Amazon workers in New York will vote again as labor activists push for the syndication of a second facility in the United States after their surprise recent victory over the technology giant.
About 1,500 eligible workers at Amazon’s LDJ5 sorting center in Staten Island, New York, are starting to vote in Monday’s union election, a process that will run until April 29. The counting of ballots begins on May 2.
Amazon has aggressively opposed unions in its workforce, which numbers about 1.1 million in the United States alone. The battle comes as workers at other major corporations, including Starbucks, fight for unionization.
Amazon has spent millions hiring union avoidance consultants. Organizers of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) say they have been harassed and intimidated by management.
The company vigorously disputed its first loss and accused ALU of using “undesirable, coercive and misleading behavior” to persuade workers to support them. Among other objections, Amazon argued that the vote should be canceled because the ALU “deliberately created hostile confrontations” and offered marijuana to workers as “illegal support” for workers’ votes, according to documents obtained from the New York Times.
The sorting center is located just across the street from the JFK8 warehouse, where workers won Amazon’s historic first union election in the United States on April 1.
This is the second petition for union elections filed by the ALU, an independent group of current and former Amazon employees who have no ties to established unions and led by former Amazon employee Chris Smalls.
Following the union’s election victory at JFK8, ALU received inquiries from workers at dozens of Amazon’s facilities in the United States and internationally to form unions at their respective facilities, and received over $ 300,000 in donations to the union’s GoFundMe website.
Prior to the election, the ALU hosted a rally featuring speeches by Senator Bernie Sanders and union leaders, including AFA-CWA International President Sarah Nelson and Mark Diamondstein, president of the American Postal Workers’ Union.
ALU organizers working for LDJ5 said they had experienced similar anti-union efforts from Amazon and had filed numerous allegations of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Council.
“This employer has been involved in the long-term illegal break-up of trade unions. Amazon has violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by forcing employees to attend audience meetings, disciplining organizers for protected union activities and banning unions from displaying their banner in holiday rooms, said Seth Goldstein, a pro bono lawyer representing ALU.
The union joined the American Federation of Teachers and United Teachers of New York in filing a complaint with New York Attorney General Leticia James alleging that Amazon’s anti-union efforts violated New York’s Excelsior regulations. York. Program to work and insist that Amazon return the $ 400 million in tax breaks they received through the program.
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