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Amazon Warehouse in Alabama Holds Retail Union Vote : The Indicator from Planet Money Amazon workers in Alabama are voting on whether to form the company's FIRST U.S. union. We explain how the union has succeeded in getting this far, and the potential ramifications of the vote.
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Alabama: The Newest Union Battleground

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Alabama: The Newest Union Battleground

The Indicator from Planet Money

Alabama: The Newest Union Battleground

Alabama: The Newest Union Battleground

Listen · 9:56
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/970178388/970188398" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2021/02/20: Participants seen holding signs and marching on a picket line at the protest. Members of the Workers Assembly Against Racism gathered across from Jeff Bezos-owned Whole Foods Market in Union Square South for a nation-wide solidarity event with the unionizing Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama
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Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2021/02/20: Participants seen holding signs and marching on a picket line at the protest. Members of the Workers Assembly Against Racism gathered across from Jeff Bezos-owned Whole Foods Market in Union Square South for a nation-wide solidarity event with the unionizing Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama
Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

Through March 30, almost 6,000 Amazon workers are voting on a potentially groundbreaking decision: whether to form the company's first unionized warehouse in America. It's the first unionization vote in years at a company that's ballooned into the country's second largest private employer and one of the world's most valuable.

For years, labor organizers and workers have tried to galvanize Amazon warehouses all around the country, including places famous for being union-friendly like New York. But the first one to get to this potentially historic union vote is in Bessemer, Alabama.

We explain how this warehouse union election came to be, and how it could upend history for both Amazon AND the South.

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