Thomas K. | Red Phoenix correspondent | Ohio–

The struggle to organize Amazon warehouses has been a leading battleground in the modern American class war. Employing around one million workers in America, they place themselves firmly as one of the largest employers in the country, second only to Walmart. In today’s age, technological developments could uplift and empower the masses, yet because of the profit motive of capital, this progress only serves to enrich the owning class at the expense of workers.

Internal documents from Amazon show that their continued push into automation will allow them to nix around 160,000 jobs by 2027, increasing to around 600,000 by 2033. The documents also showed they plan to automate 75% of the company’s operations. The fight for unionization at Amazon is now more dire than ever. As it sits currently only one Amazon warehouse in the United States has been unionized. (Amazon Labor Union Local 1 in Staten Island) An organized defense against this attack by Amazon must be supported, not only by Amazon employees but by labor unions around the country. Estimates have it that Amazon has spent over $20 million in anti-union consultants and campaigns since 2021, with a spotlight on the union-busting against workers of Bessemer, Alabama. Amazon is actively exposing itself, as all private property is, to be the ruthless antagonist to the survival and prosperity of the worker.

Amazon has been quoted multiple times saying that they disagree with unionization because it stands in the way of “innovation,” defined as profits in the practical sense. Amazon is so much so against unionization that they would rather replace their workers with robots than agree to worker demands, like an irresponsible child with an old toy they’ve grown tired of and have decided to cast aside. We cannot let this happen without a fight. This affects all branches of the working class, Amazon would be laying out the blueprints for this to be transferred to all parts of the working class. Automation in and of itself is not bad, as it can improve efficiency and reduce the workload of employees, but when in the hands of the capitalist it becomes a tool of ultimate extraction and oppression.

Corporations use automation to remove worker overhead costs and eliminate positions, all while promising to “upscale” employees, a talking point used against the working class time and time again. Under some critical examination we clearly find that even training employees into more technical roles, the systems they will be working on are so patent heavy that the skills are non-transferable. What we would then be left with is a group of skilled technicians completely held captive to a corporation unable to sell their labor anywhere else. For those not given the opportunity to train, which will be the large majority, they will be left chasing a drying up pool of jobs as more corporations follow Amazon’s “robot labor market”. 

Amazon’s desire to push out the worker demands a return of strength in solidarity across all facets of labor. The organization and unionization of the working class is the beginning of our defense. Workers deserve transparency in their work and workplace, as AI systems are integrated into workplaces more and more we need to have a say on how it is used. We also need to make some demands against robotics. If the robotic systems are so productive then they can afford to lose a work day, meaning that the workers can demand a shorter work week at no loss in pay. If automation must come the workers should receive the benefits.

Unions attached to Amazon, whether through construction, through shipping, or any other means, must stand in solidarity with the Amazon workers. An attack on any member of the working class is an attack on all of us. We should halt the construction of Amazon warehouses and data centers. Strike them at the heart of their profits and let them know the working class will not roll over and be replaced. We will not have our labor power taken away from us. 

We must stand together and fight against this scourge and continue the fight against capitalism and move towards a socialist world. The owning class has shown that they have no interest in keeping relations with the working class. They continue to turn our labor against us as a continual slap in the face. We are trapped as slaves to their bidding and then driven out by our works. We must organize against this system and destroy it, and our workplace unions are one of the most important battlegrounds on which to wage our war. We cannot exist hand in hand with capital interests any longer when they seem so hell-bent on leaving us behind. The system must be abolished and the means of production given back to the people! It is from our hands this world has been built and to our hands it must return! 

Categories: Labor, U.S. News