In New York, union supporters have the edge
in a count that will continue Friday morning.
Warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama,
voted 993 to 875 against forming a union. The National Labor Relations Board,
which oversees the election, said that 416 challenged votes could potentially
overturn that result. A hearing to go through the challenged ballots will occur
in the next few days.
Meanwhile, in a separate union election in
Staten Island, New York, the nascent Amazon Labor Union is leading by more than
350 votes out of about 2,670 tallied.
The close election in Bessemer marks a
sharp contrast to last year, when Amazon workers overwhelmingly rejected the
union.
“This is just the beginning and we will
continue to fight,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale
and Department Store Union, which is organising the union drive in Bessemer, at
a Thursday press conference. “Regardless of the final outcome, workers have
shown what is possible. They have helped ignite a movement.”
Appelbaum said RWDSU will be filing
objections to how Amazon handled the election but declined to be specific. He
also took the opportunity to lash out at current labor laws, which he believes
are rigged against unions and favor corporations.
“It should not be so difficult to organise
a union in the United States," he said.
If a majority of Amazon workers votes yes
in either Bessemer or Staten Island, it would mark the first successful US
organising effort in the company's history. Organizers have faced an uphill
battle against the nation's second-largest private employer, which is making
every effort to keep unions out.
In New York, the ALU has led the charge to
form a union along with Chris Smalls, a fired Amazon employee who now heads the
fledging group. Turnout for the in-person election was unclear but Smalls was
hopeful of victory.
“To be leading in Day One and be up a
couple hundred against a trillion dollar company, this is the best feeling in
the world,” Smalls said after the conclusion of Thursday's counting.
While Smalls' attention has been focused on
securing victory in New York, similar efforts in Alabama also weighed heavily.
“I'm not too sure what's going in Alabama
right now, but I know that the sky's the limit if you can organise any
warehouse,” he said, noting that the vote in Alabama could well end up
differently. “I hope that they're successful. I don't know what's going on yet,
but we know we show our support and solidarity with them.”
The warehouse in Staten Island employs more
than 8,300 workers, who pack and ship supplies to customers based mostly in the
Northeast. A labor win there was considered difficult, but organisers believe
their grassroots approach is more relatable to workers and could help them
overcome where established unions have failed in the past.
John Logan, director of labor and
employment studies at San Francisco State University, said the early vote
counts in New York has been “shocking.” ALU has no backing from an established
union and is powered by former and current warehouse workers. The group had
also filed for a union election after getting support from about 30 percentof
the facility's workforce, a much lower percentage than what unions usually
seek.
“I don't think that many people thought
that the Amazon Labor Union had much of a chance of winning at all,” Logan
said. “And I think we're likely to see more of those (approaches) going
forward.”
Though RWDSU is currently lagging behind
with challenged ballots outstanding, Logan said that election was also
remarkable because the union has made a good effort narrowing its margin from
last year's election.
After a crushing defeat last year, when a
majority of workers voted against forming a union, RWDSU is hoping for a
different outcome in the Bessemer election, in which mail-in ballots were sent
to 6,100 workers in early February. Federal labor officials scrapped the
results of the first election there and ordered a re-do after ruling Amazon
tainted the election process.
The RWDSU said election there had a turnout
rate of about 39 percent this year, much smaller than last year. Appelbaum
blamed the low numbers on high turnover — he believes thousands of people who
worked for Amazon in January and were on the official list to be eligible to
vote either quit or were fired. He also believes that an in-person election,
which the RWDSU had asked for, would have made a difference
Amazon has pushed back hard in both
elections. The retail giant held mandatory meetings, where workers were told
unions are a bad idea.
The company also launched an anti-union
website targeting workers and placed English and Spanish posters across the
Staten Island facility urging them to reject the union. In Bessemer, Amazon has
made some changes to but still kept a controversial US Postal Service mailbox
that was key in the NLRB's decision to invalidate last year's vote.
Both labor fights faced unique challenges.
Alabama, for instance, is a right-to-work state that prohibits a company and a
union from signing a contract that requires workers to pay dues to the union
that represents them.
The mostly Black workforce at the Amazon
facility, which opened in 2020, mirrors the Bessemer population of more than 70
percentBlack residents, according to the latest US Census data.
Pro-union workers say they want better
working conditions, longer breaks and higher wages. Regular full-time employees
at the Bessemer facility earn at least $15.80 an hour, higher than the
estimated $14.55 per hour on average in the city. That figure is based on an
analysis of the US Census Bureau's annual median household income for Bessemer
of $30,284, which could include more than one worker.
The ALU said they don't have a demographic
breakdown of the warehouse workers on Staten Island and Amazon declined to provide
the information to The Associated Press, citing the union vote. Internal
records leaked to The New York Times from 2019 showed more than 60 percent of
the hourly associates at the facility were Black or Latino, while most of
managers were white or Asian.
Amazon workers there are seeking longer
breaks, paid time off for injured employees and an hourly wage of $30, up from
a minimum of just over $18 per hour offered by the company. The estimated
average wage for the borough is $41 per hour, according to a similar US Census
Bureau analysis of Staten Island's $85,381 median household income.
A spokesperson for Amazon said the company
invests in wages and benefits, such as health care, 401(k) plans, and a prepaid
college tuition programme to help grow workers' careers.
“As a company, we don't think unions are
the best answer for our employees,” the spokesperson said in an emailed
statement. “Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue
making Amazon a great place to work.”
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