President Biden: ‘The choice to join a union is up to the workers – full stop’

In a video, President Joe Biden sent a strong message of support to workers who seek a voice on the job through a union – especially the Amazon workers in Alabama who are voting on whether to form a union.

“The choice to join a union is up to the workers – full stop,” Biden said in what may be the strongest pro-labor message from a president in recent times.

“Today and over the next few days and weeks, workers in Alabama and all across America are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace,” the president continued. “This is vitally important – a vitally important choice – as America grapples with the deadly pandemic, the economic crisis, and the reckoning on race, and what it reveals about the deep disparities that still exist in our country. And there should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda. No supervisor should confront employees about their union preferences.”

Made as nearly 6,000 Amazon workers at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, are voting by mail on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), Biden’s words could hardly be a stronger endorsement of the power of labor unions and the positive difference they make in the lives of American workers. As some have pointed out, they are nearly unprecedented.

AFSCME strongly supports Amazon workers trying to unionize for the same reason we believe every worker in America should have the freedom to form a union. Building power through a union makes a difference: It leads to higher pay, better health care, a more secure retirement, safer working conditions and more.

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