Birmingham (United States) (AFP)

Alabama, a poor and conservative American state, seemed ideal for firms that willingly dispense with unions, until a handful of Amazon employees decided to seek out representatives to demand a seat at the table. negotiations.

Bernie Sanders, an independent elected official and a major progressive figure, admitted on Friday his surprise at the initial successes of this attempt to organize in Bessemer.

"It is a historically very anti-union state," he told the regional headquarters of RWDSU, the distribution union that will represent 5,800 workers from a nearby warehouse if they vote for it.

"It is not nothing, in Alabama, to stand up against a large corporation," added the popular septuagenarian.

But "Martin (Luther King) did not start demonstrating in Atlanta, he started here in Birmingham", the state capital, intervened rapper Killer Mike, also come to support the workers just before the closing of the vote Monday.

"It is a tradition of the people of Alabama to mobilize for the rest of the population," said the artist.

He also insisted on the past of the state, anchored in the cotton plantations, and accused Amazon of exploiting "enslaved handlers", with working conditions comparable to those of the peasants still exploited in the fields just after the abolition. of slavery.

Alabama's social history is as much a part of conservatism (mainly white people) as progressivism (associated with blacks).

In the 1960s, the RWDSU thus participated in the organization of marches against segregation alongside Martin Luther King and John Lewis, in Selma.

- Labor not so malleable -

The southern state experienced a very unionized period in the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the steel-producing region of Bessemer, notes historian Michael Innis-Jiménez.

"But otherwise, his reputation is quite deserved," concedes this professor from the University of Alabama.

"We have the only Mercedes factory without a union in the world."

"Historically, industries from the northeast have come to the south (...) because the workforce is cheaper, less likely to be represented, and easier to lay off," he explains.

He admits that Amazon opened this logistics center in Bessemer a year ago, like many others in the country: to respond as closely as possible to the galloping demand.

But the e-commerce giant didn't necessarily expect 3,000 workers to sign a tentative agreement at RWDSU.

Two factors distinguish the context of the Mercedes factory warehouse: a union that does not come from elsewhere, which has been involved in the civil rights movement, and predominantly African-American employees.

Among them, Darryl Richardson, who, last fall, ulcerated by the fear of being fired for nothing, the short breaks, the hellish pace and the lack of respect he feels in general, contacted the RWDSU.

"I know what a union can bring," he told AFP.

This 51-year-old worker, father of four daughters, has been involved day and night for months to convince his colleagues, for job security and for "future generations".

- Mark history -

He had previously worked for a Mercedes subcontractor, where the salary had dropped "from $ 12.5 to $ 23.5 an hour" in a few years "thanks to the union".

Amazon pays $ 15 an hour minimum, more than double the minimum wage in Alabama.

At the start of the pandemic, the company also paid a bonus of $ 2 per hour, before withdrawing it after three months.

This decision was one of the triggers, notes Joshua Brewer, the local union president, as was the feeling of not being properly protected against Covid.

“Usually when a company like Amazon comes to Bessemer with a state-of-the-art warehouse and all these great jobs, you don't have those kinds of problems. But now, in four months, the employees couldn't take it anymore,” he remembers.

In response to employee complaints in the press, Amazon regularly highlights hiring, salary, and benefits like “day one” health insurance.

Arguments that work especially with young employees, less imbued with union culture.

But Bessemer's momentum is already galvanizing workers elsewhere in the United States, assure the union and local elected officials.

"This movement could not have happened elsewhere than here, where people died in the streets for the right to vote," said Christopher England, president of the Democratic Party for Alabama on Friday.

"We are going to make history again".

© 2021 AFP