For the first time in Amazon’s 27-year history, a group of US-based workers have voted to join unions.
Of the 4,785 ballots counted, 2,654 warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York, voted to join the Amazon Workers Union (ALU), which was formed independently by current and former employees of the tech giant.
The election is a major setback for the country’s second largest employer, which has invested heavily in thwarting union efforts in recent years.
It is also a historic victory for organized labor in the United States, and it comes at a moment more Americans say they approve of unions more than at any other time since 1965. Amazon employs nearly one million workers nationwide and 1.6 million globally, according to its latest earnings. Transfer.
The National Labor Relations Board said 67 ballot papers were still being challenged. But this is not enough to change the outcome of the vote.
“I am happy to share this experience with the workers I have organized with since day one,” Christopher Smalls, president of the Amazon Workers Union, said Thursday night. Smalls was fired from Amazon in 2020 at the height of the first Covid wave in New York, after he helped organize a strike at the same Staten Island facility, called JFK8, to demand better health and safety protections.
Smalls and his colleagues spent months at venues outside John F. Kennedy Eighth Airport, hosting barbecues and encouraging Amazon workers to sign union authorization cards. Organizers said they were inspired by other labor organizing efforts at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, where the outcome of this week’s repeat union election remains unclear.
As of Thursday evening, 38 percent of ballots counted by mail in Bessemer were in favor of joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, or RWDSU, while 43 percent were against. 416 of the 2,284 ballots are still being challenged by Amazon or Etihad. It may take days or weeks before a formal election decision is made.
“This is just the beginning and we will keep fighting,” Stuart Appelbaum, president of RWDSU, said during a video conference with reporters Thursday. “We believe every valid vote must be counted and every objection heard.”
Regardless of the end result, RWDSU actually fared much better at Bessemer than it did last April during the warehouse’s first union election, when it lost by a margin of more than 2 to 1. The National Labor Relations Board later ordered a new vote, after it He found that Amazon had violated labor law by interfering with the process.
RWDSU said only 39 percent of the more than 6,100 qualified workers at the Bessemer warehouse took part in the election, down from 52 percent last year. Appelbaum indicated that Amazon’s annual turnover is estimated That would be about 150 percent, which means that many of the workers who participated in the last election may not work for the tech giant.
Well-resourced campaign
Amazon poured significant resources into fighting both syndication campaigns. The company has spent more than $4.2 million on job advisors Since March 2021, according to the Ministry of Labor deposit first mentioned by The New York Times. On website Created for workers at JFK8, Amazon painted the union as inexperienced and said it “doesn’t believe ALU will add value to our relationship or how we work together.”
Amazon also held dozens of “captive audience” meetings in both Staten Island and Bessemer, which workers said the company used to discuss anti-union talking points.
“They say human relations people are the ones who come in to educate their employees. But I’ve been to those meetings,” Jennifer Bates, a union organizer at the Bessemer facility, told reporters on Thursday. “These meetings are not educational meetings. These meetings are designed to manipulate and intimidate employees.”
Amazon’s work practices have drawn the attention of Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee, who announced Thursday that they are opening an investigation into the company’s safety policies in connection with natural disasters. Last year, six Amazon workers were killed during a tornado in Illinois.
Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said the company plans to respond to lawmakers “in a timely manner,” and is currently focused on supporting its employees and families of those who died in the hurricane. Amazon did not immediately respond to a separate request for comment on the election vote.
The company says it already offers competitive benefits and wages starting at $18 an hour On average, it respects the right of employees to decide whether or not to join a union. In December, as part of a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board, Amazon agreed to make it easier for workers to participate in organizing work at its warehouses.
A second Amazon facility will be built on Staten Island, called LDJ5 start voting Whether you will join ALU later this month. All three elections are part of a broader national labor organizing movement that is taking place at a number of US companies, including Starbucks and outdoor retail stores. REI. But overall union membership continued to decline last year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Campaigns organized at Amazon’s US facilities have been a source of inspiration for the company’s international workers, some of whom are already unionized. Employees in Japan and parts of Europe was martyred American efforts in their own campaigns.
“I got emotional a few days ago because I really thought about how, even if things didn’t move quickly in our region, across the country, nationally and internationally, people gained courage because of what we stood and did in Bessemer,” Bates said. “I’m glad everyone is taking a step and being encouraged to respond.”
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