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Employees at Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., location will get a chance to vote again on whether to form a union. But labor experts and Amazon critics warn that the company will be able to use similar anti-union tactics as it did the last time around especially as labor legislation has stalled in Congress.
Meanwhile, the House passed a bill largely along party lines aimed at making the U.S. more competitive with nations such as China.
Let’s jump into the news.
Round 2 for Amazon union battle
Ballots are being mailed to employees of Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., location starting Friday, kicking off the second union election in as many years at the warehouse.
The e-commerce giant decisively won the first round of voting, with 1,798 employees voting not to unionize out of 2,536 ballots counted.
But the union that would represent the Bessemer workers in the event of victory, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), swiftly challenged that result, alleging that Amazon illegally influenced the election.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ultimately sided with the union, concluding that Amazon interfered in the vote by pushing for a mailbox to be installed on premises and improperly polling support. The agency scheduled a new vote and Amazon decided not to file a challenge, though the company publicly disagreed with the justification.
Despite the victory of getting a second election, labor experts and Amazon critics are concerned that the company will be able to employ many of the same anti-union tactics it did the first time around without fear of punishment.
Lawmakers have sought to counter such tactics with the PRO Act, a labor bill aimed at correcting the imbalanced power of employers in the unionization process. But after passing through the House with five Republican votes last spring, the bill has been unable to reach the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
The legislation would have prohibited Amazon from holding highly effective captive-audience meetings with staff, given the union a better shot at securing its much smaller proposed bargaining unit and ratcheted up the consequences of unlawful interference.
Read more here.
A MESSAGE FROM CISCO
How did privacy become mission critical for organizations across the world? Find out how organizations view privacy and privacy laws in Cisco’s 2022 Data Privacy Benchmark Study
China competition bill clears House
The House passed legislation on Friday aimed at bolstering domestic supply chains and scientific research to make the U.S. more competitive with nations like China.
The massive legislative package includes measures to address the global semiconductor chip shortage and strains on the U.S. supply chain, both of which have contributed to the recent spike in inflation.
Lawmakers passed the bill largely along party lines, 222-210, with one Republican voting for it and one Democrat voting no.
Passage comes about seven months after the Senate passed its version in June with the support of 18 GOP senators.
Both chambers will now have to reconcile their competing versions and ultimately reach an agreement that can draw at least 10 Republicans in the evenly split upper chamber, since it will be subject to Senate rules requiring at least 60 votes for most legislation.
Read more here.
NEWS CORP HIT BY CYBERATTACK
The media company News Corp. said Friday it was the victim of a cyberattack likely to benefit the Chinese government and that the intrusion targeted its businesses including the New York Post, Dow Jones and others.
The company detailed the scope of the attack in an email to employees and listed it on a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where the company said a preliminary analysis pointed to a foreign government targeting one of its third-party, cloud-based systems.
The cybersecurity firm Mandiant, which is investigating the attack, said that assessments point to a “China nexus.”
Dave Wong, vice president of incident response at Mandiant, said in a statement that the company believes the cyberattackers “are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China’s interests.”
Read more here.
BITS AND PIECES
An op-ed to chew on: Why NASA should build an even bigger telescope23
Lighter click: The greatest
Notable links from around the web:
The Prop. 22 battle was ugly. The re-do in Massachusetts will be so much worse. (Protocol / Hirsh Chitkara and Anna Kramer)
Lawmakers Press Amazon on Sales of Chemicals used in Suicides (Megan Twohey and Gabriel J.X. Dance)
A MESSAGE FROM CISCO
How did privacy become mission critical for organizations across the world? Find out how organizations view privacy and privacy laws in Cisco’s 2022 Data Privacy Benchmark Study
One last thing: Prime price going up
The price for Amazon Prime’s annual subscription will go from $119 to $139. The monthly subscription price will also rise, from $12.99 to $14.99.
The price change will take effect for new Prime subscribers on Feb. 18 and for current Prime members after March 25, Amazon said in a press release on Wednesday.
“With the continued expansion of Prime member benefits as well as the rise in wages and transportation costs, Amazon will increase the price of a Prime membership in the U.S.,” the press release reads.
Read more here.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s technology and cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Monday.
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