The unions' organizing push coincides with the pre-Christmas shopping season when Amazon is most vulnerable. Any work stoppage or sickout could severely damage the company's operations and result in huge losses. The unions are pressuring Amazon's CEO, Jeffrey P. Bezos, to agree to quick representation elections and remain neutral as the organizing campaign proceeds. We don't believe in unions, because everybody is an owner and everybody has rights as individuals to talk about workplace concerns. Customer service reps routinely put in 50-hour workweeks that expand, with mandatory overtime, to 70 hours during the holidays.
Management can change shift and work schedules on a day's notice.
In the absence of a union, management ignores grievances. Instead of looking for promotions, a growing number of Amazon customer service reps now worry about layoffs. Last January, the company laid off 150 workers, and it recently began using about 100 Indian workers in New Delhi as customer reps. They, too, complain about 60-hour workweeks and speedups during the holiday season. The 100 stock options they received can't be vested until after five years.