In a big win for Amazon in online retail, workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, voted against forming a union, according to an unofficial ballot count.
In a major win for Amazon in online retail, employees at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, voted against forming a union.
According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), there were 1,798 votes against the union organization and 738 votes in favor.
The vote in Bessemer, Alabama has attracted national and international attention and marked the first time since 2014 that the workers of the online retail giant attempted to unite in the United States.
Amazon is the second largest private employer in the US and has been heavily criticized in recent years for the way warehouse workers are treated in the US and abroad.
Joshua Freeman, professor emeritus of labor history at Queens College at City University of New York, said the union’s defeat could have a chilling effect on other potential efforts to organize warehouse workers.
“It was quite a big defeat to lose more than 2-to-1. That must leave many union supporters unhappy, ”Freeman told Al Jazeera. “Most unions don’t go to union elections unless they have a pretty big base to think they’re on the fringes. And either many people have changed their minds or the union misunderstood the situation when they ran for elections. “
Of the approximately 5,800 ballots sent out in early February, a total of 3,215 were returned to the NLRB regional office in Atlanta.
Ahead of the public count, which began on Thursday, each vote was first reviewed by representatives from Amazon and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).
About 500 of them were initially challenged on a range of issues, including suspicion of tampering and voter eligibility, according to Reuters news agency.
The RWDSU said in a press release on Friday that it disputes the results of the vote with NLRB, claiming that Amazon has unduly interfered with “the protected right of workers to participate in union activities.”
“We demand a comprehensive investigation into Amazon’s behavior in circumventing these elections,” RWDSU Chairman Stuart Appelbaum said in a statement.
Amazon refuted allegations that it acted unlawfully, writing in a press release Friday, “It’s easy to predict the union will say Amazon won this election because we harassed employees, but that’s not true.”