Amazon has staved off a unionization attempt at a company warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, where workers have been demanding higher wages and safer conditions.
A majority of the workers who participated in the effort cast “no” votes on forming a union, effectively defeating the labor drive. The tally currently stands at 1,798 to 738 as the count continues, according to The New York Times. (A total of 3,215 ballots were cast, out of the 5,805 workers at the warehouse.)
If the vote had succeeded, it would've marked the first union at an Amazon warehouse, giving the workers collective bargaining power to negotiate their wages and benefits along with safety standards at the facility.
However, supporters of the unionization drive claim Amazon intimidated warehouse workers into voting no. “We demand a comprehensive investigation over Amazon's behavior in corrupting this election,” tweeted the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which led the labor drive.
Alleged tactics included Amazon forcing workers at the warehouse to listen to numerous lectures demanding they oppose the unionization effort. The company also placed anti-union signs around the warehouse, and sent anti-union text messages to workers.
Amazon also allegedly pressured the US Postal Service into installing mail boxes on the warehouse premises, into which the company told workers to drop their unionization ballots. The RWDSU claims this was done to scare and confuse workers about the secrecy of their votes.
The RWDSU plans on filling a formal objection with the National Labor Relations Board, which has been counting the votes for the unionization effort. “The RWDSU will request that the NLRB Regional Director schedule a hearing on its objections to determine if the results of the election should be set aside because conduct by the employer,” it added.
But in response, Amazon said on Friday: “There’s been a lot of noise over the past few months, and we’re glad that your collective voices were finally heard. In the end, less than 16 percent of the employees at BHM1 voted to join the RWDSU union.
“It’s easy to predict the union will say that Amazon won this election because we intimidated employees, but that’s not true. Our employees heard far more anti-Amazon messages from the union, policymakers, and media outlets than they heard from us,” the company added. “And Amazon didn’t win—our employees made the choice to vote against joining a union.”