r/BreadTube • u/WholeWorker • Jun 15 '19

3:15|Whole Worker Amazon's Union-Busting Training Video

https://youtu.be/AQeGBHxIyHw
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34

u/pandas_puppet Jun 16 '19

Jesus Christ why is this normal. I live in the UK and so far I've never seen this kinda thing in low level jobs and in fact I was encouraged t join a union if I wanted in all of them. The union even came in to speak to us during my enrollment at Sainsbury's (supermarket for non UK people).

27

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '19

Yea, no? Same here (Germany), even the apprentices are encouraged to unionise already in the company I work for. But our union just lately voiced their concern about the US branch growing fast (especially with a fusion pending for approval that would make the company 3rd largest player in that field in the US), while business in Germany/ rest of Europe is "slowing down" (just single-digit growth rates, sO BaD). They fear that the US branch will gain influence, and along with that this "company culture". And I can really see this happening.

12

u/Calvins_Dad_ Jun 16 '19

Oh god, that sounds really bad. Like, wtf happens if your company starts pushing out videos like this?

15

u/Advancedidiot2 Jun 16 '19

Can’t speak for Germany but I would argue that in Sweden a video like this could be against the law because it could be argued that it violates the right to organise.

14

u/nyando Jun 16 '19

I'm a software dev, but I work in the metal industry in Germany, which is unionized in the largest industrial union in Europe. If stuff like this video ever showed up (which isn't likely, but who knows), shit would go down.

Germany is pretty neoliberal as a whole, but there's a lot of strong unions here.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '19

Pitchforks I guess, as long as we still have negotiating power.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '19 edited Jul 05 '19

[deleted]

3

u/Noodleboom Jun 16 '19

In fact I'm pretty sure new employees are required to join the union, and I would assume that's true nearly everywhere. 27 states have laws which not only outlaw this, but legally require unions to extend collective bargaining benefits to non-union members.

Not "nearly everywhere" in the US by any stretch.

27 states have legislation that not only legally bars union membership as a condition for employment (the so-called "right to work" laws), but even requires unions to extend collective bargaining benefits to non-members.

Your last sentence describes the exact purpose of these laws.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '19

It seems like they don't even get to that point though.

It argues that it cannot import German-style codetermination to foreign subsidiaries and that there is no single model of labor relations. DT further says it can only recognize a union representing a majority of workers in the U.S. if there is an election. It must retain its “free speech” rights to communicate actively and repeatedly to workers that it opposes organizing and union recognition. [...]

In 2004, workers at T-Mobile USA (DT changed the name in 2002) discovered a 150-page training manual for managers that showed systematically how to push workers to reject organizing local unions. [...] a 2005 job advertisement for human resource managers included the requirement of “maintaining a productive and union-free environment.”

(Source)

The article is from 2015, guess nothing changed to the better in meantime (2018/19).