Episode 7: Labor After Bessemer with Saladin Muhammad

The labor movement in the South was dealt a heavy blow in April when workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, voted roughly 2 to 1 against unionizing with the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU).

The loss came on the heels of other recent unsuccessful attempts to unionize Volkswagen and Nissan plants in Tennessee and Mississippi. But the stakes seemed higher in Bessemer.

Leading the labor campaign at the Alabama warehouse were Black workers who risked losing their jobs to speak out against one of the world’s most powerful and fastest-growing corporations in the least unionized region in the country.

To be clear, the RWDSU made plenty of miscalculations that contributed to the Bessemer blowout. However, the union struggle at the Amazon fulfillment center was never going to be a fair fight.

While Amazon publicly extolled the value of Black lives, the corporation unleashed a ruthless and well-financed anti-union campaign upon its majority Black workers in the leadup to the election. The company barraged workers with disinformation and lies about the union.

Meanwhile, union avoidance experts charging Amazon thousands of dollars per day held captive audience meetings in an effort to turn workers against the union. Amazon even tried to turn the entire Bessemer community against the union by threatening to withdraw the fulfillment center--a major source of jobs and revenue--out of the area.

In this week's episode, host Jonathan Michels speaks with Saladin Muhammad to dissect about the Bessemer union drive and the importance of social movement unionism in the effort to organize rank-and-file workers in the South, and workers of color in particular. Muhammad is a retired international rep for the United Electrical Workers union and a founding member of both Black Workers for Justice and the Southern Workers Assembly. He lives in North Carolina.

For a transcription of this episode, click here.

Show notes:

• The Message from the Amazon Union Defeat in Alabama Is Clear: Keep Organizing
• What the South Can Teach the Rest of the Country About Resisting the Right
• Blowout in Bessemer: A Postmortem on the Amazon Campaign