Materials have appeared on Amazon's internal Web site recently which strongly discourage workers from unionizing. These materials were leaked to the Times, and contained several strong statements against the potential for organizing.

According to the Times, one such statement read: "Unions actively foster distrust toward supervisors ... They also create an uncooperative attitude among associates by leading them to think they are 'untouchable' with a union." This section of the Web site was entitled: "Reasons a Union is Not Desirable."

There have also been a number of all-hands meetings in which management made arguments against the idea of forming a union. According to the Times, these efforts have been successful so far, in that organizers claim to have had more difficulties than normal in convincing workers to join a union. The union involved is the Communications Workers of America.

Send comments to information@smartpros.com.