Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama have overcome a hurdle this week in their quest to unite, and are getting closer to a possible vote next year that will challenge the ecommerce giant that is making the most attempts to move into the U.S. unite has fended off.
Employees at the warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., Amazon petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in November to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).
After three days of hearings closing Tuesday, the union and Amazon reached an agreement on which workers can participate in the upcoming vote.
The NLRB has yet to set a date for a vote, but it is expected to take place early next year.
If the Alabama push is successful, it would establish the first union representation in an Amazon facility in the US.
In the petition, the union said the bargaining unit would cover 1,500 workers in the facility, but Amazon argued that additional workers are allowed to vote, as the facility employs more than 5,000 people.
The agreement between the union and Amazon Tuesday would broaden the workforce in the proposed negotiating unit and would include all the seasonal workers the tech giant has brought in to meet increased seasonal demand.
Commenting on the push to unite, Heather Knox, an Amazon spokesperson, said, “We do not believe this group represents the majority of our employees’ views.”
Knox said the average salary in the warehouse, which opened in March, is $ 15.30 an hour and that the company provides a “safe, innovative and inclusive” environment.
“Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available anywhere, and we encourage everyone to compare our overall pay, benefits and work environment with any other company with similar jobs,” adds Knox adds.
NLRB also determines how the vote will be held.
Amazon is pushing for a personal vote, although the NLRB has held about 90 percent of its representative elections by mail since March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The board last month announced standards regarding elections held during the pandemic. The standards suggest that postal election is preferred when a county where a facility is located experiences a two-week increase in confirmed cases, or when the county reports a 14-day positivity rate of 5 percent or higher.
Jefferson County, where the Bessemer plant is located, reported weekly positivity of more than 16 percent for all of December.
Amazon has in the past evaded efforts by its American workers to unite. In 2014, a group of technical workers in a Delaware warehouse voted against forming a union.
But the company faced more scrutiny during the coronavirus pandemic, with workers protesting earlier this year pushing for tighter security protocols.
The tech giant has repeatedly defended its policies it put in place to protect its employees during the pandemic.
Additionally, Amazon is being scrutinized by lawmakers seeking to tackle Amazon’s market power as part of a broader effort to address the concentration of market power among US technology giants.