After the vote tally was announced Thursday, the result of the election to unify Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse was still on the line. The total stands at 993 votes against unions and 875 in favour; but 416 ballots remain contested, mostly on the grounds of voter eligibility.
The National Labor Relations Board will hold a hearing in the coming weeks to determine whether any of the contested votes should be counted. After that, it will release a final count that will determine which party wins the election.
Meanwhile, the Amazon Labor Union is leading an election to unify a warehouse on Staten Island, expected to be completed tomorrow.
The election was held again in March after the union lost its original votes of 1,798 to 738 last year, and Amazon was later found to have violated labor law by installing a mailbox on the property and using “no” paraphernalia to warn employees. gauge.
The gap between yes and no votes has narrowed significantly this year, but so far not enough to change the outcome. About 2,300 of the 6,100 eligible voters cast their votes this year, a turnout of 38 percent. This was a decrease from last year’s turnout rate of 52 percent.
The union has filed suit against unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board and has until April 7 to appeal the election. If the board determines that Amazon’s behavior stands in the way of a free and fair election, it could reverse the results again, leading to a third round of elections. The charges include allegations that Amazon made a rule change restricting employees’ access to the facility during non-working hours, and that it removed pro-union flyers from cafeterias. The company denies these claims.
The vote count caps off a two-year effort that caught the attention of Congress, the endorsement of celebrities, a presidential ruling and renewed focus on U.S. labor law, which favors employers in union elections. It echoed far beyond a single warehouse. As one of the world’s largest employers and the second largest in the US, Amazon is seen as setting the standard for working conditions across all industries. Many in the labor movement view unionization as essential to ending what they describe as a harsh work environment. Amazon, for its part, urged its employees to vote against the union, saying it already offers everything workers demand.
In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel wrote: “We are investing in both pay and benefits for our team – regular full-time BHM1 employees earn at least $15.80 an hour and have access to healthcare on day one, a 401k with company match, and Lake.”
The effort began humbly enough. In 2020, a warehouse worker named Darryl Richardson, who had previously been a union member at an auto factory, conducted a Google search for a union that could represent Amazon workers. RWDSU popped up in the results, so he filled out a form on his website.
The opening of BHM1 in 2020 has coincided with the onset of pandemic-driven lockdowns in the US. As Amazon’s key workers continued to report back to work and the company’s executives got richer, some said the company had failed to notify them of Covid-19 infections at its facilities. Workers of color, disproportionately represented among the essential workforce, bore the brunt of the risk. This was seen in the Bessemer warehouse, where more than 80 percent of the workers are black.
