Fired workers at Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) are being urged by union activists to turn their backs on the Internet retailer's enhanced severance package. Many in the labor movement view the firings as opening the door to organizing thousands of dot-com workers around the U.S.
When Amazon laid off 1,300 staffers, or 15 percent of its workforce, on Tuesday, the company said in a memo that those who signed a "nondisparagement" agreement would be eligible for an extra six weeks' pay, a lump-sum payment of US$500, and accelerated vesting of stock options that would have vested close to the time of termination.
However, Gretchen Wilson, a Washington Alliance of Technology Workers organizer -- which failed in earlier attempts to organize Amazon workers -- cautioned affected staffers not to sign the 15-page severance package.
Wilson said that it is taking the organization's lawyers a "long time to fully understand [the severance package]."
New Day Dawns
The scene around the six-year-old Seattle, Washington company is now dramatically different from what it was a year ago, when Amazon laid off 300 workers.
Still espousing the dot-com dream, Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos was greeted like a rock star last year by enthusiastic employees at a Fernley, Nevada distribution center when he said, "We don't need unions, because everyone in the company is an owner and everyone has a say."
Impatience On Wall Street
Since then, those "owners" have seen the value of their stock options crushed, amid growing impatience on Wall Street over the fact that the giant e-tailer has yet to turn a profit.
Now, many of those Amazon workers who are still on the job aren't so sure about their future, or the company's.
Efforts to unionize workers in information technology firms are gaining steam as fast as dreams of stock market riches are fading. Unions began looking better to tech workers after Internet stocks went into a nose dive and the number of dot-com corpses began to climb.
Seeds Are Planted
While the movement to organize workers still hasn't reached critical mass, the seeds have been planted. It comes down to old-fashioned concerns about wages, working conditions and job security.
"People who thought there was no need to worry because they would go from the mail room to the board room in a couple of years are now having a change of heart," Ruben Barrales, president of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley, a public/private partnership that focuses on economic vitality in the area, told the E-Commerce Times.
Barrales, who watched an organization attempt fail badly at San Francisco online retailer Etown.com last year, said that if the vote were scheduled for next week, it might be a different story.
Growing Concern
Garry Mathiason, an attorney at the largest U.S. firm that represents management in labor matters, has noticed growing concern about unions from tech employers. The U.S. National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that temporary workers could join with their on-staff colleagues in requesting union authorization.
For tech firms that hire a lot of contract help, that could tip the scales.
"If you have 10 employees and bring in 20 [temps who could vote for a union],
you could find yourself with a union," Mathiason said.
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