It’s not that he doesn’t have enough money to provide affluent living for an entire city, but Jeff Bezos just made sure that he will continue to rake in the dollars by defeating his workers in Bessemer, Alabama, some of whom tried to join a union.

In defeating his workers and the small union that was organizing about 6,000 workers in one of his Amazon “fulfillment centers” (a very high-tech warehouse), he proved once again that corporate CEOs will go to any lengths and pay any price to defeat efforts to join a union, which is the only way that workers in the U.S. can have even minimal control over their working lives.

His successful efforts to defeat his workers in Bessemer appeared to be a kind of contest with himself, to see how much it would take to bring his workers to heel and express their love for their work and all of the benefits that Amazon has provided for them in a right-to-work(for less) state. It was not so much a contest to see how high the wages could go or how many more benefits a union could win at the bargaining table as it was an expression of the power a company has over its workers.

Bezos doesn’t need the money that he would “save” by defeating the union drive. It would be difficult to determine how much he spent in union-busting professionals who made themselves at home in his Alabama plant for the duration, but it could have been in the millions. That’s money that could have been spent trying to make his workplace more humane. Forbes magazine says Bezos is the richest man in the world and visualcapitalist.com says that his net worth is some $181.6 billion. It’s not about the money.

With about 55 percent of eligible workers voting in the election that was conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, the vote was 1,798 against the union and 738 in favor of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. This time (and again), Bezos won and the workers lost, but however it turns out, since NLRB charges are being brought by the RWDSU, the Bessemer vote will not be the last for Amazon workers across the country.

Bezos and his corporation boasted that, at $15 per hour starting pay, he already paid more than most workers in Alabama are paid and, he said, their benefits are as good as they might expect if they had a union and a contract negotiated by their fellow workers. Pay and benefits are important, but that isn’t the point. There are other issues that are addressed in a union contract and they don’t all have to do with wages and money. Amazon is not the only corporation that sees a union around every corner and they fear the power of workers acting within a negotiated contract.

Even though they overwhelmingly wield more power than workers, most of Corporate America is a little on edge these days, because the imbalance of power between capital and labor today is similar to the imbalance that existed at the turn of the last century. It was then that the corporate owners and robber barons called out their private armies to deal with fed-up workers. At times, it was very bloody, and most of the blood spilled was that of the workers and their union leaders.

They realize that they are on a tightrope between continuing to control every move of every one of their workers and giving up some of that power by agreeing to negotiate how all workers will be treated while on the job. It is not the day when the bosses can throw workers out of company housing, but it comes close, when a company like Amazon is one of the few in town that provides a living wage.

A question that Bezos and his managers must pose to the company’s hundreds of thousands of workers: “How much do I have to pay you, that you will suffer the indignities put upon you before you will complain and take action?” For now, that question is answered by the lopsided vote for unionization: “We can take a lot and come back for more.”

Working conditions at Amazon “fulfillment centers” are legend for their driving workers beyond the ordinary capacity of human beings to keep up with high-tech machinery and computers. It’s no contest. While there may be some who have adapted to oppressive conditions and made it into management positions, where the pressure is not so great, but even then, the push to produce even more is constant.

During the union organizing effort in Bessemer, there were some workers who described urinating in a plastic bottle and that was only one aspect of workers being driven beyond capacity. The (mostly) unspoken order always is: Stay in the work line or be disciplined or fired. It calls to mind the line workers in chicken processing plants in the southeastern states, where so many workers reported going to work wearing diapers, so they wouldn’t have to leave the line and be fired. In those plants, however, the pay is much less and the benefits are non-existent. But still, those are the few jobs available to them and they will go to any lengths to keep them.

Those working conditions are unsanitary, but they are also very dangerous and the companies are always seeking to increase the speed of the line, making them very dangerous as well. When workers are injured, they are often treated at the plant and returned to the production line, so the injury does not have to be reported to a government agency. At Amazon, the abuse might not be as obvious, but the damage to the human psyche is just the same.

Working conditions are just as important to negotiate in a union contract as wages and benefits, but companies like Amazon do not want that foot in the door. A union brings with it accountability and no corporation wants to be accountable to anyone. It’s the reason that companies will spend millions on “union avoidance” professionals to keep their workers from organizing. Bezos spends those millions because, if they work (and they have every time, so far), Amazon will not be accountable to anyone.

Last December, Reuters ran a story about a former Amazon worker who quit because of the constant surveillance of cameras trained on the driver. The report noted: “Each time the camera’s AI detected an anomaly in Vic’s behavior, a yawn, a glance at his phone, it started recording, and saving the footage. Vic felt violated.” At the end of the shift, his supervisor showed him his work footage and couldn’t or wouldn’t say with whom the footage is shared. After that, he gave notice.

Too many complaints about working conditions could result in firing, since, without a union contract, a worker can be fired for any reason or no reason. It’s called being an “at will” employee in the law. A union contract ensures that “at will” is erased and workers must be fired “for cause,” and that takes it through a grievance procedure, which in general is called “due process.” It’s another major reason that workers want a union. Of course, it does take away some of the absolute power of the boss.

The unspoken power of the union is why Amazon pays $15 an hour to start and that isn’t going away and it’s why Bezos fought so hard and threatened his workers so forcefully to defeat the organizing in Bessemer. The union isn’t going away, there or in the rest of the country.

American workers were never going to acquiesce to becoming mere chattel. They never did and they never will, despite the power of Corporate America and its powerful politicians at every level of government. It might take a while, but ultimately, they will in solidarity stand up for their class.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a former newspaper reporter and labor organizer, who lives in the Mohawk Valley of New York State. In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land developers. Contact Mr. Funiciello and BC.