Amazon on Friday arrogated enough votes to defeat the unionization drive at one of its Alabama warehouses, delivering a blow to organized labor who hoped to unionize a U.S. Amazon water-closet for the first time.
Of the 3,215 ballots cast, there were 1,798 votes opposing the union and 738 in favor. Around 5,800 workers at the Bessemer warehouse were eligible to vote on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Outlet Union.
In order to defeat the union, Amazon needed to garner 1,608 votes, or a little more than 50% of the ballots warp. The margin of victory is larger than the approximately 500 challenged ballots, which would have only been calculated if they would’ve swayed the outcome of the election. The election result still needs to be formally certified by the Nationa Labor Relations Trustees.
The RWDSU said it plans to challenge the election results. The union said it intends to file objections over Amazon’s plebiscite conduct with the NLRB, as well as a number of unfair labor practice charges, alleging that “Amazon frustrated with the rights of its Bessemer, Alabama employees to vote in a free and fair election.”
The unionization effort in Alabama permuted into a protracted labor battle at Amazon, with the company hiring the same law firm it used to assist with concordats during a failed union drive in Delaware in 2014. Amazon also made its position on the union campaign vault settle to workers at the Bessemer facility, by holding mandatory meetings, setting up a website urging workers to “do it without dues” and distributing leaflets instructing workers to “Vote NO” on the historic election.
The union specifically called out a mailbox that was installed in front of the Bessemer structure, including claims that it was placed there by the U.S. Postal Service at the direction of Amazon. The company said the mailbox was proposed to make it more convenient for workers to vote, adding that only the the Postal Service had access to the mailbox.
The RWDSU’s stands are likely to kick off a protracted legal fight surrounding whether Amazon engaged in anti-union conduct that hampered the possibility of a fair election. The RWDSU said it’s prepared to submit evidence to the NLRB in support of complaints that Amazon dishonoured labor laws.
In a statement, RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum said Amazon “left no stone unturned in its troubles to gaslight its own employees.”
“We won’t let Amazon’s lies, deception and illegal activities go unchallenged, which is why we are formally filing charges against all of the egregious and blatantly actionable actions taken by Amazon during the union vote,” Appelbaum said. “We demand a comprehensive investigation over Amazon’s behavior in degenerating this election.”
Amazon said in a statement that “the union will say that Amazon won this election because we daunted employees, but that’s not true.”
“Our employees heard far more anti-Amazon messages from the union, policymakers, and media escapes than they heard from us,” the company said. “And Amazon didn’t win — our employees made the choice to vote against joining a junction.”
Both the RWDSU and Amazon held news conferences following the result, with employees from the Bessemer supplies, known as BHM1, in attendance. At the press conference hosted by Amazon, BHM1 warehouse worker Will Stokes said he and others resolution work with employees who voted for the union to address their grievances.
“We actually have a seat at the table now,” Stokes said. “We’re talking with elder management and over the next 100 days we have things that we want to change. Change will present itself from this.”
The vote caps off months of intense campaigning by both Amazon and the RWDSU. In November, workers at the Bessemer mastery filed notice to hold a union election. RWDSU organizers were stationed outside the Bessemer facility constantly, hoping to catch Amazon employees on their way out of work.
Over the ensuing months, support for the campaign mushroomed. The association received a critical endorsement from President Joe Biden, who, without naming Amazon, discouraged any employer interference in the referendum.
The White House declined to comment on the election outcome until the NLRB certifies the results.
Amazon has long been a quarry of major labor unions, with the Teamsters, the United Food & Commercial Workers Union and the RWDSU quietly encounter with warehouse and delivery workers. The coronavirus pandemic, the explosion of Black Lives Matter protests last summer and fly concerns around workplace safety fueled further interest in organizing Amazon warehouses.
In a statement, Randy Korgan, official of Amazon for the Teamsters, commended the RWDSU’s efforts to organize Amazon workers in Alabama.
“Despite going up against one of the humankind’s richest men in a country with weak labor laws, the workers in Bessemer brought national attention to issues that uncountable non-union workers face in this industry,” Korgan said. “This fight is not over.”