The US National Labor Relations Board is giving Amazon until April 22 to support its objections to last week’s election in New York.
The US National Labor Relations Board is giving Amazon until April 22 to support its objections to last week’s election in New York.
Amazon.com accused the new union of intimidating workers at a New York City warehouse until they voted to organize, a lawyer for the labor group called “really absurd.”
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A second labor group, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which was losing a bid to organize an Amazon warehouse in Alabama, also filed objections to that union election on Thursday.
The US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is giving Amazon until April 22 to support its objections last weekElections in New York in which Staten Island workers voteCreate the first US consortium of company, Amazon had requested additional time to provide evidence because its objections are “substantial,” it said in a filing Wednesday.
A proven election result would give organized labor a foothold in the United States’ second-largest private employer, which would have the potential to change how Amazon manages its finely-tuned operation.
Some 55% of workers who voted in the election at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island opted to join the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which has demanded higher wages and job security. Since the results, US workers from another 50 Amazon sites have contacted the union, the group’s leader said.
Among Amazon’s planned objections is that the ALU interfered with employees to vote and long awaited depressed turnout, Amazon’s filing said. Some 58% of eligible voters voted in person over several days.
Eric Milner, an attorney representing the ALU of the law firm Simon & Milner, dismissed Amazon’s claims as false and said they would be dismissed.
“To say that Amazon was threatening labor union employees is really absurd,” he said. “The Amazon Labor Union is an Amazon employee.”
Separately on Thursday, RWDSU objected to this ElectionIn Bessemer, Alabama, Amazon workers votedunionize, This was the second election in Bessemer after the NLRB determined that Amazon had improperly interfered with the first contest last year. The most recent result is pending in light of hundreds of challenging ballot papers and now RWDSU’s objections, which could delay the result by months.
“We want our employees’ voices to be heard, and we expect the NLRB to count every valid vote,” said Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel.
In a filing, RWDSU said Amazon illegally removed pro-union literature from non-work areas and terminated an employee speaking in favor of the union during mandatory work meetings, among other objections. RWDSU stated that these were grounds for NLRB to cancel the result.
Amazon itself took issue with RWDSU’s conduct, such as the union’s communication with workers around the use of mailboxes on warehouse property, saying that its filing objections is standard procedure.
John Logan, a labor professor at San Francisco State University, said the retailer faces a high bar in demonstrating that the New York union has violated employee engagement rules.
Moreover, the NLRB generally takes alleged violations of employers more seriously than alleged wrongdoings by unions as companies have more power over workers, he said.
“It’s going to be really tough” for Amazon, he said.