The NLRB official on Monday recommended a rerun of the
landmark Amazon union election in Alabama where employees overwhelmingly voted
against making their warehouse the online retailer's first to organize in the
United States.
In the coming weeks, a regional director for the NLRB will
decide whether to order the rerun based on the recommendation, said an official
on Monday with the board, who asked not to be named.
The election results in April showed workers rejected the
effort by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) to organize
the Amazon facility by a more than 2-1 margin.
Amazon, recapitulating a statement it provided on Monday,
said it would appeal.
"Our employees had a chance to be heard during a noisy
time when all types of voices were weighing into the national debate, and at
the end of the day, they voted overwhelmingly in favor of a direct connection
with their managers and the company," the company said.
Amazon's efforts to have the U.S. Postal Service install a
mailbox outside the Bessemer, Alabama, fulfillment center usurped the NLRB's
exclusive role in administering union elections and interfered with conditions
necessary to conduct a fair vote, according to the hearing officer's report,
which the NLRB released on Tuesday.
Security cameras overlooking the mailbox site gave employees
the impression they were under surveillance, the hearing officer found. A tent
erected around the mailbox adorned with a company campaign slogan, while not
enough on its own to invalidate the vote, amounted to electioneering that
tainted the election, she added.
The hearing officer also found objectionable Amazon's
distribution of "vote no" pins and other anti-organizing
paraphernalia to employees in the presence of managers and supervisors.
Amazon has said the mailbox was installed to give nearly
6,000 eligible voters a convenient option for returning their ballots and that
the tent shielded workers from cameras, which predated the collection box.
It argued that distribution of anti-union materials to
employees in the presence of managers was not objectionable because the company
did not maintain a list of workers who received the paraphernalia, according to
the hearing officer's report.
The hearing officer's recommendation nevertheless casts
doubt on Amazon's victory over the unionizing effort in a contest that amounted
to a setback for the U.S. labor movement. The union’s organizing campaign drew
implicit support from U.S. President Joe Biden and lawmakers, including Senator
Bernie Sanders, who visited the warehouse.
U.S. labor law forbids companies from spying on organizing
activities or leaving employees with the impression they are under
surveillance. It also prohibits other actions if they are found to be coercive.
Still, employers such as Amazon have wide legal latitude to
campaign aggressively, including by requiring employees to attend mandatory
meetings that cast unions in a negative light. Amazon held such meetings, sent
text messages to employees and even displayed campaign literature in at least
one of the Alabama warehouse's restroom stalls.
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