A new vote on the possible creation of the first union in an Amazon warehouse in the United States will take place in February and March, the American agency in charge of labor rights (NLRB) announced on Tuesday.
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She ordered a new ballot in November, arguing that the e-commerce giant had broken the rules during the first attempt last year in Bessemer, Alabama. “The election which began on February 8, 2021 was ruled out because the NLRB found that the employer interfered with the right of employees to make a free and thoughtful choice”, explained the agency in its decision.
After months of intense mobilization in this southern state, followed closely to the White House, the initial vote ended in April 2021 with a clear rejection of unionization, but it has since been canceled. The RWDSU union had indeed filed several appeals, accusing Amazon of“Intimidation and interference”, and the NLRB ruled that several objections were admissible. The agency accuses him in particular of having “Conducted inappropriate polls during mandatory meetings” about the unionization project. “Our employees have always had the choice of whether or not to join a union, and they had largely chosen not to join the RWDSU last year. We can’t wait for our BHM1 (logistics center) team to make their voices heard again ”, reacted Tuesday Barbara Agrait, a spokesperson for the group contacted by AFP.
Fears about the new election
The postal ballots will be sent to employees on February 4 and the count will take place on March 28. But the RWDSU said to itself “worry” : “The decision (of the labor law agency) does not prevent Amazon from continuing to behave in a reprehensible manner during the new election”the union said in a statement.
Amazon, whose business flourished during the pandemic, is currently facing another attempt to organize at a New York warehouse. And in December, employees of two Starbucks cafes in the north of the country won a historic victory by voting to create a union in their establishments, a first for the chain in the United States.