Posted on Dec 8, 2023
Inside an alleged Amazon union-busting campaign in Kentucky: 'They want to scare us'
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Two months after Rubi Gomez began working at an Amazon facility in Kentucky, she woke up to a barrage of frantic text messages from her coworkers, she said.
"They were the kind of messages you would get if somebody was in a panic," Gomez told ABC News.
Managers had confronted employees as they handed out union materials in a parking lot outside the building, checking the same workers' identification multiple times and alleging that tables set up in the entrance pathway amounted to insubordination, a serious charge that could lead to termination, according to worker testimony and video reviewed by ABC News.
Recounting that hectic day in early November, Gomez said she headed to the scene and took a spot alongside her colleagues, prompting a demand from a manager that she take down the tables. The order frightened Gomez, who said she "wanted to be invisible." Still, she refused.
"They were the kind of messages you would get if somebody was in a panic," Gomez told ABC News.
Managers had confronted employees as they handed out union materials in a parking lot outside the building, checking the same workers' identification multiple times and alleging that tables set up in the entrance pathway amounted to insubordination, a serious charge that could lead to termination, according to worker testimony and video reviewed by ABC News.
Recounting that hectic day in early November, Gomez said she headed to the scene and took a spot alongside her colleagues, prompting a demand from a manager that she take down the tables. The order frightened Gomez, who said she "wanted to be invisible." Still, she refused.
Inside an alleged Amazon union-busting campaign in Kentucky: 'They want to scare us'
Posted from abcnews.go.com
Amazon
Unions
Posted 5 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Managers had confronted employees as they handed out union materials in a parking lot outside the building, checking the same workers' identification multiple times and alleging that tables set up in the entrance pathway amounted to insubordination, a serious charge that could lead to termination, according to worker testimony and video reviewed by ABC News.
Recounting that hectic day in early November, Gomez said she headed to the scene and took a spot alongside her colleagues, prompting a demand from a manager that she take down the tables. The order frightened Gomez, who said she "wanted to be invisible." Still, she refused.
The tables violated company policy because they obstructed people entering and exiting the facility, Amazon managers told the workers, the video shows. The workers objected to the claim, saying that their efforts qualified as union activity protected by federal labor law.
Workers kept tabling in support of the union on this occasion and others. Within two weeks, 11 workers had received write-ups telling them that they could lose their jobs if they didn't stop.
MORE: 'Really worried': Meta decision allowing 2020 election-denial ads risks distrust, extremism, experts say
The warnings marked a flashpoint in an alleged surge of anti-union backlash at the facility in recent weeks, workers told ABC News, describing mandatory meetings in opposition to the union, one-on-one questioning of workers active in the campaign, deployment of union-busting employee relations officers, as well as mass emails and text messages sent to employees."...
..."Managers had confronted employees as they handed out union materials in a parking lot outside the building, checking the same workers' identification multiple times and alleging that tables set up in the entrance pathway amounted to insubordination, a serious charge that could lead to termination, according to worker testimony and video reviewed by ABC News.
Recounting that hectic day in early November, Gomez said she headed to the scene and took a spot alongside her colleagues, prompting a demand from a manager that she take down the tables. The order frightened Gomez, who said she "wanted to be invisible." Still, she refused.
The tables violated company policy because they obstructed people entering and exiting the facility, Amazon managers told the workers, the video shows. The workers objected to the claim, saying that their efforts qualified as union activity protected by federal labor law.
Workers kept tabling in support of the union on this occasion and others. Within two weeks, 11 workers had received write-ups telling them that they could lose their jobs if they didn't stop.
MORE: 'Really worried': Meta decision allowing 2020 election-denial ads risks distrust, extremism, experts say
The warnings marked a flashpoint in an alleged surge of anti-union backlash at the facility in recent weeks, workers told ABC News, describing mandatory meetings in opposition to the union, one-on-one questioning of workers active in the campaign, deployment of union-busting employee relations officers, as well as mass emails and text messages sent to employees."...
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