I'm Stuart Appelbaum, The President of the RWDSU, the retail wholesale at Department Store Union.
And I want to thank you for being on this call and I also want to thank you for the extraordinary coverage.
Throughout the United States and throughout the world of the first phase of this campaign, today's announcement by the NLRB may not be what we wanted.
But sadly, it is one that many have come to expect.
Our system is broken and Amazon, took full advantage of that.
But make no mistake about it.
This still represents, an important, moment, for working people and most importantly.
People should not presume, that the results of this vote, are in any way, a validation, of Amazon's, working conditions and the way it treats its employees.
Quite the contrary.
The results demonstrate the powerful impact of employer intimidation and interference.
We will be calling on the Labor Board to hold Amazon accountable for its agreed jus behavior during the campaign.
Amazon misled and manipulated workers.
They lied and tried to gain the system.
Not only did they take full advantage of our terrible labor laws, we contend that they broke the law.
Repeatedly, in there no holds barred effort to stop workers from forming a union.
We will be filing multiple charges, with the labor board.
And we are confident, that the charges will be upheld.
Despite overwhelmingly overwhelming odds, workers at Bessemer have stood up to one of the most powerful companies in the world, to the planet's richest man.
And they were heard.
This is part of a much bigger story.
The announcement today does not signal the end to our efforts to change the way Amazon treats its workers.
What has happened here has inspired workers throughout the United States.
And around the world.
No union election and decades has received this much attention.
That's because this was never an ordinary union election.
It transcends this one workplace and even this one company.
The campaign gathered world wide attention.
Because it shows, with painful clarity the profound imbalance of power.
Fulfilled by corporate greed and racism between workers and large corporations.
And it also brought into high relief, the total failure of our laws to protect workers when they tried to form a union.
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Despite this outcome, many of the workers here have shown real courage.
They have stood up and spoken out.
And they have shown just how much needs to be changed.
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The struggle in Bessemer was and is as much a civil rights struggle.
As a labor struggle, the Black Lives Matter movement and other civil rights activists, joined with supporters, throughout the labor movement and came together, here.
It is a powerful coalition, that harkens back to the energy and hope, of the civil rights, era.
And what's more?
The workers hair revealed just how powerful corporations will stop that nothing and will readily spend millions of dollars to deny workers a voice.
Amazon's ruthless anti union campaign.
Mandatory hour long anti union lectures.
Inescapable anti union propaganda, the barrage of lies and misinformation, the manipulation, it's not something any of us can ever unsee.
But in a real sense, despite Amazon's relentless bullying, and dirty tricks, workers have shown what can be possible and what needs to be fixed.
With their historic campaign, Amazon workers has done something incredible.
And we will continue to move forward to build on what's been accomplished here.
Dropbox is on the company's property workers are used to having every motion thing make surveilled throughout the day cameras Are outside.
And I think it also gives people the impression that Amazon not the government is conducting the election.
And I think it also created unfortunately The opportunity for Amazon to illegally harvest votes and we have evidence of that, that we will be presenting that Amazon harvested votes in direct violation of the law.
So the board said, No Dropbox, no Dropbox And Amazon decided to ignore that.
My name is Emmett and I'm an Amazon worker.
And I just wanted to speak to everybody today about what has happened.
Of course, we're gonna be feeling a lot of different things right now.
Of course you're going to be disappointed, frustrated, angry about the way this election has turned out because of the being misled and manipulated and lied to.
But not only are we feeling that I'm feeling hope and joy today, like Big Mike said and people who have talked before me today That this is just a spot that has started up her across the United States.
But like Mike said, the labor union is alive and we will keep fighting we still have to go to work tomorrow.
We still have to work next week and this experience has bonded us And if this this election if we had to lose this election here in Bessemer for people across the United States to succeed, that is the point.
Our time will come around again and next time we will win but.
At the same time we have done so much.
We have inspired so many people, we have gained so many, so much support in congress and across the united states.
For things that change things will not stay the same after this point.
And we will keep going, and we'll keep fighting and we will build a bigger community more support for labor and workers And in factories and facilities everywhere, we will become greater and get more power because we do deserve better pay.
We deserve better working conditions, we deserve so many things that have been denied to us until we should be happy that we have what we have We don't ask if it is right.
We just say this is what you deserve.
And it's not right and we deserve more.
So we will keep our heads held up.
We will keep fighting.
We'll keep moving and it's not over.
It is just the beginning and people Will continue to buy I continue to talk and it's only a matter of time before things change and change for the better.
So don't let this discourage you.
It is just the natural course of things and.
The floodgates have been open and we cannot stop it.
So I hope everybody has a good day.
This news has not discouraged us.
And we are holding our head high.
Hello, world.
Hello all my fellow Amazonians.
I just want y'all to know I'm not discouraged like Mike.
And my other co worker, it as Emmett said, I am not discouraged.
I'm happy.
I'm proud because like I said, this is the beginning.
It's not over.
I'm gonna stay in it till the end.
Even if I leave Amazon today or tomorrow, I'm still gonna be there, helping them do whatever I can, basils you are wrong all the way around.
You misled a lot of our people.
You told us there was gonna take all our money.
Where are you taking all our money?
We're gonna fight.
I'm not going nowhere.
I want all my fellow amazonians to know that it's not over.
Put a smile that frown on their boss is gonna still turn into a smile.
I want to I was sleeping good every night.
I call Mike every day.
I said Mike, we got this But at the same time, its not over.
I just want everybody to know.
