The organizers of the Amazon Labor Union hold signs outside the LDJ5 Amazon Sort Center on April 25, 2022 in New York.
Michael M. Santiago Getty Images
Employees at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse flatly rejected the union’s efforts Monday, a significant victory for the e-retailer a month after the nearby execution center became the first in the country to vote to join a union.
The election was 380 in favor and 618 against. Officials said 1,633 workers in the LDJ5 warehouse had the right to vote on joining Amazon’s Labor Union. Two ballots were canceled. The results have yet to be officially certified by the National Labor Relations Council.
Amazon is facing a growing wave of labor efforts as workers seek higher pay and better treatment in the company’s vast warehouses across the country. In early April, employees at the Staten Island site, known as JFK8, voted in favor of the company’s first US union, despite Amazon’s costly opposition campaign.
The ALU called on all LDJ5 workers to receive at least $ 30 an hour. The average hourly starting salary at performance centers in the United States is $ 18 an hour, according to Amazon. The Union was also looking for longer breaks and improved benefits, along with other demands.
Amazon has been persistent and aggressive in its efforts to discourage employees from organizing. Prior to the vote, the e-commerce giant held mandatory meetings at LDJ5, where employees were required to attend anti-union presentations and hired an influential Democrat sociologist to support his campaign in both Staten Island and other warehouses.
Labor activity in the United States has risen since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country in early 2020. A tight labor market has further boosted union support, and workers have taken advantage of the moment to demand higher wages and improved benefits.
The ALU, led by former JFK8 manager Christian Smalls, began after Smalls was fired by Amazon for allegedly violating social distancing rules. Smalls said he was fired in retaliation for organizing a protest in the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic to call for tighter security measures.
Labor organizers were last defeated in March when Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, appeared to be voting against joining the Union of Retail, Wholesale and Department Stores. However, the election remains too close to be announced and depends on several hundred disputed ballots. As it is, the spread narrowed since the first election last year, the results of which were discarded after the NLRB found illegal interference by Amazon.
Prior to the pandemic, the last significant union vote at an Amazon facility in the United States took place at a warehouse in Delaware in 2014. A group of repair technicians voted 21 to 6 against joining the International Association of Drivers and Aerospace Workers.
WATCH: Amazon CEO Andy Jassi says employees better not join union
Add Comment