A last-Amazon’s shutdown attempt to postpone a vote on unionization in one of its larger warehouses has failed, paving the way for the technology giant’s first serious effort to organize workers since a failed attempt in Delaware in 2014.
On Friday, the National Labor Relations Board confirmed that nearly 6,000 employees at the company’s fulfillment center in Bessemer, Ala., can use vote by email to determine if the hub is participating the trade union for retail, wholesale and department stores (RWDSU). With this, the agency shot down objections that Amazon had previously filed with them regarding the union action.
Employees originally applied for on the right on a vote on union organization last November and NLRB subsequently granted them that right. Still, Amazon quickly tried to deter and delay this scenario, appeal in January, that called into question the agency’s original statement. The tech giant also asked that, instead of voting by mail, workers attend a personal vote on the spotdespite pandemic-related health risks.
However, in Friday’s ruling, NLRB said the petition to vote on unionization “does not raise substantial issues justifying review” and can be continued. The agency also shot down Amazon’s attempt to enforce a personal vote. As a result of the decision, Bessemer employees can start voting on the initiative next Monday, February 8, and will continue through March 29.
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Amazon’s scuffle with attempts at work organization have taken place across the country– and his tactics to deter and discourage such attempts often have involved draconian surveillance of activists and employees, including hiring Pinkterton detectives, among other things.
In the midst of all this, Bessemer has emerged as a major pressure point in the technology giant’s labor management conflicts. Local activism has helped stimulate the drive for comprehensive protectionalthough the company has gone to great lengths to discourage employees. It was recently reported that Bessemer employees were swept up in ‘propaganda sessions’ where managers ‘tried to raise doubts about the union drive’. This is perhaps not surprising given that there is much to be had in the upcoming vote. As Bloomberg reports:
A defeat for the union would tarnish the reputation of the labor movement, which has time and again failed to organize workers at America’s second-largest private employer, after Walmart. In contrast, a union victory would provide a tactical roadmap for the hundreds of thousands of people who toil in the Amazon facilities.
“Once again, Amazon employees have won another fight in their bid to win a union vote,” Chelsea Connor, communications director at RWDSU, said after the NLRB’s decision. “Amazon’s blatant disregard for the health and safety of his own personnel was once again demonstrated by his push for a personal election in the midst of the pandemic. Today’s decision proves that it has been a long time since Amazon respected its own employees; and let them vote without intimidation and interference. “
When reached via email Friday, Amazon spokesperson Heather Knox said the company was “disappointed” in NLRB’s decision and claimed that postal voting would reduce participation: “Our goal is to get as many of our employees as possible to vote and we are disappointed by the NLRB’s decision to not to vote. to provide the most fair and effective formula to achieve maximum employee participation, ”Knox said in a statement. She further claimed that postal voting would be less effective than what Amazon had planned as an alternative: a “secure election process validated by covid on the spot-19 experts who would have enabled our employees to vote on the way to, during, and of their already scheduled services. “
Somehow vote while rushing back and forth between companiesassigned tasks – on a possible ‘super spreader event, ”No less – doesn’t seem as effective as voting from the comfort of your own home. Rather than seeing this as an attempt to increase attendance, some might even interpret it as a way to deter it.