections & more

https://onlabor.org/august-2-2024/

By Esther Ritchin

Esther Ritchin is a student at Harvard Law School.

In today’s news and commentary, the United Auto Workers endorse Harris, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice launches a unionization campaign, and the Amazon Labor Union holds their first leadership elections.

Yesterday, July 31, the United Auto Workers (UAW) endorsed Kamala Harris, following a vote by the International Executive Board. The union cited the Biden-Harris administration’s track record of effectively fighting for the working class, and noted Harris’s participation in a 2019 auto workers picket line, attacks on price gouging and profiteering, and opposition to trade deals such as NAFTA. This is the latest in a string of Harris endorsements from major unions, including AFL-CIO, IBEW, SEIU, and the American Federation of Teachers, as John reported earlier this week. Next week, the Harris campaign will go to Michigan and meet with UAW members and leadership.

The Civil Rights Division within the Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced a unionization campaign. The campaign is hoping to move more quickly than most in order to hold an election by October, ahead of the presidential election. The division is attempting to unionize with the National Treasury Employees Union. This would be the DOJ’s first union of litigators, but follows the DOJ’s Environmental and and Natural Resources Division’s unionization campaign, also hoping for an October election, as Holden reported last month. Both campaigns are concerned about presidential candidate Trump’s planned return to the Schedule F executive order should he win election, which makes it easier to fire certain government employees.

The Amazon Labor Union (ALU), the only union representing Amazon warehouse workers, recently held their first elections, electing all the candidates of a slate called the A.L.U. Democratic Reform Caucus. The Reform Caucus beat out current ALU leadership after criticizing the leadership for holding too much power and not being accountable to their rank-and-file members, and bringing a lawsuit to force the election that led to their success. This election had incredibly poor voter turnout, with only about 5% of eligible members voting. The new leadership blamed the lack of turnout on confusing instructions and mail-ballot systems, and the failure of prior leadership to engage members. This election comes a little over a month after ALU voted to affiliate with the Teamsters and two years after the initial representation election. The union has yet to negotiate their first contract.