Day: August 2, 2021

A U.S. labor board official has recommended a rerun of a landmark Amazon union election in Alabama, where employees had voted overwhelmingly against making their warehouse the online retailer’s first to organize in the United States.

In the coming weeks, a regional director for the U.S. National Labor Relations Board will decide whether to order the rerun based on this recommendation, said an official on Monday with the board who asked not to be named.

Amazon said it planned to appeal.

“Our employees had a chance to be heard during a noisy time when all types of voices were weighing into the national debate, and at the end of the day, they voted overwhelmingly in favor of a direct connection with their managers and the company,” Amazon said in a statement.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which workers rejected joining earlier this year by a more than 2-1 margin, had said Amazon illegally threatened staff with reduced benefits and compromised the election’s integrity via a ballot collection box it secured outside the warehouse.

Specifically, the RWDSU argued, Amazon improperly influenced voting by pressuring employees to drop ballots in the mailbox while they were in view of warehouse cameras, creating a perception of surveillance that U.S. labor law forbids. Amazon also improperly adorned a tent surrounding the mailbox with messaging related to its anti-union campaign, the RWDSU said.

Amazon has said that the mailbox was installed to give nearly 6,000 eligible voters a convenient option for returning their ballots, and that the tent shielded workers from cameras, which predated the collection box.

The recommendation casts doubt on Amazon’s victory over the unionizing effort in a contest that amounted to a setback for the U.S. labor movement. The union’s organizing campaign drew implicit support from U.S. President Joe Biden and lawmakers including Senator Bernie Sanders, who visited the warehouse.

U.S. labor law forbids companies from threatening to cut benefits or close facilities when workers support a union. The law also prohibits companies from spying on organizing activities or leaving employees with the impression they are under surveillance.

Still, employers such as Amazon have wide legal latitude to campaign aggressively, including by requiring employees to attend mandatory meetings that cast unions in a negative light. Amazon held such meetings, sent text messages to employees and even displayed campaign literature in at least one of the Alabama warehouse’s restroom stalls.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

 

Hospitalizations from COVID-19 are surging in the Southern United States with some states seeing record numbers of patients as the country faces a wave of coronavirus infections fueled by the delta variant.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said Monday that looking ahead to Tuesday’s reported hospitalization numbers, there are “more hospitalizations than at any other point in the pandemic.”

Edwards did not give the exact number of hospitalized patients, but said it was more than the official count of 1,984 that health officials announced Monday at noon.

The news follows Florida’s announcement Sunday that more than 10,000 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in the state, surpassing Florida’s record.

 

Arkansas reported Monday its biggest one-day spike in coronavirus hospitalizations since the pandemic began, bringing the state’s total to 1,220. Arkansas is nearing its high of 1,371 coronavirus patients set in January.

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said Friday that coronavirus cases are surging in areas with low vaccination rates.

He told reporters on a conference call that one in three cases nationwide occurred in Florida and Texas in the past week. According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, new confirmed cases hit nearly 560,000.

Vaccine numbers

The average number of people being vaccinated is also on the rise.

Zients said 3 million Americans had received their first shot in the past seven days, an increase of nearly 70% over the previous week.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that 70% of U.S. adults have received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine, a milestone that President Joe Biden had originally hoped to pass by July 4.

In addition to fueling a demand for vaccines, the surge in new coronavirus cases has led authorities to reinstate mask requirements in hard-hit areas and to introduce vaccine mandates at places of work.

Requirements

Louisiana announced Monday that beginning Wednesday masks would be required in all indoor locations, including schools and colleges, while eight counties in California’s San Francisco Bay Area on Monday reimposed mandatory masking in indoor public places.

The mayor of Denver, Colorado, Michael Hancock, announced Monday the city will mandate all city employees and private sector workers in high-risk settings to be vaccinated against the virus by the end of September.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said state health care workers, along with workers in corrections facilities or assisted living centers, must be vaccinated or face testing twice a week.

In New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo urged businesses to turn away unvaccinated customers. He said it is in businesses’ best interests because many customers want to know that the customer next to them is vaccinated.

Biden announced last week that millions of federal workers and contractors must show proof of vaccination or submit to regular COVID-19 tests.

As of Monday night, the U.S. has confirmed 35.1 million cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began and more than 613,000 deaths.

 

 

Source: Voice of America