Amazon objecting to union’s victory in New York, alleging interference

Amazon.com accused the new
union at a New York City warehouse of threatening workers unless
they voted to organise, an assertion an attorney for the labour
group called “really absurd.”

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A second labour group, the Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union (RWDSU), which was losing a bid to organise an
Amazon warehouse in Alabama, also filed objections on Thursday
to that union election.

The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is giving
Amazon until April 22 to back up its objections to last week’selection in New York, in which Staten Island workers voted toform the company’s first U.S. union. Amazon had requested extra
time to provide evidence because its objections are
“substantial,” it said in a filing Wednesday.

A certified election result would give organised labour a
foothold in the United States’ second-largest private employer,
with the potential to alter how Amazon manages its finely tuned
operation.

Some 55% of workers who voted in the election at Amazon’s
JFK8 warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island
opted to join the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which has demanded
higher pay and job security. Since the result, U.S. workers from
another 50 Amazon sites have contacted the union, the group’s
leader has said.

Among Amazon’s planned objections to the outcome are that
the ALU interfered with employees in line to vote and that long
waits depressed turnout, Amazon’s filing said. Some 58% of
eligible voters cast ballots in person over several days.

Eric Milner, an attorney representing the ALU from law firm
Simon & Milner, dismissed Amazon’s claims as false and said they
would be overruled.

“To say that the Amazon Labor Union was threatening
employees is really absurd,” he said. “The Amazon Labor Union is
Amazon employees.”

Separately on Thursday, the RWDSU objected to the electionin Bessemer, Alabama, in which Amazon workers voted againstunionising. It was the second election in Bessemer, after the
NLRB determined that Amazon had improperly interfered in the
first contest there last year. The most recent outcome is
pending in light of hundreds of challenged ballots and now the
RWDSU’s objections, which could delay a result for months.

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said, “We want our
employees’ voices to be heard, and we hope the NLRB counts every
valid vote.”

In a filing, the RWDSU said Amazon unlawfully removed
pro-union literature from non-work areas and terminated an
employee who spoke in favour of the union during mandatory work
meetings, among other objections. The RWDSU said these were
grounds for the NLRB to set aside the result.

Amazon itself took issue with the RWDSU’s conduct, such as
the union’s communications with workers around the use of a
mailbox on warehouse property, adding that its filing objections
is standard process.

The retailer faces a high bar in demonstrating that the New
York union violated rules for engagement with employees that
influenced the outcome, said John Logan, a labor professor at
San Francisco State University.

In addition, the NLRB typically treats employers’ alleged
violations more seriously than alleged wrongdoing by unions
because companies have greater power over workers, he said.

“It’s going to be really tough” for Amazon, he said.