Union jacked

(Upstart) Back in November, customer service representatives at the online electronics review site etown.com became the first dot-com workers to file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. Scheduled for Friday, January 12, on Monday the union vote was suspended in the wake of an unfair labor practices complaint filed against etown.com by the Northern California Media Workers association—local NCMW representative Erin Poh not only charged etown officials with threatening closure and loss of business if the employees unionized, but also accused the company of scheduling daily meetings warning employees of the “evils” of unionization. etown.com President and COO Lew Brown dismissed the allegations, arguing “The idea that I would close the company down because of 13 people that are interested in unionizing is about as far-fetched as you can get.”

Although the etown.com filing was the first official move towards unionization within the dot-com arena, it’s not the first time the issue has reared its head—also in November, the Associated Press reported on the Communications Workers of America’s drive to unionize Amazon.com. With the holiday shopping season already in full swing, Amazon officials went berserk, distributing anti-union tracts over its internal Web site instructing supervisors to warn their employees that unions equal strife and strikes, adding that even as unions demand high-priced dues, improved wages or benefits are far from guaranteed. The site also detailed warning signs indicative of potential union formation, including “hushed conversations when you approach which have not occurred before" and "small group huddles breaking up in silence on the approach of the supervisor." Other red flags, according to Amazon: Increasing complaints, decreasing quality of work, growing aggressiveness, and dawdling in the lunchroom and restrooms. (In my experience, dawdling in restrooms is an altogether different kind of warning sign, but that’s a subject for another column.)

At first blush, it’s somewhat surprising that it’s taken this long for rumblings of unionization to sweep through the new economy, but on second thought, I think it’s safe to assume that most of us in the tech sector enjoy a quality of day-to-day workplace life largely unparalleled throughout much of the American workforce. (At least that’s what my bosses told me to say.) Seriously, though, the usual catalysts for unionization—low wages, non-existent benefits, unsafe working conditions, job security, etc.—typically don’t apply to specialized IT jobs and the like; most of us receive the treatment we deserve. But at the same time, dot-coms are no different from any other business entity: Anywhere there’s a corporate ladder, there are people clinging to the bottom rungs.

Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith told the AP, “Obviously, unions have a role in society, but we don't feel that they are right at Amazon, where everyone is an owner and can exercise their individual right to raise workplace issues at any time.” I certainly don’t pretend to have any concept of how Amazon, etown.com or any other company works—hell, I’m still so confused about the Upstart chain of command that for months I was accepting my writing assignments from the janitor—but I sincerely doubt Amazon is quite so utopian as that, employee stock options or no. Like the old adage says, where there’s smoke, there’s fire—Amazon and etown may be among the first dot-coms to face unionization, but the simple fact that the prospect has both companies scared witless means they’re not likely to be the last.

Senior Editor Jason Ankeny once argued, “The idea that I would write a weekly column because of 13 people that are interested in reading it is about as far-fetched as you can get,” but yet, here we are. He can be reached at jason_ankeny@intertec.com.