FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 27, 2021 Contact: Chelsea Connor | [email protected] | 347-866-6259  (NEW YORK, NY) – Yesterday, Tina Fey, Alfonso Cuarón, and Damon Lindelof were among the more than 1,760 union members of the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) to sign a petition supporting Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama who are voting to form a union with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Stuart Appelbaum, President of the RWDSU, which is conducting a unionization drive for the workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, issued the following statement: “Tomorrow evening, Tina Fey will be hosting the Golden Globe Awards, but the RWDSU already thinks of her as a superstar of the labor movement. We want to thank her and the over 1,700 tv and film writers who are supporting the Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama in their fight to bring the first union to an Amazon warehouse.”                                         # # # The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) represents 100,000 members throughout the United States. The RWDSU is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). For more information, please visit our website at www.rwdsu.org, Facebook:/RWDSU.UFCW Twitter:@RWDSU.

AL.com Danny Glover came to Alabama Monday, he said, to take part in history. The award-winning actor was in Bessemer to show his support for workers at Amazon’s fulfillment center there, who are currently conducting a mail-in election through March on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). As workers left the warehouse, Glover waved and gave a thumb up sign, as well as recorded a short video in support of workers. It’s not the first time Glover has shown support for unions. Among other appearances, he has shown support for the United Farm Workers, UNITE HERE, and the United Auto Workers, such as when he supported efforts to unionize the workers at Nissan in Canton, Miss. in 2017. In 2018, he won an NAACP Image Award for his work as an activist.

Local 1102 members at 970 Kent Condominium in Brooklyn, New York, recently secured a new contract that improves wages and benefits for the building services workers. The contract brings annual wage benefits for all members, and It also provides improved contributions from the employer to ensure affordability for member health insurance plans. In addition, the membership will benefit from increased contributions to retirement plans thanks to the new contract. For these members, their strong new agreement recognizes their contributions as essential workers during the pandemic. They’ve been there to serve residents at the building throughout the entire COIVD-19 crisis, and will continue their important work with an improved contract.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 17, 2021 Contact: Chelsea Connor | [email protected] | 347-866-6259 (NEW YORK, NY) – Today, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced her office has filed a lawsuit against Amazon over its failures to provide adequate health and safety measures for employees at the company’s New York facilities and Amazon’s retaliatory actions against multiple employees amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In failing to maintain a safe work environment by reasonably protecting workers from the spread of COVID-19, Amazon violated New York State Labor Law. In addition, Amazon unlawfully fired and disciplined employees that objected to Amazon’s unsafe work conditions. Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which is conducting a unionization drive for the workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, issued the following statement: “This lawsuit is about Amazon’s failure to protect its workforce in New York. But the story is the same everywhere Amazon operates – including in Bessemer, Alabama. Amazon needs to do better for all its employees to keep them safe. It’s not that Amazon cannot afford to, but that Amazon doesn’t want to. Amazon has betrayed its responsibility to its employees to provide a safe workplace; and we must never tolerate that. Amazon needs to change.”  # # # The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) represents 100,000 members throughout the United States. The RWDSU is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). For more information, please visit our website at www.rwdsu.org, Facebook:/RWDSU.UFCW Twitter:@RWDSU.

Read the whole story at The Hill  What a difference a few weeks makes in the age of Twitter. On Jan. 8, Twitter permanently suspended the official account of former President Trump for inciting violence. On Feb. 4, President Biden tweeted the following: “Every American deserves the dignity and respect that comes with union organizing and collective bargaining. The policy of our government is to encourage union organizing, and employers should ensure their workers have a free and fair choice to join a union.” Biden has pledged to be the “most pro-union president” in history, and his tweet is perhaps the clearest pro-union statement we’ve ever had from a sitting president. Biden’s comments are not without precedent. Most students of New Deal labor remember FDR’s quote, “the president wants you to join a union.” In reality, the quote was probably apocryphal, but it was believable — and the newly organized labor federation, the CIO, used it to help organize workers in the mass-production sector, leading to historic victories in auto, steel and rubber industries. President Obama also used the bully pulpit of the office to celebrate the role of unions in creating the American middle class, saying: “We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests, because we know that you cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement”; a few weeks later, Obama’s pro-labor comments were used, with significant impact, in a historic union organizing victory at Smithfield meatpacking plant in North Carolina. But Biden’s comments are more significant. Unlike those of FDR, his comments are not of dubious providence and are unambiguous: the president wants you to join a union. Unlike Obama, Biden has vowed to be the “most pro-union” president we’ve ever seen. Obama said positive things about unions, but he did relatively little to support the critical pro-union legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, and his recently published memoir of his time in office, A Promised Land, makes zero mention of union issues. Biden, in contrast, has vowed to prioritize the PRO Act, passed by the House of Representatives last February, which would strengthen workers’ right to choose a union, make more transparent aggressive corporate anti-union campaigns, and limit employer efforts to misclassify workers. The new president has already removed anti-union officials appointed by his predecessor to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Federal Service Impasses Panel, among others.

