Workers in an Amazon warehouse in Alabama refused to form what would have been the company’s first workers’ union in the United States, according to Friday’s public vote in which “no” prevailed over “yes” by a large majority.
In this way, of the 3,215 votes cast and counted with 71%, the opponents of the union are already more than half, 1,798.
Union supporters, meanwhile, have gathered only 738 supporters, less than half of their opponents.
Final results have not yet been certified by the US National Labor Relations Board, and unionists still have the option of waging a legal battle if they believe that irregularities have occurred in the process.
The scrutiny began Thursday after practically two whole weeks of discussions between the company and union members over the validity of each vote in a process conducted manually behind closed doors and voting by ballot.
According to union sources, Amazon has rejected hundreds of votes.
For what could have been a pioneer, the vote was very much followed across the countryAnd even the US President, Democrat Joe Biden, implicitly alluded to this case when he waged a fierce public defense of unions and the right to organize in early March.
The company led by Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world according to Forbes, is the second largest employer in the United States, only after the Walmart hypermarket chain, and since the start of the pandemic both his activity and his profits have been enormous increased. . and has hired tens of thousands of new workers.
However, the company has no union in the country and is known for her strong opposition to the organizing efforts of her employees, something she demonstrated several times during this campaign at the warehouse in Alabama.