Back in 2018, Amazon announced plans to open a fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, an old coal town of around 27,000 people about 20 miles southwest of Birmingham. When Amazon announced the $325 million fulfillment center, the company pledged it would create 1,500 jobs that paid $15 per hour and provided 401k retirement programs, health insurance, and tuition reimbursement. Bessemer’s mayor called it the “largest single private investment in the city’s 131-year history.”
Despite the fulfilled promise the new facility represents, labor relations between the company and the 6,000 employees soured quickly with a mail-in vote on unionization starting today. Essentially, employees living in a relatively impoverished community may seek to bite the hand that feeds them.
To read this op-ed and learn why, visit Real Clear Policy.