Labor’s Hard Choice in Amazon Age: Play Along or Get Tough

In some respects, these arguments go back decades. Thomas Kochan, a management professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, noted that the United Automobile Workers and General Motors negotiated a new arrangement when the company set up its Saturn division in the mid-1980s. In exchange for a role in managerial duties, the union agreed to forgo many of the work rules typical in other plants, such as those governing which worker could do what job. The arrangement stoked tensions within the union and the company for years.

But in recent years the growing reach of tech conglomerates has created urgency within labor to court their workers, Mr. Kochan said.

Despite their minimal presence in these companies, unions have a variety of levers to pull. They can exert influence through politicians when public subsidies are involved, as in the Amazon case. And they can pressure regulators to scrutinize businesses that upend traditional industries, like transportation and hospitality.

Whether to use these levers to force concessions, or to take a less adversarial approach that would give labor a foothold in big tech, has divided the labor movement.

In 2016, Uber reached a five-year agreement with a regional branch of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers to create a drivers’ guild, which would advocate on behalf of drivers but not challenge their status as independent contractors. The Machinists would also have to refrain from turning the guild into a formal union during that time. In exchange, Uber agreed to provide the organization with funding and a way to communicate directly with drivers. The guild says a majority of its revenue comes from other sources.

A rival group representing professional drivers criticized the Machinists for creating a so-called company union — federal law prohibits unions that companies fund or control, though the law applies only to workers who are employees. Some union officials complained that the guild was anti-democratic, since drivers hadn’t elected Machinists officials to represent them.

But Sharon Block, a senior Labor Department official under President Barack Obama, argued that the deal was defensible. Ms. Block pointed out that the guild had taken something of a hybrid approach between cooperation and antagonism, lobbying for policies such as a minimum earnings standard for drivers and allowing passengers to tip, both of which have been enacted in New York.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/business/economy/labor-unions-amazon.html?partner=rss&emc=rss