On Monday, the Amazon Labor Union filed for an election that could eventually secure collective-bargaining rights for 7,000 workers at the retail giant’s four warehouse facilities on Staten Island. The filing came after organizers gathered the 30-percent-of-workforce minimum required under the National Labor Relations Act. For pro-worker GOPers, championing the would-be union’s cause is not only good politics, but a matter of justice.
By now, it shouldn’t be necessary to enumerate the neo-Dickensian horrors of Jeff Bezos’s smiley-package foundries. Yes, Amazon warehouses offer relatively high starting wages ($15 an hour at Staten Island, even higher at other locations). The problem is what the firm does to its warehouse employees after they sign the dotted line.
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