Union vote nearing for Amazon workers
Alabama warehouse ironing out details
Thousands of workers at an Amazon warehouse near Birmingham, Ala., moved closer this week to holding a vote on whether to form a union, a milestone at the nation’s fastest-growing large employer and a coup for organized labor, which has tried for years to make inroads at the e-commerce giant.
After three days of hearings before the National Labor Relations Board, which concluded Tuesday, Amazon and the union agreed on one of the most crucial details of an election: which types of workers in the facility would be allowed to vote.
The agreement between Amazon and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union sets the stage for one of the few times that the company’s workers have had an opportunity to vote on whether to unionize.
The vote at the fulfillment center in Bessemer, about 14 miles from Birmingham, could cover roughly 5,800 workers, including full-time and seasonal employees.
Amazon and the union still need to agree whether the voting will take place by mail or in person. The election is expected to be held early next year, although the board still needs to set a date.
The previous union election at Amazon involved a few dozen technical workers at a warehouse in Delaware in 2014. They decided not to
unionize.
Amazon is undertaking a historic hiring spree during the pandemic, adding 1,400 employees a day and putting the company on a pace to become the nation’s largest private employer in a few years.
“We don’t believe this group represents the majority of our employees’ views,” an Amazon spokeswoman, Heather Knox, said in a statement about the union. “Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available everywhere we hire, and we encourage anyone to compare our overall pay, benefits and workplace environment to any other company with similar jobs.”
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union represents workers at bricksand-mortar retailers like Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square, H&M and Zara.
The union’s ranks also include a diverse mix of workers at places like the General Mills factory that makes cereal in Iowa and poultry plants across the South.
The union was involved in opposing Amazon’s proposal to build a second headquarters in New York, around the same time it was trying to organize workers at the company’s large warehouse on Staten Island. But that 2018 effort never progressed to a formal union election.
The pandemic rekindled attention in Amazon’s labor force, part of a broader focus on the safety, pay and sacrifices of essential workers in grocery stores and e-commerce centers who helped keep goods flowing to homebound consumers during this year’s shutdowns.
Amazon also faces increasing scrutiny, both on Capitol Hill and by state officials, about its growing might in the retail industry and its role as a large employer.
Amazon has trumpeted its investments in safety, including providing its workers with free covid-19 testing in labs it set up and operate. It also points to its starting wage of $15 an hour and health care benefits. Labor advocates and some elected officials have still raised concerns about the rates of injuries in warehouses, inflexible work schedules and the surveillance of workers to maximize productivity.
The company also has been accused of retaliating against workers who speak out. Last week, the labor relations board said it had found merit in a worker’s claim that Amazon illegally retaliated against him for staging protests this spring outside the Staten Island warehouse to draw attention to safety concerns during the pandemic. Amazon said the worker had been fired for “a clear violation of our standards of conduct and harassment policy.”
The Bessemer warehouse opened just as covid-19 arrived in the United States. Amazon announced plans for it in 2018, part of an expansion into midsize metropolitan areas so the company could store more products closer to customers for quick delivery. The local economy used to depend on steel industry jobs, but those have largely disappeared, and Amazon, which pledged to hire 1,500 people, received $51 million in local and state tax incentives. Average pay at the warehouse is $15.30 an hour, Knox said.
In November, the union submitted its petition to hold the election, saying it had sufficient support among the workers it said should be part of the bargaining unit. The company asked for more time to prepare a response, citing the busy holiday shopping season. “This is a year where more consumers than ever are shopping online and expecting prompt and accurate deliveries,” Amazon said in a filing with the board.