Amazon workers win round

Labor board allows Alabama warehouse unionization vote

SEATTLE — The National Labor Relations Board has determined that a union pushing to represent Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama has enough support to hold an election, dealing the e-commerce giant a second defeat in what is emerging as a major labor battle at one of America’s largest employers.

Amazon argued in filings that the size of the proposed bargaining unit the Bessemer, Ala., warehouse was more than 5,000 workers, making it difficult for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union to rally enough people to call for a vote. But the board determined that the union has demonstrated enough support, said Terry Combs, assistant to the regional director for the board’s Atlanta region.

“We are administratively satisfied that the [union] has a sufficient showing of interest to move forward,” Combs said in an email Wednesday. “We are currently working with both parties to mediate a negotiated Stipulated Election Agreement setting forth the date and method of the election.”

Workers at Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., warehouse notified the board last month that they want to hold an election to create a bargaining unit that would cover 1,500 full-time and part-time workers, represented by the union. Amazon has long opposed the unionization of its U.S. workforce.

Amazon spokeswoman Heather Knox said the company’s warehouses are safe, it pays workers a minimum wage of $15 an hour with generous benefits, and that it believes the union doesn’t represent “the majority of our employees’ views.” Knox declined to comment on the upcoming union election.

(The Washington Post is owned by Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos.)

The board has scheduled a hearing for Friday. That’s also the deadline it has given both sides to agree to election terms such as when the vote will happen, whether it will be in-person or by mail, and which workers will be included in the proposed bargaining unit.

A successful union drive in Bessemer would mark a major turning point for labor at Amazon, which employs more than 1.1 million workers worldwide. The company has successfully fought off labor at its U.S. facilities, even as much of its European warehouse workforce belongs to unions.

The closest its U.S. warehouse workers got to union representation came in 2014, when a small group of equipment maintenance and repair technicians at the company’s Middletown, Del., warehouse voted on, but ultimately rejected, union representation from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.