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Amazon Warehouse Workers To Decide Whether To Form Company's 1st U.S. Union


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https://www.npr.org/2021/01/15/948819324/amazon-warehouse-workers-to-decide-whether-to-form-companys-first-u-s-union

 

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Some 6,000 workers at Amazon's warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., will begin voting next month on a groundbreaking possibility: the first union in the company's U.S. history.

The National Labor Relations Board on Friday scheduled the vote by mail because of coronavirus concerns. It will begin Feb. 8 and continue through March 29. Workers at one of Amazon's newest facilities are deciding whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

Friday's ruling came after the agency facilitated a hearing in which Amazon and the retail workers union hashed out who should be included in the bargaining unit and how the vote should take place. Both parties agreed that hundreds of seasonal workers should be eligible to cast ballots. The NLRB rejected Amazon's calls for a traditional in-person vote in favor of balloting by mail.

"The biggest thing is Amazon is one of the biggest employers in the United States, and they're heavily, heavily anti-union," said Arthur Wheaton of the Worker Institute at Cornell University. "So if you can start to get some of their U.S.-based (workers) successfully organized with the union, then that could lead to other cities also doing that."

Unions are a prominent presence at Amazon in Europe, but for years, the company successfully fought off labor organizing efforts in the United States. The last vote on unionization at the company happened in 2014, when a small group of maintenance and repair techs at a Delaware warehouse voted against joining the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

A Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union representative declined comment on Friday's ruling. Amazon's representatives did not immediately respond to NPR's inquiry.

Amazon has said that between March and mid-September, it employed almost 1.4 million front-line workers across Amazon and Whole Foods in the United States. The company has argued the petitioners did not represent "the majority of our employees' views" and touted the warehouse facility's pay and benefits.

Hundreds of Bessemer workers in November signed cards to petition federal labor authorities for a unionization vote, quickly gaining support of longtime Amazon critic Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The workers' union-backed website calls for changes to procedures in disciplining, dismissals and safety.

Editor's note: Amazon is among NPR's recent financial supporters.

 

 

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https://www.al.com/business/2021/04/union-wants-investigation-into-amazon-election-mailbox.html

 

 

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Union wants investigation into Amazon election mailbox

The union attempting to organize at Amazon’s Bessemer fulfillment center wants the National Labor Relations Board to investigate how Amazon was able to get the U.S. Postal Service to install a mailbox on site during the mail-in election.

 

“Even though the NLRB definitively denied Amazon’s request for a drop box on the warehouse property, Amazon felt it was above the law and worked with the postal service anyway to install one,” Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union, said. “They did this because it provided a clear ability to intimidate workers. We demand an investigation over Amazon’s behavior in corrupting the election.”

The allegation came after the first day of the public counting of votes ended with a sizable lead against the union. When counting ended Thursday evening, there were 1,100 “no” votes against the union, and 463 “yes” votes, unofficially. Reuters reported that about 500 ballots submitted have been challenged on suspicion of tampering, a voter’s eligibility and other issues.

 
 

The count will resume today at 8:30 a.m. CDT.

 
 

Here is full coverage of the Alabama Amazon unionization effort

 
 

Back in February, as balloting began in the union election, the RWDSU drew attention to a mailbox in a tent at the Bessemer fulfillment center, along with instructions the union says employees received from Amazon in a flier to vote by March 1.

 
 

“Voting has begun! The US Postal Service has installed a secure mailbox just outside the BHM1 main entrance, making mailing your ballot easy, safe, and convenient. Vote now! BE DONE BY 3/1!” read the flier. BHM1 is Amazon’s name for the fulfillment center.

The actual deadline for ballots was March 29. At the time, Appelbaum called the move “pretty disgusting.” The union objected that the mailbox created the impression of an on-site election instead of a mail-in election. Amazon had pushed for an in-person, on-site vote but the NLRB rejected this because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bessemer union vote is the largest of its kind since the pandemic started last year.

 
 

The RWDSU provided a series of heavily redacted emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act between Amazon and the USPS regarding the box, which is a cluster or community box, capable of holding hundreds of letters. According to the emails, Amazon began questioning postal officials as early as Jan. 8 whether it could secure a box at the center. When they again inquired a week later, they were told “these things take time.”

In a Feb. 1 email, one official estimates it would take a minimum of four to six weeks to install a box on the site. But two days later, another email says an altered collection box can be installed by the end of that week. The union contends that Amazon received special treatment to have the box installed on site.

 
 

A spokesperson for the Postal Service told Fortune Magazine that “the box that was installed – a Centralized Box Unit (CBU) with a collection compartment – was suggested by the Postal Service as a solution to provide an efficient and secure delivery and collection point.”

The union also believes that employees might have gotten the impression that their votes were being surveilled by the company, and concluded that employees who didn’t use the box might be viewed as pro-union. It’s one of several allegations the union has made regarding the company’s conduct during the election.

 
 

U.S. Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), a Congressman who visited Bessemer last month to show support for the union, took to Twitter yesterday to say the mailbox was a form of intimidation used to affect the outcome of the election.

...and installing a USPS mailbox in the employee parking lot even after the NLRB ruled against the company’s request to install drop boxes because it would be intimidating and unfair.

— Andy Levin (@Andy_Levin) April 8, 2021
 
 

Levin is also vice chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and worked as a union organizer and director.

 
 

Amazon, in a statement, said the postal box was installed by the U.S. Postal Service.

“We said from the beginning that we wanted all employees to vote and proposed many different options to try and make it easy,” the company said. “The RWDSU fought those at every turn and pushed for a mail-only election, which the NLRB’s own data showed would reduce turnout. This mailbox—which only the USPS had access to—was a simple, secure, and completely optional way to make it easy for employees to vote, no more and no less.”

 

 

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