The six-day election at the Staten Island
warehouse, overseen by US officials, opens the polls to the facility's 5,000
workers for five hours each morning and then again in the evening for another
five-hour round
Led by former and current workers, Amazon Labour
Union (ALU) qualified for a vote on unionisation after obtaining signatures
from 30 percent of the workforce.
But majority support will be needed if
Amazon is to have its first union since the company was established in 1994.
Most of the workers who spoke with AFP
shortly after the polls first opened Friday were not in favor of the campaign.
"The pay is more than minimum wage, we
have benefits like health insurance from day one, and if I need something, I go
directly to my manager," said Georgina Aponte, who was voting no.
Each morning, Aponte, 40, takes a ferry, a
subway and two buses from her Bronx home to Amazon. The trip takes two hours
each way.
"I like working here," she said.
Others expressed sympathy with the goals of
the union, but skepticism about the group's unproven track record.
"I give them a lot of credit for doing
what they're doing," said Vinny T., before adding, "I think we have
more to lose than gain."
The Amazon job is "not that
difficult," said the 57-year-old, who has worked in other unionized
companies before.
Company texts Vote 'NO'
Another worker, Angel Arce, said he is not
crazy about the fact that Amazon's pay scale does not boost wages after three
years.
But "they are not experienced,"
Arce said of the union.
Natalie Monarrez came to vote holding a
sign that read "I joined ALU, I left ALU, I'm voting NO."
Monarrez, who has worked for Amazon for
five years, joined the campaign in May 2021 shortly after the group formed, but
gave up on the ALU in January.
"We absolutely need a union,"
Monarrez said.
"We're working for the richest man on
the planet, literally," Monarrez said of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who
sits near the top of Forbes' billionaire list.
"The least they can do is give us a
living wage and at least address the issues like harassment, discrimination,
ageism, lack of promotions, lack of opportunity," she said.
But Monarrez said workers need an
"experienced national union," not a "small independent union
that's run by boys who have no experience."
At a nearby bus stop, separated by the
warehouse fence-line, stood Christian Smalls, the president of the ALU, who had
been on hand since 7 am.
Smalls, 33, was fired in March 2020 after
organising a campaign to demand personal protective equipment during the height
of COVID-19.
He dismissed the criticism over his track
record.
Large national unions "had 28 years to
do something," he said.
If workers are waiting for an established
group to come along, "they are going to wait a long time," he added.
Smalls said he is hopeful about the vote
and about a second election at another Amazon facility in Staten Island next
month.
The company has been holding meetings with
workers in an effort to stay union-free.
"They are telling us to vote no,"
said a young male worker who has sat for 30-minute weekly meetings the last
three weeks.
The worker, who did not want to give his
name, also has received "No" texts from the company, as well as a
call from the ALU.
"They were fair," the worker said
of the union, adding that he voted "yes."
The vote count is expected to start on
March 31 and could take as long as several days.