Stuart Appelbaum Amsterdam News  In December, by an overwhelming margin, 605 employees at Housing Works housing units, thrift stores, health care, and other locations throughout New York City finally won their campaign to join the RWDSU. It was one of the biggest union organizing wins anywhere in 2020, and it meant that Housing Works workers will finally be able to address the issues they faced including poor pay and benefits, unmanageable caseloads, lack of training, discrimination and harassment and health and safety problems. Finally, through a union contract and a voice on the job, these workers will be able to improve their jobs, their lives, and the care received by Housing Works clients. The workers’ win shows their tenacity and dedication. They never wavered in this unnecessarily long process, which was stalled by their employer at every turn. They stayed strong as their employer continued to do everything possible to delay the union election, hoping to squash the workers’ momentum and eventually smother the organizing drive. The fact that these workers stood together and won is inspiring and joyous, and stands as a testament to what working people can accomplish when they are united. The fact that it took two years––amid countless delays and obstacles put up by their employer––can only be described as a shame. It shouldn’t take workers who overwhelmingly want to exercise their right to join a union two years to accomplish their goal. Employers shouldn’t be allowed to continually game the system to try to squeeze the life out of organizing drives by their workers. Legislation passed in the House last year, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, known as the PRO Act, would help ensure that workers aren’t denied their rights and that employers aren’t allowed to abuse the system to run out the clock on organizing drives. The PRO Act would amend labor laws to give workers more power during disputes at work, add penalties for companies that retaliate against workers who organize and grant some hundreds of thousands of workers collective-bargaining rights they don’t currently have. It would also weaken anti-worker “right-to-work” laws in 27 states that hurt unions. With a Republican Senate and Trump in the White House, the PRO Act was considered dead on arrival. With the arrival of President Biden and a Democratic Congress in 2021, passage of the PRO Act is possible. After decades of the playing field leaning further and further to employers’ favor, now is an opportunity to restore some balance in the fight for workers’ rights and give more workers a chance at winning a union voice. The huge victory at Housing Works showed the power workers have when they stand united, but it also showed the need to level the playing field between workers and their employers when it comes to union and worker rights. When workers want to join a union, it shouldn’t take years. Workers should be free to exercise their rights without employer interference, intimidation, and delay. The PRO Act needs to be a top legislative priority in 2021, so that more workers can win union representation and better lives for themselves and their families.

NPR A vote beginning this week among Amazon workers in an Alabama suburb could decide if a warehouse there becomes the company's first unionized facility in the U.S. Ballots will go out on Monday to more than 5,800 workers at the warehouse in Bessemer, near Birmingham, asking if they want to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The election runs through March 29 and marks the first Amazon warehouse union vote since a group of technicians in Delaware voted against unionizing in 2014. The mail-in vote will also come just days after the National Labor Relations Board shot down an effort by Amazon to delay the union election. The company had petitioned for a postponement reasoning that the vote — conducted by mail due to minimize spread of the coronavirus — should be done in person. Amazon has battled back efforts to unionize their American facilities, even though many of its European warehouses operate under union agreements. Amazon representatives have also said that workers behind the union drive do not represent a majority of its employees. "Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available everywhere we hire, and we encourage anyone to compare our overall pay, benefits, and workplace environment to any other company with similar jobs," Amazon spokesperson Lisa Levandowski said when Bessemer workers notified the NLRB of their intention to unionize in November. RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum told NPR last month that more than half the workers in Bessemer had signed cards in support of union representation. Appelbaum said that workers at the facility had reached out to the union over the summer, months after the facility had opened in March in the early days of the pandemic. Workers at the Bessemer warehouse had described grueling productivity quotas and had wanted more input in shaping the workplace including how people get disciplined or fired, Appelbaum told NPR in January. Support for the union drive has spread beyond the warehouse, gaining recognition from other unions and national attention.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 5, 2021 Contact: Chelsea Connor | [email protected] | 347-866-6259 (BESSEMER, AL) – On January 21, 2021, Amazon made a motion to request a stay of the union election for workers at the fulfilment center in Bessemer, Alabama and appealed the decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 10. Today, the NLRB in Washington, DC denied both of their motions, allowing the union election to proceed as decided in the Decision and Direction of Election by their Region 10 office on January 15, 2021. Despite Amazon’s last-ditch effort to delay the election, union election ballots will now go out in the mail to workers on Monday, February 8, 2021. Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which is conducting the unionization drive for the workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, issued the following statement: “Once again Amazon workers have won another fight in their effort to win a union voice. Amazon’s blatant disregard for the health and safety of its own workforce was demonstrated yet again by its insistence for an in-person election in the middle of the pandemic. Today’s decision proves that it’s long past time that Amazon start respecting its own employees; and allow them to cast their votes without intimidation and interference.” # # #  The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) represents 100,000 members throughout the United States. The RWDSU is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). For more information, please visit our website at www.rwdsu.org, Facebook:/RWDSU.UFCW Twitter:@RWDSU.