Amazon.com Workers Begin Union Drive
The e-retailing giant may be part of the new economy, but it now faces an old-economy problem as employees complain about low wages and forced overtime.
By Miguel Helft
Customer service workers at Amazon.com's (AMZN) Seattle headquarters have started a drive to form a union.
The workers hope to gather support from a majority of the 400 or so customer service representatives in Seattle. They hope to obtain union recognition and eventually a collective bargaining agreement.
Assisting the Amazon workers in their efforts is the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, or WashTech. That group, a Seattle affiliate of the Communication Workers of America, gained notoriety during the 1990s for leading – and winning – several labor fights against Microsoft (MSFT) .
With the holiday shopping season ramping up, the unionizing drive couldn't come at a worse time for Amazon. What's more, the drive also comes at a time when Amazon is under intense scrutiny. The company's prospects have been the subject of heated debate on Wall Street, its shares have taken a beating and its performance during this holiday season is seen as particularly critical.
[full text at http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,20273,00.html]
Carl
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