'Don't Be Afraid' with Amazon Union Organizers Jennifer Bates and Joshua Brewer

Battleground with Amanda Litman and Faiz Shakir

The Recount

Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As workers in Alabama wait for their votes to be counted in the most consequential union election in recent years, Amanda and Faiz connect with two key organizers to answer the question, "How do you beat the most powerful company in the world?"

Jennifer Bates has worked at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, AL since early 2020 and has been a lead organizer in the union drive since September of the same year. She was born and raised in Marion, a small city in Perry County, AL. Some of her interests include singing, reading and motivational speaking.

Joshua Brewer, is the director of organizing, for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Mid-South Council. He has been organizing labor in the South since early 2016. Joshua is a husband, a father of three, and a former youth pastor.

Jennifer and Joshua, along with fellow workers and organizers, have been working around the clock in a fight against one of the richest and most powerful companies in human history. In this episode of Battleground, they discuss their strategy, their motivation, and their hopes.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Amanda Littman.
0:09.2	I'm Fashikir.
0:10.7	And this is Battleground, a podcast from the Recount and I Heart Radio.
0:14.7	Every week we'll try to answer one big question in politics.
0:21.5	Our guest this week are Jennifer Bates and Amazon Warehouse employee in Bessar Alabama
0:26.4	who has been one of the leading voices in the push to unionize there.
0:30.1	And Joshua Brewer, a union organizer with the retail, wholesale and department store union
0:34.5	who has been working with Jennifer and her co-workers in Bessarmer.
0:37.8	As I mentioned before, we'll have one big question for every podcast.
0:41.0	And this big question that we have today is how do you go up against the biggest, most
0:45.2	powerful company in America in wind?
0:48.1	How do you organize against them?
0:49.4	Before we get into the interview, I want to pick your brain a little bit fast because
0:52.5	you've actually been down to Bessarmer with Bernie.
0:54.8	For a campaign strategist like me, union elections seem wildly complicated.
0:59.5	You know, there's a very small number of people who can vote and a really relatively long
1:03.3	number of time for them to cast their ballots.
1:05.9	And there's some obvious tension here.
1:07.7	They're both voting for their self-interest, but also at great risk to their livelihood.
1:12.4	You know, for the people who are pro-union, there could be real repercussions if their
1:16.0	effort fails.
1:17.8	How stressful is that environment?
	...

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