The National Labor Relations Board said on Thursday that union supporters narrowly followed the opposition in union elections held at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama. However, the vote was much closer than the vote in the same warehouse last year. voted down unity is more than a 2 to 1 ratio.
The union received 993 no votes to 875 yes votes, but more than 400 contested votes are enough to potentially influence the outcome of the vote. The challenges will be resolved at a work board hearing in the coming weeks.
Overall, approximately 2,300 votes were cast from more than 6,100 eligible employees at the election in Bessemer, Ala.
The working committee appointed to voteFrom the beginning of February to the end of March by mail concluding That Amazon violated the so-called lab conditions that should have been in place during a union election.
The working board is also counting votes in another high-profile election held at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island. At the end of the first counting day, 57 percent of the votes were supported by the Amazon Labor Union, while 43 percent opposed it. The NLRB said the census should be completed by Friday.
Workers who support the union have expressed frustration with low pay, insufficient breaks and overly aggressive productivity goals. At just under $16 an hour for full-time, entry-level workers, its pay is competitive for the region, Amazon said. He also pointed to a package of benefits he said was attractive, including full health benefits as soon as they entered the company for full-time employees. Company told performance goals reflect safety considerations and the experiences of individual employees.
Several employees who support the union said their colleagues were generally less afraid to question management or show union support this year. “People are asking more questions,” Jennifer Bates, an employee who led the organizing efforts both last year and this year, said in an interview this month. “More employees are getting up and talking.”
in unity quotation key differences in its approach to more recent elections. Last year, the union limited its in-person organizing efforts due to Covid-19 safety concerns, but this time its organizers visited workers at their homes. Other unions sent organizers to Alabama to assist with these efforts.
It was observed that workers were more active in organizing within the factory. Them wore union t-shirts work twice a week to show support, and one group filed a petition with executives with over 100 signatures complaining of inadequate break and break room equipment.
Still, Amazon retained the advantages that, along with its high employee turnover rate, made it difficult for organizers to maintain momentum as disgruntled workers quit their jobs.
The company also spent lavishly on dissuading employees from supporting the union, hiring consultants, and more. 20 anti-union meetings With employees per day before postal voting in early February. Union supporters accused Amazon of excluding them from meetings to silence criticism and backlash, but Amazon denied the accusation.
The result was consistent with a broader trend in repeated elections, more than half Unions have lost since 2010.